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Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- The notion of a right to reparation is located within the framework of the law of remedies and includes two aspects: procedural and substantive. Procedurally, remedies are the processes by which arguable claims of wrongdoing are heard and decided by competent bodies, whether judicial or administrative. Substantively, remedies consist of the outcomes of the proceedings and, more broadly, the measures of redress granted to victims. The law of remedies can serve both individual and societal goals, the underlying purposes of which include corrective justice, deterrence, retribution and restorative justice. It is the element of corrective justice focusing on fairness to the victim and redress measures aimed at "repairing" the wrongdoing that victims experience which will be the focus of this report.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- Although a coherent theory and practice for remedies for victims of human rights violations does not yet exist under international law, the right of individuals to reparation for the violation of their human rights has been increasingly recognized. Affirmed initially as a principle of inter-State responsibility, since the Second World War a shift of focus can be observed to national arenas and away from international disputes. The legal basis for a right to a remedy and, linked to it, a right to reparation has since become firmly enshrined in the corpus of international human rights and humanitarian instruments.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- The content of the obligation to provide reparations to the individual whose rights have been violated remains, however, far from clear. When referring to the remedies ensuing after a violation of a right, all human rights treaties use rather vague language. International human rights bodies that have jurisdiction to hear complaints often limit themselves to finding facts and issuing declaratory judgements or, at best, recommending that compensation of an unspecified amount be awarded to the claimants. More recently, however, in their observations to periodical country reports, the different human rights bodies have started to insist on the States' obligation to provide compensation and rehabilitation measures. Also, compensatory damages for both pecuniary and non-pecuniary injury and other non-pecuniary remedies are frequently afforded by regional human rights courts.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- A significant contribution to the normative framework on the obligation to provide reparations has emanated from the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law (hereinafter, the Basic Principles and Guidelines) adopted in 2005. They present themselves as grounded in the recognition of a right to remedy for victims of violations of international human rights law, as found in numerous international instruments of human rights and humanitarian law. The right to remedy is said to encompass victims' equal and effective access to justice and adequate, effective and prompt reparation for harm suffered. The Basic Principles and Guidelines emphasize that they do not entail new international or domestic legal obligations, but rather identify mechanisms, modalities, procedures and methods for existing legal obligations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- The Basic Principles and Guidelines define the contours of State responsibility for providing reparation to victims for acts or omissions which can be attributed to the State. States are responsible for their failures to meet their international obligations even when substantive breaches originate in the conduct of private persons, as States have to exercise due diligence to eliminate, reduce and mitigate the incidence of private discrimination. In cases where a person or other entity is found liable for reparation to a victim, such party should provide reparation. The State should endeavour to establish national programmes for reparation and other assistance to victims in the event that the parties liable for the harm are unable or unwilling to meet their obligations. The State shall enforce domestic judgements for reparations against individuals or entities liable for the harm suffered and endeavour to enforce valid foreign legal judgements for reparations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- The quantitative and qualitative differences between individual and gross and systematic violations might affect the scope and nature of remedies that can and should be afforded. For one thing, the idea of full reparation is virtually impossible in contexts of gross and systematic violations characterized by large numbers of victims and perpetrators, weak Governments, fragile economies, scarce governmental resources and huge reconstruction and development challenges. In such contexts, remedies may have to be adjusted to achieve goals other than that of compensating each individual victim in proportion to harm, including prioritizing the recognition of victims and promoting interpersonal trust and trust in the institutions of the new State order.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Reparation measures express the obligation of the State to provide redress to victims when, by action or omission, it has infringed against their rights. Social policy and development measures are measures addressed at the entire population to ensure that each and every person can meaningfully enjoy all rights recognized by the State. They are inspired by notions of redistributive justice and should primarily target those sectors of the population which have traditionally been discriminated against and structurally disadvantaged, including women. Humanitarian intervention measures are measures of temporal assistance to victims of natural and human-made disasters, aimed at ensuring their subsistence, alleviating their suffering and protecting their dignity and basic rights during the crisis. They rest on basic notions of solidarity and the obligation of the State to protect rights but, unlike reparations, they are not remedial measures that express State responsibility for the violation of rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- At the level of State practice, national Governments dealing with a legacy of systemic violations have been increasingly prone to supplementing the transitional justice mechanisms they put in place with the adoption of reparation initiatives and comprehensive reparation programmes for victims of human rights violations. Such programmes try to simplify a complex reality by selecting, among the violations that took place during the conflict or the repressive period, those that are considered most serious and distributing a set of benefits among victims and family members. Although they vary significantly, these programmes rarely reproduce the five categories of reparations set forth in the Basic Principles and Guidelines. Instead, they are mainly organized around the distinction between material and symbolic measures and modalities of distribution, including individual and collective distribution. Reparation programmes are also being used in consolidated democracies to try to provide redress for specific and systematic practices perpetrated and/or condoned by the State targeting certain groups of the population.