For
Many Women,
Home Is
A Place Of
Terror
Amnesty International
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The torture of women and girls persists on a daily basis across the globe,
Amnesty International said on Wednesday in a new report on the torture of
women worldwide, Broken bodies, shattered minds.
"It is fed by a global culture which denies women equal rights with men, and
which legitimises violence against women", Amnesty International said in a
statement.
"The perpetrators are agents of the state and armed groups, but most often
they are members of their own family, community or employers. For many
women, their home is a place of terror." The report, part of Amnesty
International's global Campaign Against Torture, urges governments to
commit themselves to protecting women and girls from torture. Governments
which systematically fail to take action to prevent and protect women from
violence in the home and community share responsibility for torture and
ill-treatment, Amnesty argues.
"States have a duty under international law to prohibit and prevent torture
and to respond to instances of torture in all circumstances", the report says.
"However, all too often, far from providing adequate protection to women,
governments have connived in these abuses, have covered them up, have
acquiesced in them and have allowed them to continue unchecked."
Violence in the home 'is universal' According to World Bank figures, at least
20% of women have been physically or sexually assaulted. Official reports in
the US say a women is battered every 15 seconds and 700 000 are raped
each year.
In India, Amnesty International reports, more than 40% of married women
reported being kicked, slapped or sexually abused for reasons such as their
husbands' dissatisfaction with their cooking or cleaning, jealousy or other
motives. In Egypt, 35% of women reported being beaten by their husbands.
Domestic workers especially vulnerable Some groups of women are
particularly vulnerable to torture and ill-treatment and face multiple
discrimination, Amnesty's report notes. They are not only tortured because
they are women but also on the grounds of race, ethnicity, sexual
orientation, social status, class and age.
"Many domestic workers are foreign nationals who are frequently ill- treated
by their employers. They are unlikely to be able to obtain redress because
of their immigration status."
The report cites the case of Nasiroh, a young Indonesian woman went to
work in Saudi Arabia in 1993. She told Amnesty International that she was
sexually abused by her employer, falsely accused of his murder and then
tortured and sexually abused by police officers during two years'
incommunicado detention.
"Officials from her embassy did not visit her once. Her trial was so cursory
that she did not know she had been convicted and she still has no idea for
what 'crime' she was imprisoned for five years", the report says.
'Honour crimes' "Honour crimes", such as torture and killing, are reported
from several countries including Iraq, Jordan, Pakistan and Turkey,
according to the Amnesty report.
"Girls and women of all ages are accused of bringing shame on their families
and their communities by their behaviour - ranging from chatting to a male
neighbour to sexual relations outside of marriage", the report notes. "The
mere perception that a woman has damaged a family's honour can lead to
torture and ill-treatment."
Trafficking in human beings Women who have been bought and sold for
forced labour, sexual exploitation and forced marriage are also vulnerable to
torture, Amnesty says.
"Trafficking in human beings is the third-largest source of profit for
international organised crime after drugs and arms. Trafficked women are
particularly vulnerable to physical violence, including rape, unlawful
confinement, confiscation of identity papers and enslavement."
Women singled out during armed conflicts Women are frequently singled out
for torture in armed conflicts because of their role as educators and as
symbols of the community, the report says.
"Tutsi women in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and Muslim, Serb, Croat and
ethnic Albanian women in the former Yugoslavia, were tortured because they
were women of a particular ethnic, national or religious group."
Obstacles to getting redress Women who have been tortured can face many
obstacles in seeking redress, Amnesty reports, including police indifference,
failure to define abuses as criminal offences, gender bias in the courts, and
legal procedures which hamper fair criminal prosecution.
"Ms G was traded by her parents to a neighbour as a wife when she was 15
in exchange for his assistance in paying off the mortgage on their farm in El
Salvador. Her husband routinely raped and beat her, resulting in injuries
which required hospitalisation.
"Ms G went to the police twice for protection, but was told her problem was
personal. She ran away with her two children when she was 20 but her
parents and husband found her. Her mother held her down while her
husband beat her with a stick. Ms G fled to the US and applied for asylum
and has been told she will be deported."
The case of 'K' In another case cited in the report, "K", from the Democratic
Republic of Congo, was married to an army officer who regularly tortured her
often in front of their children. He repeatedly raped her, infecting her with
sexually transmitted diseases and frequently threatened to kill her with a
gun.
During one incident, he knocked out a tooth, dislocated her jaw and
punched her in the eye so hard that she required several stitches and had
continued problems with her nose, neck, head, spinal column, hip and foot.
"K", who finally sought asylum in the US, said it was futile to approach the
police, both because of her husband's connections to the ruling family but
also because "women are nothing in the Congo". A US immigration judge
characterised the abuses she had suffered as "atrocities", but denied her
application for asylum, a decision upheld by the immigration appeal court.
Police inaction In many parts of the world, police routinely fail to investigate
abuses reported by women and frequently send abused women back home
into abusive situations rather than file complaints, Amnesty reports.
"A study in Thailand found that police usually advised women to reconcile
with their violent partners and women have to bribe police to pursue the
complaints. Globally, only 27 countries have legislated specifically against
rape in marriage.
"If a woman in Pakistan fails to prove she didn't consent to sexual relations
with a man, she can be accused of zina (fornication), an offence punishable
by stoning to death or public flogging.
"In some countries, women cannot got to court in person - their male
relatives are supposed to represent their interests. Women in Saudi Arabia
who leave their home to seek help from the police run the risk of arrest for
being in public unaccompanied by a male relative.
Time for governments to act It is high time that governments recognised that
violence in the home and community is not a private matter, but involves
state responsibility, Amnesty argues.
"International standards clearly lay down that states have a duty to ensure
that no one is subjected to torture or ill-treatment anywhere or by anyone,"
the organisation says. "If states neglect this responsibility, they share the
responsibility for the suffering they have failed to prevent." Amnesty
International's report sets out detailed and achievable recommendations to
governments, including: Public condemnation of violence against women;
Criminalising violence against women; Investigating all allegations; and
Prosecuting and punishing the perpetrators.
Those wishing to register support for the Campaign Against Torture can visit
www.stoptorture.org.