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ADULTERY SHOULD NOT BE A CRIMINAL
OFFENCE - UN EXPERT GROUP ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS
GENEVA (18 October 2012) – The United Nations Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice urged Governments to repeal laws which criminalize adultery and give rise to punishments ranging from the imposition of fines to flogging and death by stoning, or hanging.
“Adultery
must not be classified as a criminal offence at all,” stressed independent
expert Kamala Chandrakirana, who currently heads the UN expert body charged
with identifying ways to eliminate laws that discriminate against women or are
discriminatory to them in terms of implementation or impact, and helping States
to ensure greater empowerment for women in all fields.
In a
statement* made public at the end of the Group’s fifth session in Geneva, the
experts recognized that in accordance with some traditions, customs and
different legal systems, adultery may constitute a civil offence with legal
consequences in divorce cases, in respect of the custody of children or the
denial of alimony, amongst others.
“However, it
should not be a criminal offence and must not be punishable by fine, imprisonment,
flogging, or death by stoning or hanging,” Ms. Chandrakirana said, noting that
in many countries, adultery continues to be a crime punishable with severe
penalties. “Provisions in penal codes often do not treat women and men equally
and establish harsher sanctions for women, and in some countries, rules of
evidence value women’s testimony as half that of a man’s.”
The group of
experts warned that maintaining adultery as a criminal offence -even when it
applies to both women and men - means in practice that women mainly will
continue to face extreme vulnerabilities, and violation of their human rights
to dignity, privacy and equality, given continuing discrimination and
inequalities faced by women.
“The
criminalization of sexual relations between consenting adults is a violation of
their right to privacy and infringement of the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights, as established almost two decades ago by international
human rights jurisprudence,” Ms. Chandrakirana said. “States parties to the
Covenant are obliged to ensure that domestic norms take account of developments
in international law.”
In their
statement, the experts noted that some States have remedied this violation of
women’s rights, recalling a 1996 decision of the Guatemalan Constitutional
Court which struck down the Penal Code’s punishment of marital infidelity or
adultery on the basis both of the Constitution’s equality guarantees and human
rights treaties including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women. Similarly, in 2007, the Ugandan Constitutional
Court overturned the adultery law that penalized women for adultery while
leaving their male partners unpunished.
“We urge all
Governments which retain criminalization of adultery and allow the imposition
of fines, imprisonment, flogging, death by stoning or hanging for convictions
of adultery, to repeal any such provisions and to ensure that all accused enjoy
their rights to a fair trial,” Ms. Chandrakirana underscored.
The Working
Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice was
established by the Human Rights Council in 2010 to identify ways to eliminate
existing discrimination in law and practice, and helping States to ensure
greater empowerment and autonomy for women in all fields. The Group is
currently composed of four independent human rights experts: Kamala
Chandrakirana, Chair-Rapporteur (Indonesia); Emna Aouij (Tunisia); Frances
Raday (Israel/United Kingdom) and Eleonora Zielinska (Poland). They are
independent from any government or organization, and serve in their individual
capacities.
(*) Read the full
statement: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=12672&LangID=E
Learn more
about the mandate and activities of the Working Group, log on: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/WGWomen/Pages/WGWomenIndex.aspx
Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/ccpr.htm
Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against women: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cedaw.htm