WUNRN
INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN
RIGHTS
SECOND REPORT ON THE SITUATION OF
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS IN THE AMERICAS
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WOMEN HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS - PP.
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B.
Women human rights defenders
280. At
the regional and global levels, women’s right to live free of violence
and
discrimination is universally recognized.575 Within the inter‐American system, the
States
have recognized and specifically codified in law that women victims of human
rights
violations
have a right of access to justice. One prominent example are the provisions of
the
“Convention of Belém do Pará,” which provides that every woman has the right to
be
free from
violence,576
to be
free from all forms of discrimination, and to be valued and
educated
free of stereotype patterns of behavior;577 the right to equal protection before
the law
and of the law, and the right to a simple and prompt recourse to competent
courts
when her
rights are violated.578
574 The
State reported that the objectives of the Agreement include: 1. develop
strategies that serve to
solve the
events; 2. to identify and punish the perpetrators of these violations and
anyone who aids and abets
them; 3. to
prevent crimes that violate union members’ human rights by adopting the
necessary interinstitutional,
national
and local programs and plans
575 The
fact that the Inter‐American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and
Eradication of
Violence
against Women (hereinafter the "Convention of Belém do Pará") has
been ratified by more States than
any other
instrument of the inter‐American system and that most States of this
hemisphere have also ratified the
Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
("CEDAW") and its optional protocol,
signals a
regional consensus to the effect that gender‐based violence is an open
and widespread problem
requiring
State action to ensure its prevention, investigation, punishment and redress.
IACHR, Access
to Justice
for
Women Victims of Violence in the Americas, paragraph 3 of the Executive Summary.
576 Article
3 of the Inter‐American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and
Eradication of
Violence
against Women, “Convention of Belém do Pará”.
577 Article
6 of the Inter‐American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and
Eradication of
Violence
against Women, “Convention of Belém do Pará.”
578 Article
4 of the Inter‐American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and
Eradication of
Violence
against Women, “Convention of Belém do Pará”.
281. All
women have a right to defend and promote human rights,579 including
the rights
of women. In its resolution AG/RES. 2579 (XL‐0/10), the OAS General
Assembly
recognized
the work that women human rights defenders are doing within the region and
resolved
to recognize that, in view of their gender‐specific role and needs and
the
particular
risks they face by virtue of the discrimination they have traditionally
suffered,
women
human rights defenders should be accorded special attention to ensure that they
are fully
protected and effective in carrying out their important activities.580
282. In
view of the perils that defenders of women’s rights face, as identified
by the
Commission, in its 2006 report the Commission recommended that the States of
the
region
“[g]uarantee in particular the security of women human rights defenders
whenever
they are
at risk of attack through specific mechanisms because of their gender, and to
undertake
measures to obtain recognition of the importance of their role within the
movement
to defend human rights.”581
283. In
various countries of the region, women defenders of women’s rights
continue
to be especially vulnerable to human rights violations when compared to other
groups of
human rights defenders. In addition to the discrimination that they suffer
because of
their traditional role in society and the gender stereotypes attached to women,
their
situation is made all the worse because the specific causes they champion
expose
them to
even greater peril.582
During
the follow‐up period, the IACHR has continued to
receive
numerous complaints of the violence that women defenders of women’s rights
suffer in
patriarchal communities, where they endure degrading social stereotypes of their
sex life
or are accused of undermining moral values or social institutions like the
family.583
284. The
vast majority of acts of violence committed against women go
unpunished,
which merely perpetuates such violence and social acceptance of the
phenomenon.
For example, during the in loco visit that the Rapporteurship for Women’s
Rights
made to Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, it was discovered that only 20% of the cases of
murdered
women had gone to trial and ended in a conviction.584 While the impunity
that
attends
the majority of cases of violence against women was already a matter of grave
579 Art. 7
of the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and
Organs of Society
to Promote
and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, March
1999. Available
at: http://www.unhchr.ch/huridocda/huridoca.nsf/(symbol)/a.res.53.144.en
580 OAS
General Assembly,
Human
Rights Defenders: Support for Individuals, Groups, and
Organizations
of Civil Society Working to Promote and Protect Human Rights in the Americas,
approved at the
plenary
session held on June 8, 2010.
581 IACHR, Report on the
Situation of Human Rights Defenders in the Americas, recommendation 7.
582 Ibid., para. 227.
583 Ibid., para. 228. See also
IACHR, Violence and Discrimination against Women in the Armed Conflict
in
Colombia, OEA/Ser.L/V/II. Doc. 67, October 18, 2006.
