WUNRN
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16124&LangID=E
UN Special Rapporteur Violence Against Women Urges States to Agree
to Specific Legal Obligations to Fight Gender Violence
Geneva – 22 June 2015 – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on
violence against women, Rashida Manjoo, called for the creation of a legally
binding framework on violence against women and girls within the United Nations
human rights system, to ensure State accountability.
“It is
time to consider the development and adoption of a United Nations binding
international instrument on violence against women and girls, with its own
dedicated monitoring body,” Ms. Manjoo said during the presentation of her last
report* to the UN Human Rights Council.
“Such an
instrument should ensure that States are held accountable to standards that are
legally binding, it should provide a clear normative framework for the
protection of women and girls globally and should have a specific monitoring
body to substantively provide in-depth analysis of both general and
country-level developments,” she stated.
Ms. Manjoo
noted that the specific monitoring body would also serve an educative function
in the quest to protect against and prevent all manifestations of violence
against women and girls.
The
Special Rapporteur explained that transformative change requires that the words
and actions of States reflect an acknowledgement that violence against women is
a human rights violation, in and of itself. “More importantly,” she said, “it
requires a commitment by States to be bound by specific legal obligations in
the quest to prevent and eliminate such violence.”
“I believe
that an international legally binding instrument would ensure that States are
held accountable to standards that are legally binding,” she stressed.
“Furthermore, it would also provide a clear normative framework for the
protection of women and girls globally.”
In her
report, the expert provides an overview of the legally binding provisions,
implementing mechanisms and relevant jurisprudence regarding violence against
women in three regional human rights systems: the African, European and
Inter-American systems.
“While the
three regional human rights systems are to be commended for having developed
legally binding instruments on women’s rights and/or violence against women and
set up, or being on the eve of setting up, monitoring mechanisms, their
effectiveness is uneven and some face specific challenges,” Ms. Manjoo noted,
expressing concern for the lack of or minimal development within other regions
of the world.
She also
highlights that in order for the regional systems to reinforce universal human
rights standards, as contained in international human rights instruments, a
legally binding framework on violence against women and girls is essential
within the United Nations system.
“The
thematic work I have undertaken on the regional systems has reinforced the
concern I had expressed previously in relation to the lack of a legally binding
international instrument specifically on violence against women and girls,” she
explained.
“This
thematic report bolsters the call I made last year before both the Human Rights
Council and the General Assembly for undertaking an inquiry into the normative
gap under international law, in the quest to further strengthen efforts to
eliminate violence against women,” the Special Rapporteur said.
(*) Check the
Special Rapporteur’s report (A/HRC/29/27): http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session29/Pages/ListReports.aspx
Ms.
Rashida Manjoo (South Africa) was appointed Special Rapporteur on Violence
against women, its causes and consequences in June 2009 by the UN Human Rights
Council. Ms. Manjoo is a Professor in the Department of Public Law of the
University of Cape Town. Learn more, visit: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/SRWomen/Pages/SRWomenIndex.aspx
The
Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the
Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent
experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the independent
fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms of the Human Rights Council that address
either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the
world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN
staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any
government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.The Special
Rapporteur also reported on the three country visits that she undertook in the
last year to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
(A/HRC/29/27/Add.2), Honduras (A/HRC/29/27/Add.1) and Afghanistan
(A/HRC/29/27/Add.3): http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session29/Pages/ListReports.aspx
For
further information and media requests, please contact Karin
Hechenleitner Schacht (+41 22 917 9636 / khechenleitner@ohchr.org)