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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. 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. 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. 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. 68
- Paragraph text
- One example relates to forced sterilization programmes and the emergence of judicial awards of compensation. Many such sterilization policies were instituted in countries around the world, usually as part of eugenics programmes to prevent the reproduction of members of the population considered to be carriers of "defective genetic or social traits". Women were sterilized without informed consent: several died from post-surgery complications, while others faced health problems, psychological complications, unemployment and family isolation. More recently in certain countries, abusive practices in the implementation of sexual and reproductive health programmes as part of population control policies have led to systemic violations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- 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. 76
- Paragraph text
- At the international level, a groundbreaking development is introduced in the Statute of the International Criminal Court, in which it is provided that the Court may award reparations other than restitution to victims, namely, restitution, compensation and rehabilitation. In addition, the Rome Statute provides for the establishment of a trust fund for the benefit of victims of crimes and their families, within the jurisdiction of the Court. The Trust Fund provides for the possibility for victims and their families to receive assistance separate and prior to a conviction from the Court, through the use of resources raised through voluntary contributions. Since the Court has not awarded any reparations as yet, it is too early to assess the degree to which it has protected women's right to 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
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 80
- Paragraph text
- In the 2009 case of Opuz v. Turkey, the Court found Turkey in violation of its due diligence obligations to protect women from domestic violence and - for the first time - held that gender-based violence is a form of discrimination under the European Convention. The case was brought by Ms. Opuz who, along with her mother, suffered years of brutal violence at the hands of her husband. Despite their complaints, the police and prosecuting authorities did not adequately protect the women and, ultimately, Ms. Opuz's mother was killed by the former husband. The Court found that there had been a violation of right to life with respect to the applicant's mother, a violation of the prohibition of torture and of inhuman and degrading treatment on account of the authorities' failure to protect the applicant against her ex-husband's violent and abusive behaviour and a violation of the prohibition of discrimination.
- 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
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Continuum of violence against women from the home to the transnational sphere: the challenges of effective redress 2011, para. 73
- Paragraph text
- Further jurisprudence with regard to reparations includes the case Opuz v. Turkey, before the European Court of Human Rights. The case was brought by Ms. Opuz, who, along with her mother, suffered years of violence at the hands of her husband. Despite their complaints, the police and prosecuting authorities did not adequately protect the women and, ultimately, Ms. Opuz's mother was killed by the former husband. The Court decided to award the victim non-pecuniary damages for the anguish and distress suffered on account of the killing of her mother and the authorities' failure to undertake sufficient measures to prevent the domestic violence perpetrated by her husband through deterrent punishment measure.
- 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
- Women
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Continuum of violence against women from the home to the transnational sphere: the challenges of effective redress 2011, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- Taking into account the intersectionality and the continuum of violence approach that have increasingly blurred the distinction between violence perpetrated in the public and the private spheres, the mandate analyses violence against women in four main spheres: (i) in the family; (ii) in the community; (iii) violence perpetrated or condoned by the State; and (iv) in the transnational arena. These broad categories are neither mutually exclusive nor ranked. If any violence that falls somewhere on this continuum is either directed at women, or experienced by a group that is overwhelmingly female, then the violence constitutes discrimination against 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
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Continuum of violence against women from the home to the transnational sphere: the challenges of effective redress 2011, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- Section A below tracks the evolution of violence against women as a human rights issue, including the appointment of a Special Rapporteur on violence against women. Section B describes the most prevalent manifestations of violence against women that the mandate has identified in the family, the community, the State and the transitional arena. Section C highlights some evolving practices, jurisprudence and challenges regarding States' compliance with their due diligence obligation to prevent, protect, investigate and punish and provide reparations to women victims of violence. Finally, section D proposes a holistic approach to addressing the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and violence against 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
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Continuum of violence against women from the home to the transnational sphere: the challenges of effective redress 2011, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur's country visits confirm that domestic violence remains widespread and affects women of all social strata. As reported in the mission report on her visit to the United States of America, approximately 552,000 violent crimes against women by an intimate partner were committed in 2008. In El Salvador, a 2008 survey on family health indicated that 44 per cent of women who had been married or lived with a partner had suffered psychological violence, 24 per cent physical violence and 12 per cent sexual violence. According to a national survey in Algeria, over 30 per cent of women had been regularly subjected to threats of physical or psychological violence and 10.9 per cent subjected to forced sexual relationships on more than one occasion by their intimate partner.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Continuum of violence against women from the home to the transnational sphere: the challenges of effective redress 2011, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Domestic violence continues to be perceived as both socially acceptable and legitimate. During her visit to Kyrgyzstan, the Special Rapporteur found that 38 per cent of women between 15 and 49 years of age believed that a husband had the right to beat his wife in various situations. Domestic violence is also an extremely underreported crime. Throughout country visits, victims put forward similar reasons why they hesitate to contact the authorities: fear of retaliation, family or community pressure not to reveal domestic problems, poor awareness of rights, lack of support services, economic dependency, and perceptions that the police will not respond adequately.
