Isis-WICCE: Background

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"Promote research, collect data and compile statistics on causes, nature, seriousness and consequences of violence against women, and the effectiveness of measures implemented to prevent and redress violence against women". Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action para. 129 (a) (b).

Documentation is the process of collecting, organising and presenting information. In the past the way in which information about women was gathered and analysed was in the majority of cases inaccurate and misleading. This is because women's experiences were examined within a male context. Isis-WICCE's documentation is therefore done from a feminist and human rights perspective in order to deconstruct gender-neutral assumptions about women's rights and experiences and reconstruct them within a gendered framework. The objective is to get women's voices heard, their realities respected and to be part of the recorded history. The documentation is also a tool for advocacy for policy change and redress in the women's favour, as individuals and as part of a wider community of women kind.

For the past five years, Isis-WICCE's documentation has focussed on women's experiences in situations of armed conflict and has been done at both the national and international levels. The following countries have so far been documented; Albania, Azerbaijan, India, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, S.Africa, Sierra Leonne, Sudan, Uganda The reports are available at Isis-WICCE.