Mini-Review MR-87E HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AGAINST WOMEN: FINDINGS OF THE AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT Patricia Begin Political and Social Affairs Division 11 April 1991 11 Library of Parliament Bibliothèque du Parlement Research Branch
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~1I~ CANADA HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AGAINST V~DMEN: FINDINGS OF THE ~ 2~ESTYIN~NATIONALREPORT INTRODUCTION In March 1 991 ~mnesty International released its report Women in the Front Line: Human Rights Violations Against Women The report records the experiences of female survivors and casualties of human rights atrocities world-wide Grave violations of human rights were found to have been committed by governments with widely varying ideologies in Africa the ~mericas Asia and the Pacific Europe and the Middle East Individuals are defined as victims of human rights violations vthen they are denied the freedoms basic to human beings expression and association These include the freedom of conscience freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention ur the right to a fair tr freedom from judicial killing and freedom from extra- The report discusses the human rights abuses that come under Amnesty International s mandate which is: * to seek the release of prisoners of conscience men and women detained solely for their beliefs colour sex ethnic origin language or religion who have neither used nor advocated violence; * to work for prompt and fair trials for all political prisoners; and * to oppose the death penalty extrajudicial executions and torture - without reservation WOMEN VICTIMS OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES Women who have been subjected to human rights abuses come from a variety of backgrounds They are young middle aged and elderly; they are from all sectors of society; and they participate in a range of occupations Both strong women and vulnerable women can be targets of human rights violations In some cases the nature of a woman s work or her
2 involvement in other legitimate non-violent activities is the reason she becomes a victim of a human rights abuse directed against women s~ho are: The report documents violations medical personnel; politically active academics; journalists who exercise their right to free expression; lawyers who provide legal assistance to political prisoners and disadvantaged people; political and land reformers; and human rights activists Human rights violations are also perpetrated against women because of their ethnicity language or religion A woman s relation to an individual who is regarded with disfavour by state authorities is cause for some governments to subject her to cruel and degrading treatment Some women experience maltreatment of their rights and freedoms because they live in a particular location where a situation of political unrest or conflict is underway Detention in custody has resulted in the loss of basic human rights And women refugees have had their vulnerability exploited through a range of violations committed by state agents HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES SUFFERED BY WC~4EN The report documents cruel degrading and inhuman treatment specifically directed at women These abuses may affect her physical mental and emotional well-being her role in the family or her cultural environment It also documents rape of women by law enforcement officials in prison guards in Iran and government troops in El Salvador and Peru Rape as a gender-specific method of torture is commonly directed at women who have been detained It is inflicted to extract information to punish to intimidate and to coerce The rape of detained women by government authorities and other ru is in violation of the (1W Convention against Torture Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment which prohibits any act by which severe pain or suffering whether physical or mental is intentionally inflicted In some cultures the stigma attached to rape is so strong that victims are disinclined to report the abuse because of shame and humiliation In other countries victims of sexual violence are subjected to retaliation by their families even though the
3 women were innocent victims Thus it is difficult to establish a reliable global estimation of the incidence of rape Other reported forms of sexual abuse of women in custody include sexual humiliation threats of rape and verbal abuse intended to degrade humiliate and intimidate Sexual abuse of women by government authorities has been reported in Somalia Pakistan the Israeli Occupied 1 the Philippines and Thrkey These degradations against women may take place in interrogation cells in a room at the back of a police station in a prison cell in a back alley or at an isolated rural site Amnesty International believes that by subjecting detained women to this form of abuse government agents attempt to threaten entire sectors of the population Amnesty International found that detained pregnant women were vulnerable to additional suffering from human rights abuses in Syria the Israeli Occupied Territories India South Korea and Chile These abuses are perpetrated in spite of the fact that the special needs of pregnant women are recognized in international instruments such as the (1W Standard MLnimuin Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and Protocol 1 to the 1949 Geneva Conventions Foetuses have been injured or pregnancies have ended in miscarriage as a result of harsh prison conditions beatings and torture