A/HRC/41/33 32. Stereotyped standards of women’s “moral” conduct also plays a role in disproportionate female incarceration for drug-related crimes, as women are judged more strictly. They are more likely to be incarcerated for drug-related crimes than men: in 2018, approximately 35 per cent of women in prison worldwide had been convicted of drug crimes, compared to 19 per cent of men. An increasingly punitive approach to the drug problem, adopted by many States with policies of administrative detention of drug users and taking a harsh approach to pretrial detention and post-conviction sentencing of those accused of drug crimes, has been found to have a discriminatory and disproportionate impact on women (A/HRC/30/36, para. 58). Women tend to be engaged at the lower levels of criminal networks, but may receive disproportionate sentences under regimes that do not take the level of involvement into account. They may also have fewer opportunities to negotiate for reduced sentences or plea bargains owing to their lowly status within criminal networks, combined with their subservient role in a patriarchal system. In some jurisdictions, the roles that women typically play in such networks, such as transporting drugs, are subject to longer sentences than other roles. 33. A number of laws and practices legitimize efforts to control women’s sexual and reproductive behaviour. The Working Group has previously condemned the instrumentalization of women’s bodies for political, cultural, religious and economic purposes, and particularly the manner in which that instrumentalization leads to criminalization of women’s sexual and reproductive decisions (see A/HRC/32/44). The Working Group has also noted that legislation criminalizing consensual adult sexual activity often discriminates against women, either explicitly in the law itself or in practice in the manner in which it is enforced.22 Furthermore, in some States women’s involvement in extramarital sexual behaviour is criminalized even when it is not consensual, such that women may be jailed for having been raped. 34. Sexual and gender non-conforming women are disproportionately targeted for social control based on their perceived challenge to or “transgression of” established norms of gender roles and sexuality (A/HRC/23/50, para. 47). As a result, they face increased vulnerability to criminalization and deprivation of liberty. Even in cases where such women are not expressly criminalized based on their sexual orientation or gender identities, they may face a heightened risk of encountering the criminal justice system. For example, transgender women are arbitrarily profiled and targeted for prostitution/sex work. 35. Women’s sexuality is often dubbed “promiscuity”. When women express their sexuality in a manner that is considered to be outside social norms, even if not against the law, they may risk being institutionalized in mental health facilities or other care facilities. In some States, teenage pregnancy or sexual “promiscuity” can constitute a basis for confining adolescents in group homes.23 In others, expressions of female sexuality can be labelled “hypersexual” and considered a sign of mental impairment, justifying civil commitment. 24 Moreover, in some families such sexual behaviour may indicate that a woman or girl, especially one with a disability, is too “difficult” to care for or control and thus better off in an institution. 25 Furthermore, overmedicalization is used as a form of social control, as some women perceived to be “difficult” are controlled through prescriptions of very strong psychiatric drugs that effectively “detain” them in home or care centres. This is also true of women whose sexuality is considered non-conforming. Such women are likely to undergo involuntary “treatments”, so-called “conversion therapies”, or forced medical incarceration in psychiatric institutions and specialized camps, as well as in 22 23 24 25 See Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice, “Adultery as a criminal offence violates women’s human rights”, available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/ Women/WG/AdulteryasaCriminalOffenceViolatesWomenHR.pdf See Carolina Överlien, Girls on the Verge of Exploding? Voices on Sexual Abuse, Agency and Sexuality at a Youth Detention Home (Linköping, Sweden, Linköping University, 2004). See Maribel Morey, “The civil commitment of State-dependent minors: resonating discourses that leave her heterosexuality and his homosexuality vulnerable to scrutiny” New York University Law Review, vol. 81, No. 6 (2006). Ibid. 9