WUNRN
IRCT - INTERNATIONAL REHABILITATION
COUNCIL FOR TORTURE VICTIMS
WOMEN & TORTURE STATEMENT
Commemorating International
Women's Day 2008
This 8 March, the IRCT supports efforts to strengthen torture
protection for women and girls and to ensure that rehabilitation and reparation
programmes are tailored to meet the specific needs of female torture victims.
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Globally, it is estimated that one in three women and girls will be a victim of violence in her lifetime. In particular, sexualized violence such as rape, the threat of rape, forced impregnation and other sexual abuses can amount to torture as defined under the United Nations Convention against Torture Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Due to their often marginalised status, women and girls may be especially vulnerable to torture and other forms of ill-treatment. Torture harms a victim's body and mind, impairs sexual identity, provokes social rejection, stigmatizes victims, and creates suffering not only for individuals, but entire communities. Women of all ages, ethnic groups and social classes may be subjected to torture – particularly while in custody or in situations of armed conflict.
In celebration of International Women’s Day 2008, the IRCT joins UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Prof. Manfred Nowak in arguing for a torture protection framework that strengthens the protection of women from torture. As Prof. Nowak has written, “While a variety of international instruments explicitly or implicitly provide for an extensive set of obligations with respect to violence against women or rape, classifying an act as ‘torture’ carries a considerable additional stigma for the State and reinforces legal implications, which include the strong obligation to criminalize acts of torture, to bring perpetrators to justice and to provide reparation to victims.”
Moreover, the IRCT argues that rehabilitation and reparation programmes must be gender-inclusive and seek to reduce stigma and re-traumatisation of female victims of torture and sexual violence. This includes training personnel in gender-sensitive methods of investigating and documenting allegations of torture and ensuring access to medical services that focus on the psychological trauma caused by sexual torture. States also should allocate sufficient resources for the support and rehabilitation of torture victims. Furthermore, specific treatment and research facilities are needed for victims of rape and universities should be encouraged to establish specific expert centres on acute rape victims.
Violence against women and girls constitutes a human rights violation and should be criminalised under all circumstances, as part of the commitment to eradicate torture worldwide.
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