inflicted on the mother Untreated medical complications have Women who give birth in a prison are faced with the prospect of being separated from caused women to suffer gr permanent reproductive damage their baby at birth or of raising the infant in the prison Women who reported becoming pregnant as a result of rape in detention experienced trauma that extended beyond the actual sexual assault Another form of abuse of women s human rights documented for instance in the United Kingdom involves the misuse of prison regulations; such as repeated strip searches carried out by guards with the sole intention of humiliating and harassing the prisoners Nongender-specific torture and ill-treatment of women docuphysical abuse death threats detention for days in total darkness and isolation from other members of the prison population These human rights abuses have been mented in the report include electric shocks
4 reported in South Africa Greece the Israeli Occupied Turkey Columbia and Peru Family relationships have been exploited through torture or threats of and physical abuse of family members in Turkey Guatemala Iran and Senegal To punish a woman or extract information from her a woman 5 husband or child may be tortured by government agents in her presence Or to increase the pain and suffering of her detained spouse child or a woman may be tortured knnesty International views these threatened or actual assaults on individual dignity and on family integrity as gross human rights violations ~ In contravention of domestic law and international norms women are given inadequate medical treatment and subjected to intolerable or inhuman conditions of imprisonment around the world Governments identi fied in the report as holding people under inhuman or degrading con- ditions are Morocco South Africa Iran and Pakistan Failure to provide detainees with medical care for diseases resulting from torture and unsanitary prison conditions may place prisoners in life-threatening situations and surviving prisoners may face permanent injury as a result of inadequate care Abuse of human rights causes indirect as well as direct suffering The report records examples of women s indirect suffering including the arbitrary arrest and unjust imprisonment of children in Senegal Guatemala and Sri Lanka Further distress to women results from the knowledge that their children are threatened with or subjected to actual torture by government officials Women have also been detained and held incommunicado for extended periods of time resulting in prolonged absence from their family and fear for their well-being Imprisonment on grounds of conscience is reported in Ethiopia Yugoslavia and Peru where women have been imprisoned because of non-violent beliefs or activities their ethnic origins sex religion or language Amnesty International reports that women in Iran Sudan South Africa Turkey Israel Saudi Arabia Somalia Sri Lanka and Nigeria have been denied their rights to fair legal proceedings Minimum standards
5 for legal proceedings are specified in international agreements Basic legal human rights include the right to be presumed innocent when charged the right to be informed of the charges the right to have the opportunity to prepare a defence the right to communicate with independently chosen counsel and the right to be tried without undue delay by a competent independent and impartial tribunal Statements that are extracted through torture or other degrading forms of coercion are inadmissible as evidence (except against a person accused of committing torture ill-treatment or coercion) As well every convicted person has the right of appeal to a higher tribunal The Universal Declaration of Human RI ghts the Inten~iationa1 G ovenant on Civil and Political Rights the (1W Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and other international punishments legal prohibit cruel Under international law degrading punishment human instruments inhuman or degrading flogging constitutes cruel and Amnesty International regards executions to be a rights violation - the extreme form of inhuman and degrading punishment which denies victims the fundamental right to life proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Ri ghts Yet women have been executed in the United States and Iran subjected to public flogging in Sudan and and stoned in Pakistan Around the world victims of disappearance (a substitute expression for imprisonment or murder without charge or trial by state authorities ) include men women and children The Amnesty International report also documents cases where women have been victims of extrajudicial execution (officially sanctioned murder outside the framework of the law) CONTEXT IN WHICH HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES ABE MOST EVIDENT Gross violations of human rights are most evident in situations of social and political unrest disturbance and conflict (civil ethnic and nationalist struggles) It is in these situations governments often fail to maintain international human rights norms that
BIBLIOTH~QUE DU PARLEMENT 6 Points of entry and refugees camps are also sites of human rights violations against women The majority of adults who flee their country are women An article published in 1988 by a legal advisor to the tin High Commissioner for Refugees describes the special vulnerabilities of women refugees Rape abduction sexual harassment physical violence and the not infrequent obligation to grant sexual favours in return for documentation and/or relief goods remain a distressing reality for many refugees