11.04.02
Urgent Interventions
Violence against women: launch of OMCT's second compilation of reports
PRESS RELEASE
The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) launches its publication “Violence Against Women: 10 Reports/Year 2001” covering the situation of women in Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Georgia, Indonesia, Israel, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Ukraine and Zambia.
Monday 8 April 2002
A second collection of reports, Violence Against Women: 10 Reports/Year 2001 has been published by the World Organisation against Torture (OMCT) within the framework of its Violence against Women Programme. The publication forms part of the Programme’s work in the field of integrating the human rights of women and a gender perspective into the activities of the United Nations human rights treaty monitoring bodies. Over the past year, OMCT submitted ten alternative country reports to the six “mainstream” human rights treaty bodies on: Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Georgia, Indonesia, Israel, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Ukraine and Zambia.
The torture and ill treatment of women and girls occurs in many countries around the world on a daily basis. Besides being the victims of violence perpetrated by state agents and armed groups, women are frequently victims of physical and psychological violence within the domestic sphere and within the community. This violence at the hands of private individuals may include; the sex-selective abortion of female foetuses, female genital mutilation, domestic violence, crimes committed in the name of honour, rape and sexual assault, and trafficking into forced prostitution or forced labour. Despite the fact that States have a duty under international law to act with due diligence to prevent, investigate and punish all forms of violence irrespective of whether it is committed by public officials or private individuals, all too often this obligation is not adequately implemented.
The alternative report on violence against women in Zambia that was submitted to the Committee against Torture raises many of the issues that recur in other reports in the collection. Domestic violence is widespread in Zambia, however, the government has yet to take decisive legislative and policy measures in order to prevent and eradicate this serious form of violence against women. The lack of an adequate legal framework combined with the low level of sensitivity and awareness of the issue of domestic violence amongst police and other law enforcement officials has contributed to the large degree of impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of acts of domestic violence.
A further area of concern in relation to violence against women in Zambia is the gendered application of customary laws on personal status including family law and inheritance rights. OMCT has received reports that Chiefs sitting as judges in local customary law courts in the Kasama district have made orders for the corporal punishment of women convicted of offences under customary law. These punishments have allegedly included whipping, beating and sexual abuse. OMCT is greatly concerned by the issue of gender-discrimination in the administration of justice and by the use of corporal punishment, particularly in circumstances where these kinds of punishments are being ordered by ad-hoc, customary or religious courts as in the case of the women who have been recently sentenced to death by stoning or to flogging for alleged crimes of adultery in Sudan and Nigeria.
In its Concluding Observations on the report by the government of Zambia, the UN Committee against Torture expressed its concern at the “incidence of violence against women in society, which is illustrated by reported incidents of violence against women in prisons and domestic violence.” As a result, the Committee recommended that the government establish programmes to “prevent and combat violence against women, including domestic violence.”
Carin Benninger-Budel and Joanna Bourke-Martignoni, Violence Against Women: 10 Reports/ Year 2001, OMCT, 2002, ISBN: 2-88477-012-7, 421 pp. Copies available from OMCT at a cost of 25 CHF.
For further information concerning OMCT’s Violence Against Programme please contact the women’s desk at: cbb@omct.org or jb@omct.org.
The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) launches its publication “Violence Against Women: 10 Reports/Year 2001” covering the situation of women in Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Georgia, Indonesia, Israel, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Ukraine and Zambia.
Monday 8 April 2002
A second collection of reports, Violence Against Women: 10 Reports/Year 2001 has been published by the World Organisation against Torture (OMCT) within the framework of its Violence against Women Programme. The publication forms part of the Programme’s work in the field of integrating the human rights of women and a gender perspective into the activities of the United Nations human rights treaty monitoring bodies. Over the past year, OMCT submitted ten alternative country reports to the six “mainstream” human rights treaty bodies on: Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Georgia, Indonesia, Israel, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Ukraine and Zambia.
The torture and ill treatment of women and girls occurs in many countries around the world on a daily basis. Besides being the victims of violence perpetrated by state agents and armed groups, women are frequently victims of physical and psychological violence within the domestic sphere and within the community. This violence at the hands of private individuals may include; the sex-selective abortion of female foetuses, female genital mutilation, domestic violence, crimes committed in the name of honour, rape and sexual assault, and trafficking into forced prostitution or forced labour. Despite the fact that States have a duty under international law to act with due diligence to prevent, investigate and punish all forms of violence irrespective of whether it is committed by public officials or private individuals, all too often this obligation is not adequately implemented.
The alternative report on violence against women in Zambia that was submitted to the Committee against Torture raises many of the issues that recur in other reports in the collection. Domestic violence is widespread in Zambia, however, the government has yet to take decisive legislative and policy measures in order to prevent and eradicate this serious form of violence against women. The lack of an adequate legal framework combined with the low level of sensitivity and awareness of the issue of domestic violence amongst police and other law enforcement officials has contributed to the large degree of impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of acts of domestic violence.
A further area of concern in relation to violence against women in Zambia is the gendered application of customary laws on personal status including family law and inheritance rights. OMCT has received reports that Chiefs sitting as judges in local customary law courts in the Kasama district have made orders for the corporal punishment of women convicted of offences under customary law. These punishments have allegedly included whipping, beating and sexual abuse. OMCT is greatly concerned by the issue of gender-discrimination in the administration of justice and by the use of corporal punishment, particularly in circumstances where these kinds of punishments are being ordered by ad-hoc, customary or religious courts as in the case of the women who have been recently sentenced to death by stoning or to flogging for alleged crimes of adultery in Sudan and Nigeria.
In its Concluding Observations on the report by the government of Zambia, the UN Committee against Torture expressed its concern at the “incidence of violence against women in society, which is illustrated by reported incidents of violence against women in prisons and domestic violence.” As a result, the Committee recommended that the government establish programmes to “prevent and combat violence against women, including domestic violence.”
Carin Benninger-Budel and Joanna Bourke-Martignoni, Violence Against Women: 10 Reports/ Year 2001, OMCT, 2002, ISBN: 2-88477-012-7, 421 pp. Copies available from OMCT at a cost of 25 CHF.
For further information concerning OMCT’s Violence Against Programme please contact the women’s desk at: cbb@omct.org or jb@omct.org.