WUNRN
Judges in the
spotlight
Women’s
Link Worldwide
announces the winners of the 5th edition of the Gender Justice
Uncovered Awards highlighting the court decisions that most advance or set back
gender equality.
June 18,
2013 – The winning
decisions for the Gender
Justice Uncovered Awards were announced today. These Awards were created by
the international organization Women’s Link Worldwide to identify the best and
worst court rulings on gender equality issues. Every year, these Awards promote
civil society’s involvement in monitoring the performance of judges worldwide
who are charged with protecting the human rights of all without distinction.
For more information on the Gender Justice Uncovered Awards you can watch this video.
In this 5th
edition of the Awards, 41 decisions from 24 countries were nominated,
including Argentina, Brazil, Botswana, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, the United
States, France, Ghana, Guatemala, Solomon Islands, Maldives, Mexico, Peru,
Dominican Republic, Rumania, Somalia, and more.
The jury
charged with selecting the winning decisions for the Gavel and Bludgeon
categories this year included Jody Williams (USA), 1997 Nobel Peace
Prize laureate for her work as founder and coordinator of the
International Campaign to Ban Landmines; Elizabeth Odio-Benito (Costa
Rica), former Judge and Vice President of the International Criminal Court, and
Charles Ngwena (Zimbabwe), professor and staff member of the Center for
Human Rights of the University of Pretoria, South Africa, an expert in sexual
and reproductive rights and the rights of the people with disabilities
Bludgeon
Awards: Winning Decisions
(Judicial
decisions that set back gender equality)
The
Bronze Bludgeon
goes to Argentina’s Oral Criminal Tribunal, which reduced a man’s
sentence because the judges found he acted “in the heat of passion” when he
intentionally burned his wife by soaking her with alcohol and setting her on
fire. It is appalling that judges attempt to justify this severe form of
violence.
The
Silver Bludgeon
goes to the Supreme Court of Spain, which shortened the suspension time of a
member of the armed forces who assaulted his wife. The Court found that his
military honors and his participation in the peacekeeping mission in
Afghanistan, where the use of force is commonplace, had not been taken into
account. The judges’ attempt to justify this type of violence is unacceptable.
The
Golden Bludgeon
is awarded to the Court of Mogadishu, Somalia, for imposing a prison
sentence on a woman who reported having been raped by members of the National
Police. According to the Court, medical examinations showed that the woman had
not been raped, and that her claim therefore sullied the honor of a state
institution. This case sadly represents the impunity that exists when members
of the armed forces commit gender based crimes. .
Gavel
Awards: Winning Decisions
(Judicial
decisions that advance gender equality)
The
Bronze Gavel goes
to the High Court of Botswana for abolishing a customary law that denied
inheritance rights to women. The judge wrote in his decision that “it seems
that the time has now arisen for the justices of this court to assume the role
of the judicial midwives and assist in the birth of a new world of equality
between men and women as envision by the framers of the Constitution.”
The
Silver Gavel is
awarded to the European Court of Human Rights for its ruling against
Poland, in which the judges found that the lack of a legal framework
guaranteeing the effective access to abortion in cases allowed by law
constituted a violation of privacy rights. The case was brought before the ECHR
by a girl who became pregnant after she was raped and by her mother.
This year’s Golden
Gavel award recognizes the decision of the Supreme Court of Ghana,
which held that a woman’s domestic labors, childcare, and care of her husband
are key contributions to the economic growth of the marriage, which justifies
an equitable division of property at the time of divorce. The judges also
stated that “women are not donkeys” to be thrown away without regard to
their rights as human beings after they contribute helpful and valuable
services.
“People’s
Choice” Awards
Just as
anyone may nominate those decisions that promote or set back gender equality,
anyone may vote for their favorite to get the People’s Choice Award on our web
site. This year, a total of 14,597 people’s
votes were tallied. The decisions that
received the most votes and won each category (Gavel and Bludgeon) are the
following:
With an
overwhelming number of votes, the People’s
Choice Gavel Award goes to the Electoral Tribunal of Ecuador,
which suspended the political rights of a Christian pastor and fined him for
his homophobic statements during the recent presidential election. After
reviewing several rules of international human rights law, the judge found that
Pastor Zavala’s statements were discriminatory, noting that sexual orientation
is a right protected by the Ecuadorian Constitution.
The People’s
Choice Bludgeon Award, goes to the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico,
which found that the legal prohibition of adoption by same-sex couples was not
discriminatory.
“The
Awards empower people everywhere with a mechanism for monitoring the work
judges in their obligation to guarantee human rights in their application
of the law, permitting us to denounce bad practices wherever they occur and
applaud whenever human dignity is defended and protected,” says Glenys de Jesús, Director of the Gender
Justice Observatory.