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- Women are of course addressed in all the human rights and humanitarian law treaties that contemplate a right to a remedy. Unfortunately, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women is not particularly explicit regarding women's right to remedies, reparation or compensation. Article 2 (c) provides only that States parties undertake to ensure the effective protection of women against any act of discrimination through competent national tribunals and other public institutions. This contrasts with article 6 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination which refers to the obligation of States to assure "adequate reparation or satisfaction for any damage suffered as a result of such [racial] discrimination" and article 14 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment which requires that States ensure that the victim of an act of torture obtains redress and has an enforceable right to fair and adequate compensation, including the means for as full rehabilitation as possible.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- The obligation to provide reparations to women subjected to violence is much more clearly spelled out in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, which places upon the State the duty to develop penal, civil, labour and administrative sanctions in domestic legislation to punish and redress the wrongs caused to women who are subjected to violence. The Declaration states that women who are subjected to violence should be provided with access to the mechanisms of justice and, as provided for by national legislation, to just and effective remedies for the harm that they have suffered, and that States should inform women of their rights in seeking redress through such mechanisms (art. 4 (d)). In the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women, it is envisaged that States must undertake to establish fair and effective legal procedures for women who have been subjected to violence and the necessary legal and administrative mechanisms to ensure that women subjected to violence have effective access to restitution, reparations or other just and effective remedies (art. 7 (f) and (g)). The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa expressly states that women who are subjected to violence through violations of their rights to life, integrity and security of person should have access to reparations including rehabilitation (art. 4) and obliges the State to create mechanisms to increase the participation of women in planning, formulation and implementation of post-conflict reconstruction and rehabilitation (art. 10). However, as pointed out by the previous Special Rapporteur, "very little information is available regarding State obligations to provide adequate reparations for acts of violence against women … this aspect of due diligence remains grossly underdeveloped".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- The little attention devoted to reparations, both at a substantive and procedural level, for women who suffer violence contrasts with the fact that women are often the target of both sex-specific and other forms of violence, not only in times of conflict but also in ordinary times. Women often bear the brunt of the consequences of violence that targets them, their partners and dependants. Given the disparate and differentiated impact that violence has on women and on different groups of women, there is a need for specific measures of redress in order to meet their specific needs and priorities. Since violence perpetrated against individual women generally feeds into patterns of pre-existing and often cross-cutting structural subordination and systemic marginalization, measures of redress need to link individual reparation and structural transformation. Additionally, women who experience violence have traditionally encountered obstacles to accessing the institutions that award reparations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- There are signs that the traditional neglect of women in the reparations domain, best exemplified by the largely unsuccessful movement for reparations for the so-called "comfort women", is ending. The international legal response to violence against women over the past 15 years and the explicit recognition of violence against women as a human rights concern within the United Nations serve as indicators. Furthermore, the inroads of feminism in international criminal law, crystallizing in the inclusion of some forms of gender violence as war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, were accompanied by relevant discussions about how other transitional justice mechanisms, and not just criminal courts, could be rendered more inclusive to women.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Academic reflection and civil society activism have certainly contributed to placing the question of gender-sensitive reparations on the national and international agenda. In the last few years, the first monographic volumes addressing reparations for women have been seen. Furthermore, feminist transnational movements working on fighting impunity against gender violence in armed conflict are now leading the debate on women and reparations. The Nairobi Declaration on Women's and Girls' Right to a Remedy and Reparation adopted in 2007 by women's rights advocates and activists and survivors of sexual violence in situations of conflict is the best expression of this transnational growing concern to provide women and girls with adequate reparations. Mobilization concerning reparations at the national level by victims' groups, human rights groups and women's associations has also increased.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- The importance of women's participation in reparations discussions and processes cannot be overestimated. Without the participation of women and girls from different contexts, initiatives are more likely to reflect men's experience of violence and their concerns, priorities and needs regarding redress. Additionally, without such participation, an opportunity is missed for victims to gain a sense of agency that may in itself be an important form of rehabilitation, especially when victims come to perceive themselves as actors of social change. Finally, such participation is important for women and society in general to draw the links between past and present forms of violence and seize the opportunity provided by reparations discussions to press for more structural reforms.