News Release

Rapporteurs of the UN, OAS and African Denounce Official Tolerance of Violence Against Women by Private Individuals and Groups

MONTREAL – March 8, 2002 – On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Rights & Democracy has released in Canada an historic Joint Declaration issued by the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences, the Special Rapporteur on Women’s Rights of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights.

The Special Rapporteurs denounce official tolerance of violence against women by non state-linked individuals or organized groups, highlighting a common misperception that an abuse can only be counted as a human rights violation if a state agent is implicated.

“This climate of impunity encourages the persistence of such violations,” reads the Joint Declaration, which also exhorts states to take immediate action to end such impunity by systematically bringing perpetrators to justice.

The Joint Declaration, which reaffirms the Rapporteurs’ shared priorities and highlights some common strategies,  is the result of a groundbreaking meeting hosted by Rights & Democracy in Montreal last week, which brought together for the first time Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN Special Rapporteur, Marta Altolaguirre, Special Rapporteur of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and Angela Melo, Special Rapporteur of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights.

The Special Rapporteurs represent the international and regional investigative and monitoring mechanisms that have brought to the attention of the international community the systematic violations that have targeted the world’s women and called for corrective and reparative action.

The Joint Declaration of the Special Rapporteurs on Women’s Rights of March 8 2002 also calls on all states who have not yet done so to ratify international treaties which protect women’s rights, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.   Many States have not ratified comprehensive international legislation which protects women against gender-based violence and discrimination, and thus cannot be held accountable under international law for some of the violations that take place within their borders.

The Special Rapporteurs also stress the serious obligations of States to uphold legislation they have ratified: states cannot avoid these obligations towards women by invoking any custom, tradition or religious consideration, the Rapporteurs caution.   The Joint  Declaration also urges states to take action to ensure their international commitments to women’s rights are reflected in their domestic legislation. 

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Rights & Democracy celebrates this historic, first-time meeting between the Special Rapporteurs on Women’s Rights. The Canadian organization was at the forefront of the struggle to have a Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women appointed at the 1994 United Nations Human Rights Commission, and has since worked to reinforce the Rapporteur’s mandate.  Rights & Democracy has also supported the work of the African Rapporteur since the creation of the mechanism in 1996.

Today, we celebrate the important achievements in the defence of women’s rights of each Rapporteur: through her field missions in Rwanda, Afghanistan, East Timor, Haiti, Sierra Leone and Colombia, UN Special Rapporteur Radhika Coomaraswamy has made exceptional advances in setting guidelines to end impunity for the perpetrators of violence against women in armed conflicts and in establishing states’ responsibility to sanction abuses carried out by non state-linked individuals and groups. The work of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa has led to the drafting of a Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, by which the states parties condemn all harmful practices which affect the fundamental human rights of women and girls and undertake to effect all the necessary measures to prohibit such practices.  The Special Rapporteur on Women’s Rights of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has made significant progress in the investigation of and documentation of sexual violence against women in the context of the Colombian conflict, as well as the exposure of the alarming spate of murders of women in recent years in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Rights & Democracy will continue to work with the Special Rapporteurs on women’s rights, facilitating dialogue and exchange of information with and between these international mechanisms.   It is our hope that such enhanced coordination will contribute to the implementation of principles adopted at the World Conference for Women in Beijing in 1995, principles that offer a better chance to half the world’s population to live in freedom, equality and dignity.

For further information: Mary Durran (514) 283 6073 -- cell: (514) 998 0536. 

To read the Declaration in English: click here.

Pour lire la Déclaration en français : cliquez ici.

Declaración en español.