- 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
- Women
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Continuum of violence against women from the home to the transnational sphere: the challenges of effective redress 2011, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Prosecution of domestic and other forms of family violence remains low. El Salvador saw a decline from 4,890 (2003) to 1,240 (2007) in the number of judicial proceedings in intra-family violence cases initiated in family courts. The Special Rapporteur recurrently hears accounts of police officers encouraging informal resolutions and reconciliation between the parties rather than arresting the perpetrators. In Zambia, women preferred conciliation primarily due to family pressure and economic dependency on the abuser. Women facing multiple forms of discrimination, such as immigrant and indigenous women or women belonging to a minority, may be particularly reluctant to reach out to the authorities, who they may perceive as oppressive rather than protective. The Special Rapporteur received reports of the arrest of women of colour and of minority women following domestic violence incidents during her visit to the United States of America.
- 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
- Ethnic minorities
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Continuum of violence against women from the home to the transnational sphere: the challenges of effective redress 2011, para. 49
- Paragraph text
- States' efforts to comply with their due diligence obligation should not only focus on legislative reform, access to justice and the provision of services for victims, but must also address issues of prevention, especially in terms of attacking the structural causes that lead to violence against women. Through the implementation of existing human rights standards, States should ensure that the root causes and consequences of violence against women are tackled at all levels of society, starting within the family and up to the transnational arena. In doing so, States should consider the multiple forms of violence suffered by women and the different types of discrimination they encounter, in order to adopt multifaceted strategies to effectively prevent and combat this violence.
- 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
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and violence against women 2011, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- Even in contexts where women are able to successfully acquire access to resources such as for example land, they continue to face the challenge of access to other resources for its care. For illustration purposes, we can look at the issue of access to water. Women and their families experience multiple challenges relating to security and health when they have to travel considerable distances and spend several hours a day collecting water, which is often polluted and dangerous to their health and well-being. At the same time they are also at risk of sexual and other forms of violence. Furthermore, with the privatization of water for profit, water has become a commodity for the global market. This is a form of structural violence in that water is being forcibly taken away as a public good, despite the recognition by the United Nations that water is a human right. Such a scenario illustrates both interpersonal and structural violence directly related to survival, bodily integrity and health, as women risk their lives daily for water, which is a basic need.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and violence against women 2011, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- The psychological/individual perspective draws from biological, sociological, and psychological theories, and posits that violence occurs due to a male's higher level of testosterone (hormone theory), and also that men have evolved to have more violent tendencies than women (evolutionary theory). Additionally, an individual may be abused because the perpetrator perceives a benefit from the abuse, i.e. he is able to gain what he wants by maintaining a level of fear and disquiet in his partner (or members of the family) and this ultimately benefits his individual well-being. Another argument is based on the notion of resource competition, in which individual family members are in competition with one another for scarce resources, and thus the combination of hormone differences and sexual dimorphism allows males to dominate females in the private and public sphere.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and violence against women 2011, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- The societal perspective is also helpful in considering how the collective manifestation of individual freedoms can cause violence against women. This perspective considers the ways in which the relationship of the individual to family members and the larger community contributes to violence against women. The Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief has argued that collective manifestations of some individual freedoms, notably freedom of religion or belief, operate at the intersection of multiple forms of discrimination and violence against women. Societal values and community norms, according to which this kind of collective manifestation is organized, often perpetuate different forms of violence against women.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and violence against women 2011, para. 66
- Paragraph text
- Situating violence along a continuum allows for an appropriate contextualizing of violence in that the deprivation of water, food, and other human rights can be just as egregious and debilitating as family violence. Although these forms of violence are by no means the same, they can be viewed as parallel and similar when considering their interrelationship. Similarly, if a woman experiences violence in her home and is then denied security and protection by the legal system, she is encountering more than one form of violence. Hence, the response required to ensure that women's lives are free of violence must occur on multiple levels, from the individual to the institutional, from the local to the transnational, and in times of peace to times of post-conflict.
