UN expert urges States to agree to specific legal
obligations to fight violence against women and girls
GENEVA (22 June 2015) – The United Nations Special
Rapporteur on violence against women, Rashida Manjoo, called for the creation
of a legally binding framework on violence against women and girls within the
United Nations human rights system, to ensure State accountability.
“It is time to consider the development and adoption of a
United Nations binding international instrument on violence against women and
girls, with its own dedicated monitoring body,” Ms. Manjoo said during the
presentation of her last report* to the UN Human Rights Council.
“Such an instrument should ensure that States are held
accountable to standards that are legally binding, it should provide a clear
normative framework for the protection of women and girls globally and should
have a specific monitoring body to substantively provide in-depth analysis of
both general and country-level developments,” she stated.
Ms. Manjoo noted that the specific monitoring body would
also serve an educative function in the quest to protect against and prevent
all manifestations of violence against women and girls.
The Special Rapporteur explained that transformative
change requires that the words and actions of States reflect an acknowledgement
that violence against women is a human rights violation, in and of itself.
“More importantly,” she said, “it requires a commitment by States to be bound
by specific legal obligations in the quest to prevent and eliminate such
violence.”
“I believe that an international legally binding
instrument would ensure that States are held accountable to standards that are
legally binding,” she stressed. “Furthermore, it would also provide a clear
normative framework for the protection of women and girls globally.”
In her report, the expert provides an overview of the
legally binding provisions, implementing mechanisms and relevant jurisprudence
regarding violence against women in three regional human rights systems: the
African, European and Inter-American systems.
“While the three regional human rights systems are to be
commended for having developed legally binding instruments on women’s rights
and/or violence against women and set up, or being on the eve of setting up,
monitoring mechanisms, their effectiveness is uneven and some face specific
challenges,” Ms. Manjoo noted, expressing concern for the lack of or minimal
development within other regions of the world.
She also highlights that in order for the regional
systems to reinforce universal human rights standards, as contained in
international human rights instruments, a legally binding framework on violence
against women and girls is essential within the United Nations system.
“The thematic work I have undertaken on the regional
systems has reinforced the concern I had expressed previously in relation to
the lack of a legally binding international instrument specifically on violence
against women and girls,” she explained.
“This thematic report bolsters the call I made last year
before both the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly for undertaking
an inquiry into the normative gap under international law, in the quest to
further strengthen efforts to eliminate violence against women,” the Special
Rapporteur said.
(*) Check the Special Rapporteur’s report
(A/HRC/29/27):
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session29/Pages/ListReports.aspx
ENDS
Ms. Rashida Manjoo (South Africa) was appointed Special
Rapporteur on Violence against women, its causes and consequences in June 2009
by the UN Human Rights Council. Ms. Manjoo is a Professor in the Department of
Public Law of the University of Cape Town. Learn more, visit:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/SRWomen/Pages/SRWomenIndex.aspx
The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the
Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest
body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name
of the independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms of the Human Rights
Council that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in
all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis;
they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are
independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual
capacity.
The Special Rapporteur also reported on the three country
visits that she undertook in the last year to the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland (A/HRC/29/27/Add.2), Honduras (A/HRC/29/27/Add.1)
and Afghanistan (A/HRC/29/27/Add.3): http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session29/Pages/ListReports.aspx
For further information and media requests, please
contact Karin Hechenleitner Schacht (+41 22 917 9636 /
khechenleitner@ohchr.org)
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experts:
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9383 / xcelaya@ohchr.org)
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