(New York) – More than one hundred leading China scholars, writers, and human rights advocates from around the world are today releasing a letter to China’s National People’s Congress that calls for the immediate and unconditional release of imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo.
(New York) – The Thai government should promptly investigate the use of lethal force by Thai soldiers against Burmese migrants, which resulted in the death of three children, Human Rights Watch said today.
(New York) – The Ethiopian government should urgently initiate an independent investigation into the murder of an opposition candidate for parliament and bring those responsible to justice, Human Rights Watch said today.
To mark International Women’s Day, Amnesty International has released two reports looking at sexual violence in Cambodia and the Nordic Countries.
Victims of rape and sexual violence worldwide are denied access to justice due to gender discrimination and assumptions about the sexual behaviour of victims of rape, Amnesty International said in two regional reports released on Monday.
To mark International Women’s Day, Amnesty International released two reports looking at sexual violence in locations across the developed and developing world; specifically Cambodia and the Nordic Countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
“In poor and rich countries alike, women who are raped or abused have little chance of seeing their attackers brought to justice,” said Widney Brown, Senior Director of International Law and Policy at Amnesty International. “It is shocking that in the 21st century with so much legislation designed to ensure women’s equality, that virtually every government fails to protect women or to ensure that their abusers are held to account for their crimes.”
Amnesty International’s reports show that victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence seeking justice face many obstacles. These include inadequate, negative or dismissive responses by police, medical and judicial personnel. Given the pervasive indifference of authorities, many women feel ashamed or blame themselves and don’t even try to report these crimes to the police.
In instances where women do go to the police, their claims for reparation and justice are rarely met. The two reports found that prosecution rates for rape are among the lowest for any offence.
“Unless the sexual violence is also accompanied by physical violence, it is simply not taken seriously,” said Widney Brown. “A woman who survives the rape without significant physical injury is often stigmatized or held responsible for a crime committed against her while the rapist often faces limited, if any, social or legal sanction.”
Though the legal systems examined in the reports vary greatly, Amnesty International found that all contain gaps and discrepancies which discourage women and girls from seeking justice for crimes committed against them.
In Nordic countries, for example, the use of violence or threats of violence determine the seriousness of rape rather than the violation of a woman’s sexual autonomy. The report Case Closed: Rape and Human Rights in the Nordic Countries, documents one case in Finland where a man forced a woman to have sexual intercourse in the disabled toilet of a car park by banging her head against the wall and twisting her arm behind her back. In the prosecutor’s opinion, this was not rape as the violence used was of slight degree. The man was convicted of coercion into sexual intercourse and sentenced to a conditional (suspended) seven-month prison term.
By comparison, refusal to undertake compulsory military service, including civilian service, in Finland is punishable with a prison sentence of at least six months.
In Cambodia, women do not trust the justice system. Costs associated with police processes deter women from pursuing a case. Victims are often asked to pay a bribe before police will start an investigation. Money is also usually required for medical expenses, transport and phone credit costs for police during the investigation.
Breaking the Silence: Sexual Violence in Cambodia also documents how extra-judicial payments were negotiated as a “solution”. Typically police officers act as an arbiter between the families of the victim and perpetrator to secure a financial settlement on the condition that the victim withdraws the criminal complaint. The mediator receives part of this settlement.
“For too many women, their experience of the justice system exacerbates the initial act of violence and abuse,” said Widney Brown. “Every perpetrator that goes unpunished as a result of these failures is a signal that the authorities are indifferent to the plight of the victims of sexual violence.”
Violence against women remains one of the most pervasive and significant barriers to gender equality. Amnesty International has called on governments to exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and punish acts of violence. Central to this is ensuring women subjected to violence can access justice and an effective remedy for the harm they have suffered.
Amnesty International has also called for the creation of a consolidated and strong UN women’s entity, to ensure that women and girls around the world enjoy their rights in practice. Amnesty International is part of the global NGO campaign on the Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) calling on governments and the UN system to ensure that the new UN agency for women is given the resources, personnel and authority it needs to make a real difference to women’s lives around the world.
