Topic: Violence Against Women
Country: Chad
Delegate Name: Chad Burkeen
School: Mattawan High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Chad position papers GLIMUN 2018 committees
Many women around the world have fallen victim to various forms of abuse, from physical, psychological, or verbal. Many countries including Algeria have laws against this abuse but struggle to enforce and handle the major issue in their country. A women from Algeria, Salwa shares her experience with abuse, “when she felt physically able to leave the shelter, she went to the police to inquire about her complaint. They told her, ‘we called your husband, he said you fell and that is why you are bruised.’ The police did not conduct any further investigation, such as summoning her husband for interrogation at the police station or arresting him,” yet Salwa had physical cuts and wired bruises from being tied up. She said that a court eventually sentenced him to a fine and six months’ suspended imprisonment. She filed for divorce twice, each time on the grounds of physical harm. The first time, in 2012, the court rejected her request for divorce and ordered her to return to the conjugal home. A year later, the court granted her request for divorce and ordered her husband to pay alimony. When he did not comply, she filed a complaint against him. She said the court sentenced him to six months in prison and a fine. Yet, he went into hiding and was never held accountable. Algeria has laws on abuse towards women but obviously does not enforce them. There's nothing else we feel our nation can do if we already have laws against it. Algeria will continue with the laws we have and not change what isn't broken. We have a system that still stops some violence.