584 IACHR, Access to Justice
for Women Victims of Violence in the Americas, January 20, 2007,
para. 20;
IACHR, The Situation of
the Rights of Women in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico: the Right to Be Free from
Violence and
Discrimination,
OEA/Ser.L/V/II.117,
Doc. 44, March 7, 2003.
concern,
during the follow‐up to the 2006 report complaints were received
concerning
murders of
women human rights defenders who were killed for having been the driving
force
behind the criminal cases prosecuted against men who violated other women’s
rights.
Attacks of this kind not only affect the rights of the human rights defender in
question,
but also the role that women human rights defenders play within democratic
systems;
they also compound the problem of all the women victims of violence on whose
behalf the
women human rights defenders work.
The
IACHR has learned of various women human rights defenders who have been killed
in
the
state of Chihuahua, Mexico, in the quest for justice for the murders of other
women.
For
example, on December 16, 2010, Marisela Escobedo was killed outside the governor's
palace
in the state of Chihuahua, where she was campaigning for justice over the
violent
death
of her daughter, Rubí Marisol Frayre, who was killed in September 2008 at the
age
of 16.585 On January 6,
2011, Susana Chávez was killed; she had been active in the
campaign
to protest the murders of women in Ciudad Juárez.586 On February 25,
2011,
the
bodies of Malena Reyes and Luisa Ornelas were discovered. They had been missing
since
February 7, and had previously filed a complaint concerning the harassment of
their
family
in its quest for justice in the murder of their sister, Josefina Reyes,587 a human rights
defender
who had protested abuses by the military in Ciudad Juárez. She was murdered
on
January 3, 2010.588
285. The
IACHR has observed that the work of women human rights defenders
is
particularly difficult in countries that have experienced armed conflict or
widespread
violence.
National and regional women’s organizations active in these areas tend to
become
targets of harassment and threats by armed persons who regard the leadership
that these
women exercise as an obstacle to their social control of the territories they
occupy.589
585 IACHR,
Press Release 123/10, IACHR Condemns Murder of Human Rights Defender in Mexico,
Washington
D.C., December 21, 2010.
586 Amnesty
International, Repudia
Amnesty International Asesinato de la Activista Susana Chávez,
January 13,
2011. Available [in Spanish] at: http://www.amnistia.cl/web/ent%C3%A9rate/repudiaamnist%
C3%AD‐internacional‐asesinato‐de‐la‐activista‐susana‐ch%C3%A1vez
587 El
Universal, Hallan
muertos a hermanos Reyes, February 25, 2011. Available [in Spanish] at:
http://www.eluniversal.mx/notas/747693.html
588OMCT, México: Asesinato
de la Sra. Josefina Reyes, January 8, 2010. Available [in Spanish] at:
http://www.omct.org/es/human‐rights‐defenders/urgent‐interventions/mexico/2010/01/d20479/
589 IACHR,
Press Release 27/05 “The armed conflict aggravates the discrimination and
violence suffered
by
Colombian women. Washington D.C., July 25, 2005; IACHR, Report on the
Situation of Human Rights Defenders
in the
Americas, para.
230.
On
April 8, 2010, the IACHR granted precautionary measures for the members of the
Corporación
SISMA Mujer and two women that participate in a program coordinated by
that
organization, Tránsito Jurado and María Eugenia González and her minor
children,
who
had been subject to threats, harassment, and one act of violence, allegedly as
a
result
of their work.590
On
March 25, 2010, the IACHR granted precautionary measures for
14
women, leaders of the displaced community in Bogotá and that as a result of
these
activities,
they have been victims of sexual violence, physical attacks, threats, acts of
harassment.
Such measure was expanded on May 6, 2010, for Ana María Perea Incel,
member
of the Association of Afro Women for Peace and a participant in talks with the
government
of Colombia on the issue of the rights of the displaced population and who
was
threatened as a result of work.591
286. As it
underscored in its 2006 report, the IACHR is concerned over the
situation
of women defenders of indigenous and Afro‐descendant rights, who are
already
victims of
discrimination by virtue of their gender, their race and their ethnic origin.
The
dual
discrimination suffered by virtue of being a woman and either indigenous or
Afrodescendant,
is
compounded in the case of women who promote and defend women’s
rights.
They are exposed to ridicule and stigmatized not just by the broader community,
but also
by public officials and even their own communities.592
On July 20, 2010, the IACHR granted precautionary measures for Reina
Luisa Tamayo
Danger,593 mother of Orlando Zapata Tamayo in Cuba, one of the victims of
Case 12.476,
decided by the IACHR on October 21, 2006594 and
who died of starvation after 85 days of
hunger strike.595 The
request for precautionary measures alleges that the beneficiary was
suffering constant threats and acts of harassment, in light of
her involvement in various
public protests since the death of her son. The request further indicated
that she had been
590 PM
99/10 ‐ Tránsito Jurado, María Eugenia González, and Members of the
Corporación Sisma Mujer,
Colombia.