- 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
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and violence against women 2011, para. 81
- Paragraph text
- There is a need for a holistic approach to both physical and ideological restrictions as an issue in the human rights discourse around violence against women. Mainstream human rights discourse has demonstrated its capacity to acknowledge as a human rights violation the violence that flows from physical restrictions which are created and/or maintained by the State, communities, families or individuals. The same cannot be said, however, for the violence of ideological restrictions which may be deployed to justify physical violence against women or to restrict women's choices in ways that make submission to violent acts necessary to access resources and to demonstrate community membership. Ideological constraints help either to normalize the differential vulnerability based on the violence inherent in the context, the personhood of the women involved, or some combination of the two.
- 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
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Violence against women with disabilities 2012, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- The causes of violence against women with disabilities originate in social norms about the nature and type of disability and gender roles. Women with disabilities face many barriers to escaping, resisting, preventing or obtaining redress for violence. Such barriers include, but are not limited to, emotional and financial dependency on the abuser; unwillingness to be stigmatized; fears regarding child custody or single-parenthood; inaccessibility or unavailability of violence prevention programmes and facilities; fear or loss of assistive devices and other supports; concerns about being believed when disclosing the abuse; and reluctance to take any action that may escalate the violence. Also when they seek assistance from police or other members of the community, their complaints may not be taken seriously or may be disbelieved, due to stigma and stereotyping.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Gender-related killings of women 2012, para. 102
- Paragraph text
- In 2010, El Salvador passed the Integral Law for a Life Free of Violence for Women, which defines and classifies two types of femicide: when the perpetrator of the death of a woman is motivated by hatred or contempt based on gender; and aggravated femicide, when the perpetrator is a civil servant, government official or member of the police or army, when two or more persons are involved, when the killing is committed in the presence of any of the victim's members of the family, when the victim is a minor or with a disability, or when the aggressor has abused any authoritarian power held in the family, work or educational environment.
- 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
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Gender-related killings of women 2012, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- The discrimination and violence that is reflected in gender-related killings of women can be understood as multiple concentric circles, each intersecting with the other. These circles include structural, institutional, interpersonal and individual factors. The structural factors include macrolevel social, economic and political systems; institutional factors include formal and informal social networks and institutions; interpersonal factors include personal relationships between partners, among family members and within the community; and individual factors include personality and individual capacities to respond to violence.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Gender-related killings of women 2012, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- It is argued that the term feminicide could be usefully adopted when holding governments to account at the international level, as it highlights the impunity and the institutional violence aspect of such crimes, which are caused by States' acts or omissions. Institutional violence against women and their families is present in all aspects of States' responses to the killings of women. This can include: tolerance, the blaming of victims, lack of access to justice and effective remedies, negligence, threats, corruption and abuse by officials. Under this scenario, femicide/feminicide is a State crime tolerated by public institutions and officials, due to the inability to prevent, protect and guarantee the lives of women, who have consequently experienced multiple forms of discrimination and violence throughout their lifetime.