Amnesty International has urged all governments to fully reaffirm their commitment to respect women’s human rights as articulated in numerous human rights treaties as well as in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, an agenda to advance the goals of equality, development and peace for all women.
Read More:
Breaking the silence: Sexual violence in Cambodia (Report, 8 March 2010)
Visit Amnesty International’s Stop Violence Against Women page
(Beirut) – Iran should stop infringing on women’s rights and take immediate steps to meet Iranian women’s demands for full equality, Human Rights Watch said today. Iranian women’s rights activists have issued a call for freedom and gender equality in Iran in connection with International Women’s Rights Day on March 8.
(New York) – The Iranian Judiciary should immediately release six women arrested in January and early February 2010, apparently in connection with their peaceful activities on behalf of the Mourning Mothers, Human Rights Watch said today.
(Washington, DC) – Honduran authorities should ensure that recent killings and other attacks on opponents of the 2009 coup are promptly and thoroughly investigated, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to Attorney General Luis Alberto Rubí.
Amnesty International has called for the Egyptian authorities to release a blogger and prisoner of conscience who published a post alleging nepotism within the armed forces.
Amnesty International has called for the Egyptian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release a blogger and prisoner of conscience facing up to nine and a half years in prison after he published a post alleging nepotism within the armed forces.
Ahmad Mostafa, 20, is set to face a military trial in Cairo on 7 March over a post published on his Matha Assabaka ya Watan (What happened to you, oh nation?) blog in March 2009 . He is the first Egyptian blogger to face a military trial for his alleged activities.
“Ahmed Mostafa has been prosecuted solely for exercising peacefully his right to freedom of expression on his blog,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa programme.
“He is now facing bogus charges that reveal the determination of the authorities to control the Egyptian blogosphere, which has become a pocket of free expression in the country.”
The post recounted the story of a student who had allegedly been forced to resign from a military academy in order to leave room for another applicant amid accusations of nepotism.
Ahmed Mostafa, an engineering student at the university of Kafr El Sheikh, has been accused of publishing military secrets online, publishing false information about the army and of insulting officers involved in the recruitment process at the military academy.
According to lawyers from the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, he was first arrested by military intelligence officers on February 17 and was questioned about his blog.
He first appeared before a military tribunal on Monday 1 March although lawyers representing him from the Hisham Mubarak Law Center and the Association for the Freedom of Thought and Expression told Amnesty International that they only received his case file from the authorities on Tuesday 2 March.
“The use of military courts to try bloggers is a shocking new development. Egypt has consistently been criticized by UN human rights bodies for this misuse of military justice. Rather than addressing the unfairness of trials of civilians by such courts, the Egyptian authorities are now seeking to widen their use,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.
Ahmed Mostafa is not the only Egyptian blogger in jail for his writing.
Karim Amer, an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment in February 2007 for criticizing President Hosni Mubarak and Egypt’s al-Azhar religious authorities on his blog.
Hani Nazeer, another prisoner of conscience, has been held in administrative detention since October 2008 for posting on his blog the cover of a book deemed insulting to Muslims.
Amnesty International also urged the Egyptian authorities to accept key UN recommendations on freedom of expression and peaceful dissent.
On 19 February 2010, during a UN examination of Egypt’s human rights record, the Egyptian authorities rejected a recommendation calling on them to “release bloggers and activists currently detained under the Emergency Law and cease its arrests and detentions of political activists”, as factually incorrect or inaccurate.
(New York) – Libyan authorities should immediately release Jamal al-Haji, who was arrested after he submitted a complaint to the government about human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said today.
(New York) – Malaysia and Indonesia should complete a pact on the status of migrant domestic workers that would include basic labor protections, Human Rights Watch said today in advance of International Women’s Day on March 8.
