WUNRN
Human Rights Watch
INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION RULES ON
US DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CASE
August 18, 2011 - Also available in Spanish on website
The
commission’s decision affirms that the government’s responsibility to protect
families from abuse amounts to more than issuing a piece of paper. A
restraining order to prevent this kind of horrific violence is meaningless if a
woman calls the police seven times and her calls go unheeded.
Meghan
Rhoad, women’s rights researcher
(New York) – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has ruled that
the United
States violated international obligations when the government failed to
enforce a restraining order against an abusive husband, Human Rights Watch said
today. The couple’s daughters were found dead with gunshot wounds in the back
of the husband’s truck in Colorado in 1999.
The US should move quickly to adopt the commission’s recommendations, issued on
August 17, 2011, for improving the country’s response to domestic violence,
Human Rights Watch said.
“The commission’s decision affirms that the government’s responsibility to
protect families from abuse amounts to more than issuing a piece of paper,”
said Meghan Rhoad, women’s
rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “A restraining order to prevent this
kind of horrific violence is meaningless if a woman calls the police seven
times and her calls go unheeded.”
Jessica Lenahan (previously Jessica Gonzales) called the police in Castle Rock,
Colorado, seven times over seven hours after her estranged husband, Simon
Gonzales, abducted her three daughters, ages 7, 8, and 10, on June 22, 1999.
Despite the fact that Lenahan had a restraining order against her husband, the
police took no action. Early the following morning, Simon Gonzales drove up to
the police station in his pickup truck and began shooting. The police shot
back, killing him. Police then found the slain bodies of the three girls in the
back of the truck.
In reviewing the case, the commission found that the US failed to act with due
diligence to protect Lenahan and her daughters from domestic violence,
violating the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, which
provides protections against gender discrimination and equal protection before
the law. The government’s failures also violated the daughters’ right to life
and Lenahan’s right to judicial protection, the commission said.
In addition to recommending a thorough investigation of the Colorado case and
reparations for Lenahan, the commission outlined specific steps the government
should take to meet its human rights obligations. These include making
enforcement of protection orders mandatory, adopting legislation with
protection measures for children in domestic violence situations, and
undertaking training programs for public officials on domestic violence
prevention and response.
Before it was heard by the commission, the case went before the US Supreme
Court, which ruled in June 2005 that Lenahan did not have a constitutional
right to the enforcement of the restraining order against her husband.