Gender-based violence against women in contemporary France: domestic violence and forced marriage policy since the Istanbul Convention

ABSTRACT: In 2014, France ratified the Council of Europe’s Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (the Istanbul Convention) and passed the Law for Equality between Women and Men to bring French law into line with it. The Law for Equality between Women and Men situates the fight against violence against women within a broader context of the need to address inequalities between women and men. This is not new at the international level, but it is new to France. When the structural, transformative understandings of violence against women found in international texts are translated into national laws, policy documents and implementation on the ground, they might challenge widespread ideas about gender relations, or they might be diluted in order to achieve consensus. To what extent has French violence against women policy moved into line with UN and Council of Europe initiatives which present violence against women as both a cause and a consequence of gendered power relations? Have internationally accepted concepts of gender and gender-based violence been incorporated into French policy debates and, if so, how? What implications, if any, does all this have for the continued struggle in France and elsewhere to eliminate violence a gainst women? RÉSUMÉ: En 2014, la France a ratifié la Convention du Conseil de l’Europe sur la prévention et la lutte contre la violence à l’égard des femmes et la violence domestique (dite Convention d’Istanbul) et a adopté dans la foulée la loi pour l’égalité réelle entre les femmes et les hommes afin de mettre en conformité la législation française. Cette loi place la lutte contre la violence à l’égard des femmes dans un contexte de lutte contre les inégalités de genre. Si cela est loin d’être une nouveauté à l’échelle internationale, cela l’est en France. Lorsque les conceptions structurelles et transformatrices de la violence à l’égard des femmes présentes dans les textes internationaux sont traduites à l’échelle nationale en lois, documents d’orientation et mesures de mise en œuvre sur le terrain, elles peuvent alors remettre en question des idées largement répandues sur les rapports de genre, ou au contraire être édulcorées afin d’aboutir à un consensus. Dans quelle mesure la politique de la France relative à la violence à l’égard des femmes s’est-elle alignée sur les initiatives de l’ONU et du Conseil de l’Europe qui présentent ce type de violence comme étant à la fois une cause et une conséquence des rapports de force liés au genre? Le genre et la violence fondée sur le genre, qui sont des concepts internationalement reconnus, ont-ils été intégrés dans les débats politiques français, et si oui, de quelle manière? Quelles en sont les implications le cas échéant sur la poursuite, en France et ailleurs, de la lutte pour éliminer la violence à l’égard des femmes

A Qualitative Two-Step Inversion Approach for the Reconstruction of Subsurface Defects

The detection of subsurface objects such as landmine or archaeological find, the location of sedimentary layer for geological inspections, or the identification of cracks and voids in host structures are some examples of applications where the reconstruction of the position and the shape of unknown targets embedded in inaccessible regions is required. In this framework, the imaging methods based on electromagnetic inverse scattering theory can play a key role [1]. As a matter of fact, the electromagnetic and geometric properties of the region under test can be quantitatively reconstructed starting from the observation of the scattered field. Unfortunately, the problem at hand presents several drawbacks such as non‐linearity and ill‐posedness that need to be taken into account especially when dealing with complex scenarios. However, a considerable amount of a‐priori information is generally available in nondestructive testing and evaluation (NDT/NDE) applications, since the crack to be reconstructed is located in a known host medium [2]. Such a peculiarity can be profitably exploited in order to cope with the lack of information characterizing the inverse problem. In such a framework, microwave methodologies based on the use of heuristic optimizers and on the exploitation of the a‐priori information have been effectively used for the detection of a crack in a known host structure [3] or when dealing with more complex and realistic scenarios characterized by multiple defects [4]. The proposed approaches demonstrate their feasibility and effectiveness in providing a coarse estimation of the targets in a qualitative fashion, but they are not suitable for the retrieval of complex shapes. In this work, a two‐step procedure successfully adopted for NDT/NDE problems [5] has been employed for the qualitative reconstruction of complex subsurface targets. In particular, at the first step the target is localized and its shape is roughly estimated starting from the knowledge of the scattered field. Then, the second step is aimed at refining the contour of the target by means of a shape optimization technique characterized by the evolution of a level set function [6]

Détermination des profils acoustiques d'un fond marin de faible profondeur à partir du champ observé dans le chenal en présence d'une source donnée

