WUNRN
EGYPT - AFRICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN
& PEOPLE'S RIGHTS HOLDS EGYPT ACCOUNTABLE FOR FAILING TO PROTECT WOMEN
DEMONSTRATORS
Egypt
held to account for failing to protect women demonstrators from sexual assault
- Commission tells Egyptian Government to compensate women as well as to
investigate the assaults and punish those responsible
14 March 2013 - The African
Commission on Human and People’s Rights has handed down a decision in a case
concerning violence against four women journalists during a protest. The
Commission found that the state of Egypt failed to protect four women
journalists from violence and in doing so violated their human rights including
rights to equality and non-discrimination, right to dignity and protection from
cruel inhuman and degrading treatment and their right to express and
disseminate opinions within the law. In an environment where sexual violence
continues to go unpunished in most member states of the African Union, this
decision makes a valuable contribution ensuring states are held to account when
they fail to protect women from violence. Hossam Bahgat, Executive Director of
the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights who worked on the case said “the
decision is a victory for women who face sexual violence and other forms of
political and social impediments while exercising their right to participate in
public life”. Sibongile Ndashe, a lawyer from Interights who worked on the case
hailed the decision as significant given that “for the first time in its 25
year history, the Commission has handed down a decision on the duty of states
to protect women from violence”.
The
facts
On
25 May 2005, the four women applicants in the case, Shaimaa Abou Al-Kheir,
Nawal Ali Mohammed Ahmed, Abir al-Askari and Iman Taha Kamel were present at
demonstrations organized by opposition movements to protest against
constitutional amendments that consolidated the authoritarian rule of ousted
President Mubarak. Sadly, Nawal Ali Mohammend Ahmed passed away in 2009. The
four women were all journalists. Some were attending the demonstration in their
professional capacity to report on events, others as concerned citizens
exercising their right to attend a demonstration. One applicant was only in the
area by coincidence as she was attending a language class. Police forces and
thugs operating in full view of the police clamped down on the protesters,
sexually assaulting the four women as well as other female protesters, tearing
their clothes, molesting and verbally abusing them. The women testified that
they were called ‘sluts’ and ‘whores’ as well as being touched inappropriately
on their breasts and private parts. The assailers warned the women not to
participate in similar political events.
Attempts
to seek domestic justice proved to be futile. The women lodged formal
complaints with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which refused to take the
testimony of several eyewitnesses and failed to conduct thorough independent
investigation. The women were later threatened, both by unidentified
individuals as well as, given the sexual nature of the violations the women
suffered, people within their social circles, to withdraw their complaints. At
the end of 2005, the Public Prosecutor’s Office announced its decision not to
prosecute.
In
May 2006, having been unable to secure redress for what had happened to them,
the women submitted a complaint to the African Commission. The women were
represented by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, together with
international human rights group Interights.
The
Commission found that the State had failed to protect the women from violence.
It found that the attacks were gender-specific and were therefore
discriminatory. In its decision, the Commission took into consideration that
the attacks were systematic and targeted at women, aiming to ‘keep women in
their place’ by denying them space to protest and express their political
opinions. In its decision, the Commission acknowledged that “the perpetrators
of the assaults seemed to be aware of the context of the Egyptian society; an
Arab Muslim society where a woman’s virtue is measured by keeping herself
physically and sexually unexposed…”
The
State had argued that the women had failed to provide the authorities with
required information and that their statements contained inconsistencies. The
Commission found that the violations perpetrated were palpable physically as
well as medically proven; the State did not need further information to proceed
with the investigations that should have brought the perpetrators to justice.
The Commission urged Egypt to hold an investigation and punish those
found responsible as well as to amend their laws to bring them in line with the
African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which Egypt ratified in 1984. The
Commission also called for each of the women to be compensated in the sum of EP
57,000 ($US 8,000) for the physical and emotional damage they suffered. The
Commission urged Egypt to ratify the Women’s Protocol to the African charter.
The decision comes at a very opportune moment. Egyptian women fighting for their rights for participation in public and political life continue to suffer from sexual violence by state and non-state actors. Egyptian authorities have continuously failed to take necessary steps to address sexual violence and discrimination against women which has so far led to an atmosphere of impunity for perpetrators. In September 2012, EIPR and Interights submitted a further complaint to the African Commission on military abuses against female protesters, including the carrying out of “virginity tests” in a military prison.