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- With this scheme in mind and thinking about women as potential beneficiaries of reparations, the first hurdle relates to the fact that much of the violence that women and girls experience predates the conflict and only continues to aggravate the discrimination to which they are subjected in the post-conflict scenario. Even in non-conflict scenarios, acts of violence against women are part of a larger system of gender hierarchy that can only be fully grasped when seen in the broader structural context. Therefore, adequate reparations for women cannot simply be about returning them to where they were before the individual instance of violence, but instead should strive to have a transformative potential. Reparations should aspire, to the extent possible, to subvert, instead of reinforce, pre-existing structural inequality that may be at the root causes of the violence the women experience before, during and after the conflict.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- Women-centred processes of reparations require participation of women in the process of shaping, implementing, monitoring and evaluating reparations programmes; design of a reparations procedure that renders it accessible to all women and girls; investigation of facts to determine whether certain violations of rights have taken place and making sure that those violations that target women and girls have been duly included; determination of harms, including those which are gender-specific or have a differential impact on women and girls; identification of responsibility for the violation, including by omission, and by those perpetrators that target women and girls; and determination of measures of redress aimed at returning the victim to where she was before the violation took place, except for when those measures may in themselves be discriminatory or fail to address the structural roots underlying the violence.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- Furthermore, a judicial approach does not endorse forms of reparations that have the potential to challenge pre-existing gender hierarchies, including those that result in women holding less property than men, having lesser educational opportunities and, hence, less income-generating potential. While criminal and tort procedures may seek to apportion individual responsibility for moral and material harm and grant reparations to victims, they do not provide the proper framework for rehabilitation and guarantees of non-repetition, which may have the greatest transformative potential. Nevertheless, judicial institutions remain important arenas.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- Another advantage of reparations programmes crafted through legislative or administrative schemes is that victims, victims' groups and civil society in general can be involved in the process in more proactive ways than judicial proceedings allow for. This not only facilitates access to the information needed for the proper design of a programme, but has in and of itself a reparative effect, by conveying a sense of agency. While this is true for all victims in general, it may be even more so for women, given that they ordinarily face more difficulties reaching the public sphere and interacting with the State.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- The question of timing is also important in determining women's access to reparations, especially for crimes of a sexual nature. Since the preconditions for reporting and testifying on sexual abuse are not always present in the aftermath of conflict or repression - especially in poverty-ridden scenarios where women's health conditions are extremely poor - reparations programmes should not sacrifice adequate accessibility to the otherwise legitimately felt urgency of society to move forward. Narrow applications deadlines or a closed-list system may not allow different victims to come forward and claim reparations when they feel physically and psychologically prepared to do so.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- According to the Basic Principles and Guidelines, "victims are persons who individually or collectively suffered harm, including physical or mental injury, emotional suffering, economic loss or substantial impairment of their fundamental rights, through acts or omissions that constitute gross violations of international human rights law, or serious violations of international humanitarian law. Where appropriate, and in accordance with domestic law, the term 'victim' also includes the immediate family or dependants of the direct victim and persons who have suffered harm in intervening to assist victims in distress or to prevent victimization … A person shall be considered a victim regardless of whether the perpetrator of the violation is identified, apprehended, prosecuted, or convicted and regardless of the familial relationship between the perpetrator and the victim".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- In contexts of mass atrocity and multiple gross violations, the real challenge of reparations programmes is how to select the rights whose violation will trigger access to benefits and how to confine the circle of those who will qualify as beneficiaries. No programme to date has articulated the reasons to consider some violations worse than others, thus very rarely rendering reparations benefits to predominantly marginalized groups. The fairly limited but also traditionally conceived catalogue of violations of civil and political rights on which reparations programmes in the past have concentrated covers mostly those violations which are taken as paradigmatic expressions of political violence. Not surprisingly, these are the violations that in many scenarios target men disproportionately. Women have thus been excluded from reparations programmes, despite the terrible impact of violence on women, leaving them in a precarious position, with the responsibility for children and other dependants, without income-generating skills and subjected to stigma and poverty.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- The inclusion of gross violations against women in the list of wrongdoings that will trigger reparations has to be underpinned by the notion that the same violations may entail different harms for men and women, but also for women and girls from cultural minorities. For instance, harms emanating from sexual violence - including the contraction of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, undesired pregnancies, complications due to often unsafe abortions, unwanted children, loss of reproductive capacity, fistulas and vaginal injuries, and multiple psychological disorders - are always compounded with social stigmatization and ostracism by the family and/or community, subsequent emotional distress, loss of status and the possibility to marry or have a male protector, and access communal resources. None of the reparations programmes in the post-conflict or post-authoritarian scenario has explicitly referred to forms of reproductive violence (such as forced impregnation, forced abortion or forced sterilization) as separate categories. Explicit recognition and visibility of various forms of violence and the ensuing harm is required for responsive reparation programmes.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- The definition of "victim" endorsed by the Basic Principles and Guidelines assumes that, although the violation of a right is a precondition for the right to reparation, the relationship between the right and the violation, for purposes of reparation, is mediated by the notion of harm. As a result, the potential rights holders include not only victims, but also others, such as close family members and dependants, who are affected or harmed as a consequence of the violation. This notion of victim that links rights and harms allows for the reflection that every gross violation generates a "community of harm" which impacts others to be reflected. Bringing the notion of harm to the fore can also allow victims to be prioritized according to the severity of the harm endured. Both expanding beneficiaries and prioritizing victims and beneficiaries according to harm can have important consequences for women.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 49