Available at: http://www.IACHR.org/medidas/2010.eng.htm
591 PM 1/10
– 14 Women in a Situation of Displacement, Colombia. Available at:
http://www.IACHR.org/medidas/2010.eng.htm
592 IACHR, Report on the
Situation of Human Rights Defenders in the Americas, para. 231. IACHR, Access
to
Justice for Women Victims of Violence in the Americas, para. 198 and 208.
593 The
Inter‐American Commission asked the State of Cuba to take the measures
necessary to
guarantee
the life and physical integrity of Reina Luisa Tamayo Danger, to arrange the
measures to be taken with
the
beneficiary and to report what measures it has taken to investigate the facts
that necessitated the adoption of
precautionary
measures.
594 In this
case, the IACHR recommended to the Cuban State that it order the immediate and
unconditional
release of all the victims, and overturn their convictions inasmuch as they were
based on laws that
unlawfully
restricted their human rights. The report also recommended that the necessary
measures be taken to
adapt
Cuba’s laws, procedures and practices to conform to international human rights
standards, that the victims
and their
next of kin be compensated for the pecuniary and non‐pecuniary damages
suffered as a result of the
violations
of the American Declaration established in the report, and that the Cuban State
take the necessary
steps to
prevent a recurrence of similar acts.
595 IACHR,
Press Release 22/10 dated February 26, 2010 ‐ IACHR Condemns Death of
Orlando Zapata in
Cuba.
Washington, D.C.
the victim of acts of violence, in which she allegedly was
beaten and one of her arms was
fractured. According to the testimony of Reina Luisa Tamayo Danger,
together with her
daughter and other members of the White Dames, she was beaten
when exiting the
Church of Santa Barbara (Parra neighborhood). She informed the IACHR
that while the
authorities were beating and kicking her, they were calling her “negra
de mierda” (fucking
negro).596
287.
During the follow‐up period, the Commission was informed of the way in
which
criminal law is used against women defenders of women’s rights. The institution
of
these
criminal cases is viewed as retaliation for the work they do that challenges
longstanding
social
concepts or stereotypes in the States. The prospect of prosecution has a
significant
chilling effect on defenders of sexual and reproductive rights, whose
activities
are even
prohibited in some countries. According to the information provided by civil
society
during the Commission’s 140th session, criminalization of women human rights
defenders
who promote therapeutic abortions is a pattern in Nicaragua, El Salvador and
Honduras,
where abortion, irrespective of the circumstances, is a criminal offense.597
During
its 140th session, the Commission received information on the situation of Ana
María Pizarro, Juanita Jiménez, Lorna Norori, Luisa Molina Arguello,
Marta María
Blandón, Martha Munguía, Mayra Sirias, Violeta Delgado and Yamileth
Mejía, nine
human rights defenders who were prosecuted in Nicaragua in 2007 for
the crime of
incitement to commit crime and conspiracy to commit crime. According
to the
information available, the criminal cases were brought because
the nine women human
rights defenders had taken measures to squire a nine‐year‐old girl through the process of
getting an abortion; the girl was pregnant as a result of being raped.
A number of
organizations expressed concern over the fact that criminal
cases had been brought
against the women human rights defenders because of their activities
to defend and
promote a woman’s human rights.598 According to what
the organizations reported, on
March
24 it was announced that the criminal cases instituted against the nine women
had
been
dismissed.599
288. The
IACHR has observed how human rights defenders must contend with
a number
of structural problems in order to promote equal protection of the law for
women
victims of violence and other human rights violations within the justice
systems.
596 Audio
presented by the Directorio Democrático Cubano, July 1, 2010. Taped by the
newspaper
La
Habana.
597 IACHR,
Hearing on the reproductive rights of women in Latin America and the Caribbean,
141st
Session,
March 28, 2011.
598 Amnesty
International, Amnesty International, Nine Women’s Rights Defenders. Available at:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/individuals‐at‐risk/write‐for‐rights/nine‐whrds; CENIDH, Urgent
action for political
persecution
against organizations that promote and defend human rights of children and
women in Nicaragua,,
http://www.cenidh.org/casodetalle.php?idinforme=30
599
International Federation of Human Rights, Desestimada la acusación contra
nueve defensoras de
derechos
humanos de las mujeres, April 8, 2010. Available [in Spanish] at: http://999.fidh.org/Desestimada‐laacusacion‐
contra‐nueve‐defensoras; Amnesty
International, Nine
Women’s Rights Defenders. Available at:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/individuals‐at‐risk/write‐for‐rights/nine‐whrds.