- 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
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Gender-related killings of women 2012, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- Intimate-partner violence is a problem affecting millions of women all over the world, and the overwhelming burden of partner violence is borne by women. Research on homicide resulting from intimate-partner violence reflects, almost without exception, that females are at greater risk than males, and that the majority of female homicide victims are killed by male intimate partners. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime studies also confirm that in many countries, intimate partner/family-related homicide is the major cause of female homicides, and that female homicide rates are much more likely to be driven by this type of violence than by the organized crime-related homicide typology that so affects men.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Gender-related killings of women 2012, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- One study indicates that there are approximately 3,500 intimate partner violence-related deaths every year in Europe. Women account for more than 77 per cent of all victims of intimate partner/family-related homicide, with women between the ages of 35 and 44 at higher risk. More recently, research indicates there has been an increase in the rates of killings of women. For instance, in Spain there has been a 15.16 per cent increase in intimate partner femicides. In Italy, the total number of homicides (male and female murders) is decreasing; however, female homicides increased from 15.3 per cent during 1992-1994 to 23.8 per cent during 2007-2008. According to data, in England and Wales in 2009/10 95 female victims of homicide were killed by a current or former partner, compared to 21 male victims of domestic homicide.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Gender-related killings of women 2012, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- Women accused of witchcraft in Ghana are often violently driven from their communities and forced to take refuge in "witch camps". Many widows are subjected to property-related violence, including violent evictions and loss of inheritance; and subjected to sexual abuse and harassment by relatives. In India, based on accusations of being a dayan (witch) or practising banamathi (witchcraft), physical violence is sometimes employed against Dalit women as a mechanism to take possession of their family lands and/or to keep them under economic subjugation, sexual exploitation, gender domination and control. In Nepal, particularly in the southern Terai region, elderly women, widows, destitute women and women of low caste are often targeted and deprived of their property rights or victimized to settle a personal vendetta.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Gender-related killings of women 2012, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- In Papua New Guinea, cases of torture and murder of an estimated 500 women accused of practising sorcery/witchcraft have been reported. Sorcery allegations against women have been increasing, in particular in the Highlands region. Suspected witches have been thrown from cliffs, tortured, dragged behind cars, burned or buried alive. Victims of such attacks and killings are mainly widows or other vulnerable elderly women who do not have children or relatives to protect them, women born out of wedlock or women who do not have any standing in the family. According to police reports, women are six times more likely than men to be accused of sorcery.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Gender-related killings of women 2012, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- Honour killings take many forms, including direct murder; stoning; women and young girls being forced to commit suicide after public denunciations of their behaviour; and women being disfigured by acid burns, leading to death. Honour crimes are also linked to other forms of family violence, and are usually committed by male family members as a means of controlling women's sexual choices and limiting their freedom of movement. Punishment usually has a collective dimension, with the family as a whole believing it to be injured by a woman's actual or perceived behaviour, and is often public in character. The visibility of the issue and the punishment also serves a social objective, namely, influencing the conduct of other women.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Gender-related killings of women 2012, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- Stoning is a method of capital punishment primarily used for crimes of adultery and other related offences linked to honour, of which women are disproportionately found guilty. This has resulted in 23 joint communications by mandate holders sent between 2004 and 2011, in respect of more than 30 women sentenced to death by stoning. Other communications to governments relate to honour crimes committed by family members or to the action/inaction of the State with regard to flogging or death by hanging of women for suspected premarital sex, for adultery, for failing to prove rape, and for acts deemed incompatible with chastity.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Gender-related killings of women 2012, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- In Afghanistan, women's rights defenders continue to be regularly threatened and intimidated, and high-profile women, mainly political activists, have been assassinated, and their killers have not been brought to justice. The Taliban's interpretation of sharia law is used to justify harsher punishments for women seen to be mixing with men outside their immediate families. A common means of intimidation and control of local communities, mainly women, is the use of night letters. These are threatening letters, usually hand-delivered, or pasted onto a door or in a mosque, by insurgent groups. The content of these letters varies, but the main message is a threat of harm to women and girls (or their parents) if they go to school or to work, leave their homes, speak to non-family men, or call radio stations with music requests.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph