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06 April 1998
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Fifty-fourth session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Geneva,
16 March - 24 April 1998
Statement by
Ms Radhika Coomaraswamy,
Special Rapporteur on violence against women
including its causes and consequences
in presenting her reports to the Commission
Geneva, 6 April 1998
Mr. Chairperson,
It is my special pleasure to address this chamber in the fiftieth anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. When the Declaration was passed in 1948, women were invisible in international fora and international policy making. We have come a long way since then. The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and the U.N. Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women point to the fact that women’s concerns have been gradually incorporated in the discussions of the international human rights community. Though we have a long way to go, we can take pride in the fact that the international community is no longer impervious to the needs and demands of women living in all parts of the globe.
Mr. Chairperson,
My report this year concerns the issue of violence against women by the State and during times of armed conflict. While my first report dealt with domestic violence and the second report discussed the question of violence in the community, this report focuses on the State and its role in the perpetration of violence against women. The report is structured into three parts. The first deals with the problem of armed conflict, the second with the question of custodial violence and the third focuses on the issue of refugees and the internally displaced.
A recent book by Kamla Bhasin and Ritu Menon chronicle the violence that took place against women at the time that India and Pakistan were partitioned. This violence is illustrative of the type of violence that has taken place throughout the centuries whenever communities and states fight each other. My recent experience in Rwanda also confirms that much of this violence is universal and has subjugated women throughout the centuries. Women are subject to violence by men of the enemy community or security force. They are raped usually in front of their family members including their children. They are often asked to parade naked in public while members of the enemy community urge them on. Women’s breasts and genitalia are often mutilated and sometimes slogans are tabooed on their private parts. Pregnant women often have their babies killed and their wombs ripped open. After sexual violence most women are killed or decapitated. Others are abducted, forcibly married or made into sexual slaves.
Women are also subject to violence from the men of their own community who attempt to save their honour. The India-Pakistan study show how women were often poisoned by their own men, pushed into wells, strangled or burnt alive so as to avoid “dishonour” at the hands of men of the “other” community. Finally women also inflict violence on themselves, committing suicide in large numbers after rape or sexual violence or impending such violence. Again the India-Pakistan study shows how they took poison, jumped into wells or set mattresses alight and burnt themselves rather than face a life after violence. As a result, those who survive, whether in India, Pakistan, Bosnia or Rwanda have what is termed “survivor’s guilt”, guilt at not having taken their lives, guilt at the audacity of having survived. Many carry the babies born of rape and sexual violence and have to live with the shame and the guilt in traditional communities hostile to the mixing of communities and races.
For years this type of violence was ignored by history. Rape, sexual violence, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, and other forms of gender based violence were the unspoken activities of war indulged in by men and soldiers of the enemy community. Though war codes from ancient times urged soldiers to refrain from this type of activity, in real wars women were often the victims. Even after world war II, at Nuremberg or Tokyo, rape was not specifically enumerated as a war crimes or a crime against humanity. Though two Japanese commanders were convicted for the rape of Nanking, the law did not recognise rape as a distinct war crime.
Luckily this attitude to women as booty of war is beginning to change. The International Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda began the process by listing rape as a crime against humanity. The prosecutor’s office at the Hague has to be commended for charging sexual violence as a war crime under “torture” and “willful suffering” as well as “enslavement”, a crime against humanity. They have also hinted that sexual violence may be evidence of “genocidal intent”. These legal developments are most welcome and deserve the praise of the international community. We hope that this will culminate in developments leading up to the establishment of an international criminal court. Any framework setting up such a court must recognise that rape, sexual violence, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy, and forced prostitution should be recognised as war crimes and crimes against humanity to end the centuries of impunity which have attached to violence against women during wartime. A strong, independent criminal court at the international level with independent prosecutorial potential is one way of arresting arbitrary and ruthless violence against civilians many of whom
are women and children.
Mr. Chairman,
While we discuss the question of armed conflict and the accountability of state actors, we must also address the special problem posed by the activities of non-state actors who have taken up arms against the state. The international human rights community after recent developments in Algeria, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Sri Lanka has begun to take the position that non-state actors must also be governed byinternational standards of human rights and humanitarian law. Their position must be strengthened by organs of the United Nations dealing with human rights so that state actors and non-state actors realize that once they take up arms they are subject to international standards with regard to the protection of the civilian population.
We are also facing the growth of female combatants who have entered the military in many state armies and other political movements. In the United States cases of sexual harassment in the military pose serious questions about the equality of women in institutions that celebrate “masculinity cults” and create a hostile environment for women. Women in the military also pose interesting dilemmas for international humanitarian law. The treatment of women prisoners of war has not really engaged the attention of the international community. It may now be necessary to do so. For the first time the Rwanda Tribunal may find women guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. We hold no brief for them. Men or women who engage in acts of inhumanity must realize that the impunity must and will end and that the international community will move to ensure that civilian lives are protected.
Mr. Chairperson,
The problem of custodial violence against women is also an important one which reaches out to the conscience of the world. Custodial violence is perhaps the worst form of violence by the State when the so-called protector of citizens- the State- becomes the perpetrator of violence. This betrayal of trust and violence against those who are completely in their power, albeit for the reasons of interrogation, poses the most fundamental questions of human rights. Women are tortured in prisons throughout the world. They are raped, they are beaten, they are tied to fans upside down and taken for a “helicopter” treatment, their heads are immersed in water, their eyes have been filled with chili powder, and they have been subject to electric shock treatment, usually on their genitalia. These are just some of the creative ways in which state security forces engage in the art of cruelty. If human rights means anything, it must be cry halt to this kind of behaviour.
In recent times we have made some progress. Beginning with the Special Rapporteur on torture, rape in custody is increasingly being recognised as a form of torture. This was not the case earlier. A recent European Court judgement underscores the point that rape is not an act outside the framework of the Torture Convention but very much a form of torture which has been used to intimidate and degrade women prisoners. This somewhat self -evident proposition is increasingly being recognised in international human rights work and is an important landmark in the struggle for women’s rights as human rights.
States must be called upon to takes urgent measures to prevent custodial violence against women. They should be called upon to respect the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. Some countries realising the importance of this type of regulation of the security forces have introduced provisions in their legal system to deter this type of violence. In India for example, during cases of custodial sexual violence before the courts, there is a rebuttable presumption that the rape took place thus changing the evidentiary burden and forcing the police to argue that the rape did not take place. But these are exceptions. In the vast majority of cases, the police and the security forces do not like to prosecute one of their own. This factor which requires the security forces of a nation to be enlightened enough to bring to book those errant members from among themselves who have operated outside the framework of international human rights and humanitarian law is perhaps the most important aspect which will ensure whether there is justice for the victim and the accountability of perpetrators.
The need for states to recognise that custodial violence against women along with other human rights violations only delegitimises their moral authority to rule a modern nation state has not been adequately understood. State prosecution of errant members of its own security forces is the test of whether a State truly respects human rights or only pays lip service to human rights ideals.
Mr. Chairperson
The other aspect of violence by the State and during time of armed conflict which concerns us is the problem of refugees and the internally displaced. Increasingly gender based persecution is being recognised as a ground for refugee status under the Refugee Convention. This is a major breakthrough in the conceptual understanding of the problems women face and the reasons why they are fleeing their countries of origin. This understanding should be expanded and become one of the bulwarks of international humanitarian law.
In addition, refugees and displaced women who live in camps are subject to a great deal of abuse the world over. They are often subject to rape and sexual harassment by guards and other refugees. They are often separated from the male members of their families. They are subject to extortion either for sexual faviours or for money. In some camps brothels are run by male members right under the noses of the camp authorities. Women refugees lack the freedom of mobility, requiring to get a pass to leave the refugee camp and this is sometimes denied. Their basic needs are not always met. The calorific content of the food they are given is usually below the minimum requirement for healthy living. There are very few doctors they can go to attend to their medical needs. In most cases there are no gynecologists to help women with problems related to their reproductive system and there are not many psychologists to help them deal with the problem of trauma and depression.
Though organisations such as UNHCR have formulated excellent guidelines for the treatment of women refugees this is not being translated as a effective reality in many refugee camps around the world, especially those run by states. The internally displaced are even worse off and their problems have been clearly and coherently outlined by the Special representative on the Internally Displaced.
Mr Chairperson,
As part of my field visits linked to the problem of violence against women during times of armed conflict I made a field visit to Rwanda. The internationalcommunity must feel a collective shame at what happened in Rwanda in 1994. After 50 years of human rights, the fact that we sat back and watched as many innocent people were massacred will always be a black mark against the international community in general and the United Nations in particular. Violence against women during the genocide was horrific in extent and dimension. The most unimaginable things took place. It is absolutely necessary that the perpetrators of this genocide are brought to book and that the international community support the tribunal in Arusha and the national trials to ensure that this takes place. So far not one case of sexual violence has resulted in conviction. Only a few victims have actually come forward. Granting protection to victims with resettlement abroad may be one means of assisting this process. The international community should come forward to offer this protection or the women will be too frightened to be effective witnesses.
In addition, the Rwandan government must also recognise that even perpetrators of genocide are entitled to the protection of their human rights. This is a harsh but important truth. The conditions of women detainees in prisons and cachots is quite appalling and it is necessary that the government is supported in alleviating this situation given its lack of resources. The government has taken many initiatives to alleviate the suffering of women victims of violence. However, we are also convinced that long-term stability will only return to Rwanda if democracy and power sharing among the two major communities become a reality.
Though we welcome many of the initiatives taking place in Rwanda we were deeply concerned that not one of the U.N. agencies had programmes specifically related to violence against women. The insensitivity of UN agencies operating in Rwanda to the problem of violence against women must go on record.
Finally Mr. Chairman, Rwanda was a moving experience where the worst of human atrocities lived side by side with the hopes of its people. As a result I ended my report to this Commission with a poem written by a Rwandese woman expressing hope even in the midst of despair. The UN documentation office was quite horrified. No poems please they said this is the United Nations. Well, they can control my written word but not my oral speech. So I will end my presentation with a quotation from that beautiful poem. I hope the francophones in the audience will excuse my French pronunciation:
Approche-toi de moi mon frère,
Et donne-moi la main,
Brise ces barrières
Que notre ennemi commun
Adresse comme un défi.
Entre toi et moi,
Nous avons connu chacun
Des moments de misère,
Si tu me donnes la main
Le soleil se lèvera.
Approche-toi de moi mon frère
Et donne-moi la main.
Reports submitted by the Special Rapporteur on:
the question of violence against women (E/CN.4/1998/54)
Mission to Rwanda (E/CN.4/1998/54/Add.1)
16 March - 24 April 1998
Statement by
Ms Radhika Coomaraswamy,
Special Rapporteur on violence against women
including its causes and consequences
in presenting her reports to the Commission
Geneva, 6 April 1998
Mr. Chairperson,
It is my special pleasure to address this chamber in the fiftieth anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. When the Declaration was passed in 1948, women were invisible in international fora and international policy making. We have come a long way since then. The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and the U.N. Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women point to the fact that women’s concerns have been gradually incorporated in the discussions of the international human rights community. Though we have a long way to go, we can take pride in the fact that the international community is no longer impervious to the needs and demands of women living in all parts of the globe.
Mr. Chairperson,
My report this year concerns the issue of violence against women by the State and during times of armed conflict. While my first report dealt with domestic violence and the second report discussed the question of violence in the community, this report focuses on the State and its role in the perpetration of violence against women. The report is structured into three parts. The first deals with the problem of armed conflict, the second with the question of custodial violence and the third focuses on the issue of refugees and the internally displaced.
A recent book by Kamla Bhasin and Ritu Menon chronicle the violence that took place against women at the time that India and Pakistan were partitioned. This violence is illustrative of the type of violence that has taken place throughout the centuries whenever communities and states fight each other. My recent experience in Rwanda also confirms that much of this violence is universal and has subjugated women throughout the centuries. Women are subject to violence by men of the enemy community or security force. They are raped usually in front of their family members including their children. They are often asked to parade naked in public while members of the enemy community urge them on. Women’s breasts and genitalia are often mutilated and sometimes slogans are tabooed on their private parts. Pregnant women often have their babies killed and their wombs ripped open. After sexual violence most women are killed or decapitated. Others are abducted, forcibly married or made into sexual slaves.
Women are also subject to violence from the men of their own community who attempt to save their honour. The India-Pakistan study show how women were often poisoned by their own men, pushed into wells, strangled or burnt alive so as to avoid “dishonour” at the hands of men of the “other” community. Finally women also inflict violence on themselves, committing suicide in large numbers after rape or sexual violence or impending such violence. Again the India-Pakistan study shows how they took poison, jumped into wells or set mattresses alight and burnt themselves rather than face a life after violence. As a result, those who survive, whether in India, Pakistan, Bosnia or Rwanda have what is termed “survivor’s guilt”, guilt at not having taken their lives, guilt at the audacity of having survived. Many carry the babies born of rape and sexual violence and have to live with the shame and the guilt in traditional communities hostile to the mixing of communities and races.
For years this type of violence was ignored by history. Rape, sexual violence, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, and other forms of gender based violence were the unspoken activities of war indulged in by men and soldiers of the enemy community. Though war codes from ancient times urged soldiers to refrain from this type of activity, in real wars women were often the victims. Even after world war II, at Nuremberg or Tokyo, rape was not specifically enumerated as a war crimes or a crime against humanity. Though two Japanese commanders were convicted for the rape of Nanking, the law did not recognise rape as a distinct war crime.
Luckily this attitude to women as booty of war is beginning to change. The International Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda began the process by listing rape as a crime against humanity. The prosecutor’s office at the Hague has to be commended for charging sexual violence as a war crime under “torture” and “willful suffering” as well as “enslavement”, a crime against humanity. They have also hinted that sexual violence may be evidence of “genocidal intent”. These legal developments are most welcome and deserve the praise of the international community. We hope that this will culminate in developments leading up to the establishment of an international criminal court. Any framework setting up such a court must recognise that rape, sexual violence, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy, and forced prostitution should be recognised as war crimes and crimes against humanity to end the centuries of impunity which have attached to violence against women during wartime. A strong, independent criminal court at the international level with independent prosecutorial potential is one way of arresting arbitrary and ruthless violence against civilians many of whom
are women and children.
Mr. Chairman,
While we discuss the question of armed conflict and the accountability of state actors, we must also address the special problem posed by the activities of non-state actors who have taken up arms against the state. The international human rights community after recent developments in Algeria, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Sri Lanka has begun to take the position that non-state actors must also be governed byinternational standards of human rights and humanitarian law. Their position must be strengthened by organs of the United Nations dealing with human rights so that state actors and non-state actors realize that once they take up arms they are subject to international standards with regard to the protection of the civilian population.
We are also facing the growth of female combatants who have entered the military in many state armies and other political movements. In the United States cases of sexual harassment in the military pose serious questions about the equality of women in institutions that celebrate “masculinity cults” and create a hostile environment for women. Women in the military also pose interesting dilemmas for international humanitarian law. The treatment of women prisoners of war has not really engaged the attention of the international community. It may now be necessary to do so. For the first time the Rwanda Tribunal may find women guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. We hold no brief for them. Men or women who engage in acts of inhumanity must realize that the impunity must and will end and that the international community will move to ensure that civilian lives are protected.
Mr. Chairperson,
The problem of custodial violence against women is also an important one which reaches out to the conscience of the world. Custodial violence is perhaps the worst form of violence by the State when the so-called protector of citizens- the State- becomes the perpetrator of violence. This betrayal of trust and violence against those who are completely in their power, albeit for the reasons of interrogation, poses the most fundamental questions of human rights. Women are tortured in prisons throughout the world. They are raped, they are beaten, they are tied to fans upside down and taken for a “helicopter” treatment, their heads are immersed in water, their eyes have been filled with chili powder, and they have been subject to electric shock treatment, usually on their genitalia. These are just some of the creative ways in which state security forces engage in the art of cruelty. If human rights means anything, it must be cry halt to this kind of behaviour.
In recent times we have made some progress. Beginning with the Special Rapporteur on torture, rape in custody is increasingly being recognised as a form of torture. This was not the case earlier. A recent European Court judgement underscores the point that rape is not an act outside the framework of the Torture Convention but very much a form of torture which has been used to intimidate and degrade women prisoners. This somewhat self -evident proposition is increasingly being recognised in international human rights work and is an important landmark in the struggle for women’s rights as human rights.
States must be called upon to takes urgent measures to prevent custodial violence against women. They should be called upon to respect the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. Some countries realising the importance of this type of regulation of the security forces have introduced provisions in their legal system to deter this type of violence. In India for example, during cases of custodial sexual violence before the courts, there is a rebuttable presumption that the rape took place thus changing the evidentiary burden and forcing the police to argue that the rape did not take place. But these are exceptions. In the vast majority of cases, the police and the security forces do not like to prosecute one of their own. This factor which requires the security forces of a nation to be enlightened enough to bring to book those errant members from among themselves who have operated outside the framework of international human rights and humanitarian law is perhaps the most important aspect which will ensure whether there is justice for the victim and the accountability of perpetrators.
The need for states to recognise that custodial violence against women along with other human rights violations only delegitimises their moral authority to rule a modern nation state has not been adequately understood. State prosecution of errant members of its own security forces is the test of whether a State truly respects human rights or only pays lip service to human rights ideals.
Mr. Chairperson
The other aspect of violence by the State and during time of armed conflict which concerns us is the problem of refugees and the internally displaced. Increasingly gender based persecution is being recognised as a ground for refugee status under the Refugee Convention. This is a major breakthrough in the conceptual understanding of the problems women face and the reasons why they are fleeing their countries of origin. This understanding should be expanded and become one of the bulwarks of international humanitarian law.
In addition, refugees and displaced women who live in camps are subject to a great deal of abuse the world over. They are often subject to rape and sexual harassment by guards and other refugees. They are often separated from the male members of their families. They are subject to extortion either for sexual faviours or for money. In some camps brothels are run by male members right under the noses of the camp authorities. Women refugees lack the freedom of mobility, requiring to get a pass to leave the refugee camp and this is sometimes denied. Their basic needs are not always met. The calorific content of the food they are given is usually below the minimum requirement for healthy living. There are very few doctors they can go to attend to their medical needs. In most cases there are no gynecologists to help women with problems related to their reproductive system and there are not many psychologists to help them deal with the problem of trauma and depression.
Though organisations such as UNHCR have formulated excellent guidelines for the treatment of women refugees this is not being translated as a effective reality in many refugee camps around the world, especially those run by states. The internally displaced are even worse off and their problems have been clearly and coherently outlined by the Special representative on the Internally Displaced.
Mr Chairperson,
As part of my field visits linked to the problem of violence against women during times of armed conflict I made a field visit to Rwanda. The internationalcommunity must feel a collective shame at what happened in Rwanda in 1994. After 50 years of human rights, the fact that we sat back and watched as many innocent people were massacred will always be a black mark against the international community in general and the United Nations in particular. Violence against women during the genocide was horrific in extent and dimension. The most unimaginable things took place. It is absolutely necessary that the perpetrators of this genocide are brought to book and that the international community support the tribunal in Arusha and the national trials to ensure that this takes place. So far not one case of sexual violence has resulted in conviction. Only a few victims have actually come forward. Granting protection to victims with resettlement abroad may be one means of assisting this process. The international community should come forward to offer this protection or the women will be too frightened to be effective witnesses.
In addition, the Rwandan government must also recognise that even perpetrators of genocide are entitled to the protection of their human rights. This is a harsh but important truth. The conditions of women detainees in prisons and cachots is quite appalling and it is necessary that the government is supported in alleviating this situation given its lack of resources. The government has taken many initiatives to alleviate the suffering of women victims of violence. However, we are also convinced that long-term stability will only return to Rwanda if democracy and power sharing among the two major communities become a reality.
Though we welcome many of the initiatives taking place in Rwanda we were deeply concerned that not one of the U.N. agencies had programmes specifically related to violence against women. The insensitivity of UN agencies operating in Rwanda to the problem of violence against women must go on record.
Finally Mr. Chairman, Rwanda was a moving experience where the worst of human atrocities lived side by side with the hopes of its people. As a result I ended my report to this Commission with a poem written by a Rwandese woman expressing hope even in the midst of despair. The UN documentation office was quite horrified. No poems please they said this is the United Nations. Well, they can control my written word but not my oral speech. So I will end my presentation with a quotation from that beautiful poem. I hope the francophones in the audience will excuse my French pronunciation:
Approche-toi de moi mon frère,
Et donne-moi la main,
Brise ces barrières
Que notre ennemi commun
Adresse comme un défi.
Entre toi et moi,
Nous avons connu chacun
Des moments de misère,
Si tu me donnes la main
Le soleil se lèvera.
Approche-toi de moi mon frère
Et donne-moi la main.
Reports submitted by the Special Rapporteur on:
the question of violence against women (E/CN.4/1998/54)
Mission to Rwanda (E/CN.4/1998/54/Add.1)