WUNRN
SPECIAL
RAPPORTEUR ON FORMS OF SLAVERY SAYS WOMEN & GIRLS FORCED TO MARRY SPEND
LIFE IN SLAVERY
29 November 2012 - GENEVA – “Women and girls who are forced
to marry find themselves in servile marriages for the rest of their lives,”
warned United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery,
Gulnara Shahinian, in a statement to commemorate the International Day for the
Abolition of Slavery, which is celebrated on 2 December. “They are deprived of
their genuine right to make their own choice for their future.”
“As if this is not bad enough these women and girls experience, sometimes
daily, other human rights violations such as domestic servitude and sexual
slavery, and suffer from violations to their right to health, education,
non-discrimination and freedom from physical, psychological and sexual
violence,” Ms. Shahinian stressed, quoting her 2012 report* to the United
Nations General Assembly on servile marriages.
Non-consensual marriages, sale of wives and wife inheritance are forms of
servile marriages which reduce a spouse to a person over whom any or all of the
powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised. The 1956 United
Nations Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade,
and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery clearly defines them as
slavery practices, and international law has further reiterated and reinforced
the provisions within the Convention that prohibit forced marriages in adults
and children.
“Nothing can justify these forms of slavery; not traditional, religious,
cultural, economic or even security considerations,” the human rights expert
underscored, noting that, over the years, the idea that forced marriages are
forms of slavery and, therefore, servile marriages has been lost, while
non-consensual marriages, sale of wives and wife inheritance still occur.
For the United Nations Special Rapporteur, reaffirming forced marriages as
slavery-like practices “moves the discussion from being just about the rights
of women and girls to also being about abolishing slavery within communities.”
In her view, it provides an understanding of the violations that victims endure
and the kind of interventions required to prevent, monitor and prosecute
servile marriage, and helps tailor victim protection programmes to specifically
support victims of servile marriages.
“As with all forms of slavery, in order to tackle this problem head on, servile
marriages should be criminalized,” Ms. Shahinian said. “However, it is
important to note that an approach which only focuses on criminalization cannot
succeed in effectively combating servile marriages.”
Such legislation, the rights expert stressed, should go hand in hand with
community programmes to help detect, provide advice, rehabilitation, education
and shelter where necessary. Programmes and policies should also ensure the
equal access to education for girls reinforced by mandatory measures to ensure
that girls go to school. Public awareness raising campaigns should be
implemented to highlight the nature and harm caused by forced and early
marriages.
“Women and girls should not be forced to marry. Women and girls should not be
forced to spend their life time in slavery. Nothing can justify that,” Ms.
Shahinian said.
(*) Check the expert’s report to the UN General Assembly on servile
marriages: http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G12/151/67/PDF/G1215167.pdf?OpenElement
Gulnara Shahinian was appointed as the first Special Rapporteur on
contemporary forms of slavery, its causes and consequences in May 2008. She is
a lawyer with extensive experience as an expert consultant for various UN, EU,
Council of Europe, OSCE and government bodies on children’s rights, gender,
migration and trafficking. Ms Shahinian is also a former trustee of the UN
Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary forms of Slavery. Learn more, log on to: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Slavery/SRSlavery/Pages/SRSlaveryIndex.aspx
The Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave
Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/slavetrade.htm
For additional information and media requests, please contact Elizabeth
Wabuge (+41 22 917 9138 / ewabuge@ohchr.org)
or write to srslavery@ohchr.org