ABSTRACT
The Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women, adopted in 1994, is the first specific instrument adopted on violence against women (VAW), and is the most ratified instrument in the Inter-American system. Thirty-two of the 35 Member States of the Organization of American States have ratified it – the United States, Canada, and Cuba being the outliers. The Belem do Para Convention defines VAW as “any act or conduct, based on gender, which causes death or physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, whether in the public or the private sphere”. “Every woman”, the Convention states, “has the right to be free from violence in both the public and private spheres” and the “right to the recognition, enjoyment, exercise and protection of all human rights and freedoms embodied in regional and international human rights instruments”.
