Rounding out the decade with a stand for human rights Pepperdine Law Professor Douglas Kmiec hosted an evening to combat domestic violence and gender discrimination. Kmiec who is currently on leave from Pepperdine as the United States Ambassador to Malta held the event at his residence in Attard on Dec. 8 the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
“This has been a high-priority topic for our embassy since my arrival Kmiec said in an e-mail from Malta. I have had the privilege of working with many organizations to promote small business start-ups by women to raise awareness of this topic of gender equality as a human rights issue and to address some of the ugliest forms of imposed inequality.”
He was joined by members of the Malta Confederation of Women’s Organization (MCWO) and guests who enjoyed an evening of American contemporary musicand raffles of donated gifts including artwork from local artist Jeni Caruana according to the Maltese news outlet DI-VE.
Kmiec said the event was the culmination of a weeklong set of lectures meetings and explorations of the twin topics of gender inequality and domestic violence facilitated by the embassy and coordinated by the associated women’s organizations across the country.
According to Kmiec Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her fight against the many faces of gender disparity were both the inspiration and the encouragement for the day.
“The secretary illustrates that when law draws gender distinction there is often an intrinsic and wrongful assumption of inequality Kmiec wrote. Women and men are equal before God and the differences that exist are not to be used as pretext for exclusion from public opportunity a justification for domestic abuse mental or physical… or the actual practice of disregard for marital promise.”
And Kmiec commended those who endure such markedly poor situations with decorum. He spoke highly of Elizabeth Edwards who as it happened died of breast cancer on the morning of the event in Malta.
“Her courage in the face of John Edwards’ self-centered pursuit of high office in simultaneous disregard of his wife’s illness and the promises made between them (by his infidelity and fathering of a child out of wedlock) is revealing that what amounts to discrimination or abuse is often more subtle than a push or a slap and it affects all income and status groups Kmiec wrote.
Although violence can be subtle and ignorant of socio-economic status, he also explained that not all violence is physical, but inequality can begin to mend through respect for basic human dignity.
Violence against women can take many forms from systematic inequality in the market place to infidelity to denigrating pornography to abuse exclaimed publicly in the town square or insidious physical abuse behind the closed doors of a home Kmiec said during his speech at the event, according to DI-VE. We must be honest and see how any belief that women are not of equal dignity to men plants the seed of behaviour against human rights.”