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Oral Intervention : on Item 11 Civil and Political Rights
Presented at the Commission on Human Rights on 5 April 2000 by Widney Brown, Advocacy Director for the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch
Mister Chairperson,
One year ago this month, Samia Sarwar was killed in her attorneys' office in Lahore Pakistan by a hit man allegedly retained by her family. Ms. Sarwar was killed because she dared to seek a divorce -- an action her family deemed dishonorable. Despite exceptionally strong and credible evidence against members of her family, no one connected to the killing has been brought to justice.
On September 22, 1996, a street boy known as Kajunia was shot dead on a Sunday afternoon in one of Nairobi's busiest city parks. Dangling a whip, a Kenyan police reservist approached a group of street children who were eating their lunch. The boys fled, and Kajunia was shot as he emerged from a ditch, his hands raised in the air. In front of dozens of witnesses, the officer spat on Kajunia's body, walked back to his car and drove away.
In the United States, youth who are perceived to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered face relentless taunting from their peers in schools. For the most part, school officials refuse to intervene to protect these students even when the harassment escalates into violence. The harassment and violence in schools, exacerbated by homophobia in society, has resulted in gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered youth being two to three times more likely to attempt suicide compared with their heterosexual counterparts, according to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services study Women, children, gay men, lesbians, bisexual and transgendered persons experience violence in virtually every country in the world. This violence is exacerbated by the failure of governments to take seriously their responsibility to prevent violence and to ensure redress for all victims of violence. The impunity which the perpetrators of these attacks enjoy, is a direct result of the pervasive de jure and de facto biases against women, children, gay men, lesbians, bisexual and transgendered persons which pervade criminal justice systems.
So-called "honor killings" and other forms of violence against women are acts which violate women's right to life and security of person. Yet, despite these clear violations, governments such as Pakistan's enforce laws which allow perpetrators of these crimes to escape accountability and which prevent victims from seeking redress. For example, Pakistan has failed to criminalize marital rape; threatens women who report cases of sexual assault with prosecution for adultery or fornication; allows defendants to argue that a rape victim was "of a generally immoral character"; gives the testimony of women half the weight a man's; and, assesses monetary compensation for female victims at half the rate of male victims.
Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, these laws are prohibited precisely because they violate the principle of equality between men and women. Furthermore they actually help create the climate in which some men feel entitled to harm and kill women, confident in the knowledge that such violence will be dismissed as a private matter or more serious charges will be mitigated.
Every day, children are subject to life-threatening abuses on the streets, in schools, in institutions, and in the workplace. In Brazil, Colombia and Guatemala, street children have been slaughtered, in some cases by police themselves. In Russia, children in orphanages may be restrained in cloth sacks, tethered by a limb to furniture, beaten or locked in freezing rooms. In Kenya, brutal beatings by school teachers have left children permanently disfigured, disabled or dead. In India, children are chained to carpet looms for twelve or more hours a day and endure beatings and verbal abuse. In the United States, children in juvenile detention facilities have been beaten, bound to a bed by their wrists and ankles as a disciplinary measure, or stripped naked and shackled to a toilet.
Human Rights Watch welcomes the decision of the Committee on the Rights of the Child to devote a theme day during its 25th session to violence against children. We urge the Commission to request relevant Special Rapporteurs to submit information regarding violence against children that falls within their mandate, and the High Commissioner on Human Rights to prepare an analytic report for the Committee, based on the information provided.
Human Rights Watch is deeply concerned that the international community has consistently de-emphasized the importance of states' obligation to prevent violence against women, children, gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered persons. Mere words are not enough. At the June review of Beijing Platform for Action, we urge states to recommit themselves to ending violence. Until women, children and sexual minorities enjoy security of person and freedom from violence and discrimination, the commitment of states to human rights is but an unfulfilled promise, a promise which cannot be fulfilled by rhetoric and token gestures.
Thank you.
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