Examples
include the absence of institutions for the administration of justice in rural,
poor
and
marginalized areas; the lack of court‐appointed attorneys for victims of
violence who
are
without economic means; the lack of human and financial resources with which to
address
the persistent and structural problems; the institutional failings of the
public
prosecutors
offices and the police who investigate the crimes; and the lack of specialized
units
within the public prosecutors offices, the police and the courts, equipped with
the
technical
skills and specialized expertise required for such cases. Yet another important
obstacle
is that the data systems needed to compile statistics on incidents and cases of
violence
against women are scarce and are not coordinated with each other. Data systems
are
essential in order to be able to analyze possible causes and trends and to
evaluate the
response
of the justice system to acts of violence against women.600
289. One
very serious problem with which defenders of women’s rights must
contend
are the gender stereotypes engrained in the language and reasoning of the
officers
of the court and law enforcement personnel in charge of investigations into
violations
of women’s rights.601
These gender
stereotypes becomes both a cause and a
consequence
of the gender violence committed against women. The Inter‐American Court
has
written that the authorities’ use of gender stereotypes against women and the
resulting
inaction on the part of the State when investigating cases involving gender
violence,
perpetuates the very violence they are purportedly going after, and constitutes
discrimination
in terms of women’s access to justice.602
290.
Compounding the problem is the stigmatization and ostracism that
women who
have been victims of violence can suffer in their communities, and the
embarrassment
and shame they feel when having to report what happened. These can
become
serious obstacles to the cause of defending their human rights.603 The Commission
has
observed that, on occasion, women victims of human rights violations express
reservations
at the prospect of instituting court proceedings, which means that the victims’
own fear
can be a major complication for human rights defenders.604
600 IACHR, Access to Justice
for Women Victims of Violence in the Americas, para. 181.
601 The
Inter‐American Court has established that “the Tribunal finds that gender
stereotyping refers to
a
preconception of personal attributes, characteristics or roles that correspond
or should correspond to either
men or
women. […] the subordination of women can be associated with practices based on
persistent sociallydominant
gender
stereotypes, a situation that is exacerbated when the stereotypes are
reflected, implicitly or
explicitly,
in policies and practices and, particularly, in the reasoning and language of
the judicial police
authorities,
[…]. The creation and use of stereotypes becomes one of the causes and
consequences of genderbased
violence
against women.” I/A Court H.R., Case of González et al. (“Cotton Field”)
v. Mexico, Judgment
of
November
16, 2009. Series C No. 205, para. 401.
602 I/A
Court H.R., Case
of González y otras (“Cotton Field”) v. Mexico. Judgment of November
16, 2009.
Series C
No. 205, para. 400.
603 IACHR, Access to Justice
for Women Victims of Violence in the Americas, para. 179. See also IACHR,
Merits
Report No. 5/96, Raquel
Martín de Mejía (Peru),
March 1, 1996.
604 IACHR, Access to Justice
for Women Victims of Violence in the Americas, para. 204.
291. In
some States, the justice system itself may have serious problems and
handicaps
when it comes to processing and recording data on cases involving violence
against
women. With such problems and handicaps, the full dimensions of the problem of
violence
against women cannot be grasped.605 Then, too, a number of countries in the
region
reportedly do not have personnel trained in gender issues so that they are able
to
perform
their functions with the due diligence and sensitivity required in cases
involving
violence
against women; those countries that do have public prosecutors, units and
courts
that
specialize in the investigation and prosecution of cases involving violence
against
women
often do not have the human, technical and financial resources they need to
perform
their functions.606
In
some areas, the widespread belief is that violence against
women is
essentially a private matter.607 Such attitudes and behaviors on the part of the
officers
of the court, law enforcement and society in general, are difficult obstacles
for
women who
defend women’s rights.
The
Commission has identified a number of structural obstacles that make it
difficult for
indigenous
women whose rights have been violated to get access to justice in Guatemala.
The
Commission
has expressed concern over the fact that the officers of the court lack any
understanding
of the various cultural differences associated with the indigenous
languages;
the majority of the officers of the court are monolinguals and the translations
of
judicial proceedings are incomplete. According to the information the IACHR has
available,
evidence is difficult to obtain, and the judicial proceedings are long, costly
and
exhausting
for the women victims of violence, most of whom live in extreme poverty.
Then,
too, indigenous women frequently have no identification papers. Geography, too,
can
become a factor limiting access to judicial protection. While all this is
disturbing
enough,
there are problems within the indigenous peoples themselves, which tend to deny
indigenous
women’s rights, making indigenous women mistrustful of the justice system’s
ability
to remedy what was done to them.608