Legal responses to violence against women in Canada

ID:	HARP-167
Title:	Legal responses to violence against women in Canada
Source:	Canadian Woman Studies , v.19(1/2) Spr/Summ’99 pg 62-73
Parties:
Dispute Resolution Organ:
Year:	1999
Pages:	0
Author(s):
Keywords:	Canada, constitution, economic, social, and cultural rights, equality before the law, gender equality, human rights, law, legislation, United Kingdom/Great Britain, woman, civil and political rights, violence, security, Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, liberty
Abstract:	Any history of the development and changes in the law as it relates to women and male violence is also a chronicle of the history of the women’s movement and its relationship to law. All of the legislation and policy that recognizes women’s rights to be free of male violence has been put in place because of the political strength and persistence of the women’s movement in our country. While this movement has always articulated women’s issues and rights in the context of equality, the repatriation of Canada’s constitution in 1982 from Great Britain (Constitution Act), and specifically, the enshrinement of women’s equality rights in ss.15 and 28 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, for the first time created a specific legal tool by which to advance these claims. In spite of our many legal advances, violence against women has not subsided in Canada because women’s vulnerability to male violence and our ability to harness law are inextricably linked to women’s social, economic, and political position in Canada, in relation to those who hold power. Thus, while law is an important tool in advancing women’s equality rights, law alone cannot end this violence until all women’s equality is fully realized.
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