La caractérisation acoustique d'un fond marin dans une situation de petits fonds est considérée. La modélisation du fond est la suivante : une couche fluide homogène (l'eau) reposant sur une couche fluide inhomogène (sédiment) suivie d'un demi-espace fluide homogène (le socle). Ses paramètres acoustiques (vitesse des ondes de compression, densité) ne dépendent que de la profondeur. Une source cylindrique et une ligne horizontale de récepteurs sont placées dans l'eau. Les données sont les champs de pression en amplitude et en phase sur les hydrophones à plusieurs fréquences (de quelques Hz au kHz). La fonction de Green du milieu stratifié peut être obtenue par transformée de Fourier du champ sur l'ouverture synthétique que constitue le réseau. A partir de ses valeurs aux faibles nombres d'ondes, le coefficient de réflexion en ondes planes du fond se construit à plusieurs fréquences et incidences précritiques. Ce coefficient est alors utilisé dans les processus d'inversion permettant de remonter aux paramètres du fond.The acoustical characterization of the seabed in shallow water is aimed at. The seabed is modeled as follows : a homogeneous fluid layer (water) lying on a inhomogeneous fluid layer (sediment) above a homogeneous fluid half-space (subbottom). Acoustical parameters (compressional wave velocity, density) depend on the depth only. A cylindrical source and horizontal ligne of receivers are placed in the water. The data are the pressure field amplitude and phase on the hydrophone at several frequencies (from a few Hz to one kHz). The Green function of the stratified medium can be obtained by Fourier transform of the field. From the result at low wavenumbers, the plane wave reflection coefficient of the seabed is reconstructed at several frequencies and precritical angles. It can then be used as data in inversion algorithms retrieving the seabed parameters

ÉVALUATION DE DIVERSES MÉTHODES DE DIAGNOSTIC ACOUSTIQUE D'UN FOND MARIN STRATIFIÉ

Quatre méthodes de sondage acoustique du fond marin à partir du champ qu'il réfléchit quand il est insoné par une onde plane sont discutées à partir de données synthétiques. La première basée sur une approximation d'acoustique géométrique et la seconde sur la réponse à un signal incident de type échelon sont appliquées à deux configurations types d'un sédiment fluide reposant sur un socle solide. Les deux dernières, l'une exacte du type Gel'fand-Levitan, l'autre basée sur une approximation de Born, visent à reconstruire les profils de densité et de célérité d'un fluide inhomogène (cas limite d'un sédiment d'épaisseur très grande).Four methods of acoustical probing of the ocean floor from the field reflected under plane-wave insonification are discussed from synthetic data. The first one based on a geometrical acoustics approximation and the second which uses the response to a step waveform are applied to two typical configurations of a fluid sediment lying on a solid subbottom. The last two, an exact Gel'fand-Levitan-like technique, the other based on Born's approximation, aim at probing density and velocity profiles of an inhomogeneous fluid (limiting case of a very thick sediment)

Time domain integral equation approach for inhomogeneous and dispersive slab problems

International audienceA numerical approach is described, based on a rigorous integral formulation, to the problem of an inhomogeneous dispersive slab illuminated by incident TEM plane wave with arbitrary time dependence. The slab is assumed to be nonmagnetic and its complex permittivity only varies normally to its interfaces. The numerical process consists of a space-time discretization. The solution can be determined step by step from simple recurrence formulas. Some examples are given for normal incidence in order to illustrate the most interesting features of the method and its possible field of applications

Fast Imaging of Void Defects in Conductive Half-space

Abstract — In line with preliminary studies [1] and in harmony with a set of investigations led on fast, non-iterative MUSIC-type imaging algorithms in electromagnetics, acoustics and elasticity, by the authors ’ research group and others, e.g., [2], among many references, we are presently considering such an approach in the case of diffusive electromagnetic fields. That is, let us assume that some thick highly-conductive horizontal plate has been somehow damaged, the resulting defects being a small collection of isolated 3-D bounded voids, hidden inside the plate or opening in air at the top interface of the plate (top, as seen vs. the position of the sources, described next), which might also get close to one another in limit cases, e.g., in crack-like fashion. A time-harmonic, eddy-current probe array, which consists of a small number (say, a few tens at best) of identical electric current loops that are either closely packed or well separated from one another within a given planar surface is placed close to and parallel with the plate, above the zone where the defects are assumed to be found; each current loop (assimilated with an ideal magnetic dipole orientated vertically) is excited one after another, the anomalous vertical magnetic field observed at all loop centers (in effect, it is proportional to the variation of impedance which is traditionally measured) being collected, yielding us a multi-static respons

Practical problems in the time-domain probing of lossy dielectric media

International audienceInterest in time-domain probing of a lossy dielectric medium by means of optimization processes has been shown in former papers. Some problems related to the application of such techniques to realistic situations are envisaged. Screening effects due to losses are first investigated, and a setup (perturbed line) is presented to reduce them. The influence of a finite extent of the illumination, implied by classical wave applicators, is then discussed

Determination of conductivity profiles by time-domain reflectometry

International audienceA new numerical method for the reconstitution of the inhomogeneous media conductivity is described. The conducting medium is nonmagnetic, and its relative permittivity equals one. Its frequency-independent conductivity varies normally to its interface. The medium is normally illuminated by a transverse electromagnetic (TEM) plane wave of causal time dependence. The reconstruction process is a direct approach to the inverse problem. It is based on a space time discretization of an exact integral equation. The conductivity profile is determined step-by-step without approximations other than numerical. Some examples are given to illustrate the most interesting properties of the method; special attention is given to the simulation of experimental errors