UN violence report: laced with myths and misandry

By Carey Roberts

Kofi Annan will be stepping down from his secretary-general position in a few short weeks. Annan's resumé features such highlights as the 1994 Rwanda massacre, the Oil-for-Food mega-scandal, and his molly-coddling of aides accused of personal misconduct.

But Kofi had one more trick up his sleeve.

Last week he released his long-awaited report bearing the grand-eloquent title, the Secretary-General's Study on Violence Against Women. Even by United Nations' standards, the report is an embarrassment.

The World Health Organization has documented that 14% of men die of violence-related causes, compared to only 7% of women. [www5.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/main.cfm?p=0000000682] And dating violence researcher Murray Strauss has shown that women around the world are twice as likely to initiate severe violence as men [http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mas2/ID16.pdf].

Sounds to me like men are the higher-risk group.

But in the Alice-in-Wonderland world of the United Nations, the shrill message is, "Violence against women persists in every country of the world as a pervasive violation of human rights and a major impediment to achieving gender equality." [http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/vaw/violenceagainstwomenstudydoc.pdf]

Apparently men's higher death rate doesn't comport with the UN's gender equality agenda.

Throughout the document, truth-twisting and myth-mongering run amok. On page 31, for instance, the report claims that women around the world suffer from economic inequalities — thus sidestepping the fact that the "feminization of poverty" myth was debunked long ago. [www.ifeminists.net/introduction/editorials/2006/1004roberts.html]

On page 42 we're told, "The majority of the victims of human trafficking are women and children." Wrong again. The recent United Nations report, Trafficking in Persons: Global Patterns, noted, "it is men especially who might be expected to be trafficked for forced labor purposes."

On page 44, Annan recounts the victimization that women in armed conflict endure, somehow ignoring the uncomfortable fact that men are three times more likely to die of war-related injuries than women. [www.who.int/whr/2001/main/en/annex/index.htm]

Although the report claims to be opposed to violence against women, it repeatedly calls for violence directed against unborn baby girls, just so long as it goes under the rubric of "reproductive health services." Don't expect the Motley Matrons of Mischief to be logical.

And so it goes.

But the UN report goes beyond hoary myths, half-truths, and bald-faced lies. It also seethes with anti-male misandry.

For the conspiracy theorists who believe that brutish males are to blame for all the woes of world, the report will come as music to their ears. The shrieking begins on page 28 where we are warned, "Patriarchy has been entrenched in social and cultural norms, institutionalized in the law and political structures and embedded in local and global economies."

That's a remarkable statement, considering that when men get voted into power, the first thing they do is to pass laws that benefit the ladies. Ever heard of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid? All three are massive social welfare programs that were enacted by men — primarily to benefit poor and elderly women.

Start telling that patriarchal oppressor stuff to the men who risk life and limb toiling at dead-end jobs so their families can lead more comfortable lives. And can someone explain to me why those haughty patriarchs end up dying five years sooner than their wives?

Once you start to believe in the grand patriarchal plot, the mind clouds over and facts become irrelevant. It becomes a convenient boogeyman to infuriate women and bludgeon the consciences of fair-minded men.

Three years ago I documented how the rad-fems were operating behind the scenes, ever extending their baleful tentacles throughout the UN system. [www.ifeminists.net/introduction/editorials/2003/0916roberts.html] Even though those women never hesitated to spread their Ms. Information, they were careful to conceal their real intentions.

But the Study on Violence against Women opens up the debate.

Never before have the UN feminists advanced the patriarchy theory so boldly. Never before have they presented their Marxist-inspired views in such a high-profile UN publication. And never before have they tried to stereotype and smear men in such a calculated manner.

History teaches that when a segment of society is viewed as dangerous, the next step is to strip away their civil rights and expel them from their communities. Have we forgotten the lessons of religious minorities in central Europe in the 1940s?

But the feminist attack is even more hideous, because it seeks to undermine the family, the heart of an orderly and moral society.

Call it the newest front in the escalating Culture War. It's directed at men, women, and children. And it aims to destroy the traditional family.

So on December 31 Kofi Annan, former tourism director from Ghana, will move on, secure in the knowledge that he indeed left his mark on the world, for better or for worse.

© Carey Roberts