- Paragraph text
- Official apologies, pensions, educational opportunities, access to health and psychological rehabilitation services, individual payments and measures of collective reparations, including specific infrastructure reconstruction measures, are some ways in which reparations programmes attempt to help victims move forward. While some programmes may prioritize individual and material compensation through individual payments, others may place a greater emphasis on access to services and rehabilitation of both individuals and affected communities. Various programmes may rely more or less on symbolic and or collective forms of reparations. Political priorities, but also the number of victims, the resources available and the existence of competing needs of the overall population will inevitably shape reparation policies. The following paragraphs will address various modalities of reparations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- Since women and girls who are subjected to gender violence, including sexual violence and forced unions, are often re-victimized in their families and communities, restitution of identity, family life and citizenship for them may require measures that target their wider communities - including attempts to subvert cultural understandings around the value of women's purity and sexuality. Although some of the intangible assets that are often taken from victims of sexual violence, such as virginity or social standing, cannot be returned, all the tangible assets of which victims of sexual violence are commonly stripped should be borne in mind. Communal and family ostracism, abandonment by spouses and partners and becoming unmarriageable or sick are all too commonly synonyms of material destitution, and the costs of ongoing medical treatment, pregnancy, abortions, and raising children resulting from rape, are all too real to deny. To date, no reparations programme has succeeded in fully reflecting the economic impact of raising children born of rape.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- Providing some form of material reparation to help victims rebuild their lives is of great importance, as the disruption of normalcy by large-scale violence or repression has especially deleterious effects on women's material well-being. The reconstruction challenge entails special economic hardships for them, including providing for those survivors in need of care. In many societies, under either national or customary law, discrimination against women in the inheritance system increases significantly the difficulty for wives and daughters of victims receiving reparations. The discussion around women-centred economic compensation should also look into types of material benefits that, in certain settings, may help women pursue what they perceive to be autonomy-enhancing life-projects, and may therefore be more transformative.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- Because reparations are often discussed in situations of scarce resources, placing the emphasis on rehabilitation services rather than compensation payments may seem a tempting alternative, as it combines development and reparations concerns. In the aftermath of violence, women often think of material assistance in terms of rehabilitation and reintegration, thus prioritizing their basic needs and those of their family members. The kinds of basic goods and services that women ask for are typically those that they are disparately deprived of ordinarily and that they need most in situations where their family responsibilities increase. This poses an interesting dilemma, as it creates a risk of blurring the conceptual distinction between reparations benefits and social rights, services and development measures to which the general population is entitled. At the same time, however, in many real-case scenarios, the dire poverty and destitution of victims implies that those basic services are what victims will inevitably prioritize, especially when they have no good reason - judging by their experience - to expect that they will be able to access them on any other grounds.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- Rehabilitation measures need to be tailored to respond to women's specific needs. This may require an effort to overcome gender biases that might be entrenched in the existing national service system. One way to overcome such biases is to be as explicit and specific as possible in terms of the services to be provided. For instance, instead of recommending that victims of sexual violence have free or privileged access to medical and psychological assistance, reparations programmes should spell out which treatment victims of sexual violence need most. Rendering rehabilitation and reintegration meaningful to women to ensure that they can recover a sense of normalcy or functional life is both a gendered and a context-sensitive enterprise, as the notion of "psychosocial" rehabilitation suggests.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 57
- Paragraph text
- Reintegration and rehabilitation may also require adopting women-friendly forms of distribution of services and creating opportunities that were previously denied to victims, often on the grounds of sex, including through meaningful employment, education, skill training, access to land titles and initiatives such as microcredit to motivate economic entrepreneurship. Because the experience of conflict or political repression leads many women to become publicly and politically active for the first time in their lives, encouraging this agency, including by promoting women's associations or political parties, could also be a way of rehabilitating women in a way that does not return them exclusively to their homes and family lives.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- Who apologizes, what for, where and how can all be relevant considerations in assessing whether women will get adequate symbolic redress. Given women's predisposition to focus on the pain of their loved ones, it would be interesting to devise ways to duly recognize the individual dimension of such suffering and resilience. Personal letters of apology can be the best way of recognizing women when accompanied by public gestures of recognition. However, it is important not to forget that women and girls who carry the stigma of their victimization, such as victims of sexual violence, might have much to lose from public recognition of their victimization if they are named.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph