Latin America – Femicide – Serious Problem – Experts Event Report
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: July 8, 2013
WUNRN
Heinrich Boell Experts Meeting –
October 8, 2012
LATIN AMERICA FEMICIDE:”Gender-Related Murder of Women” in
Latin America: Pressing Problem Which Needs to Be Tackled Now!
1 Guest
speakers were: Francisco Acosta, Deputy Head of Division, Regional
Affairs, European External Action Service (EEAS), Rashida Manjoo, United
Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against women (UNSR), and members of
Civil Society Organizations (CIDSE, ALOP, OIDHACO, CIFCA, Amnesty
International, Oxfam-Solidarité, etc). The event was held under Chatham House
rule. The opinions expressed are not necessarily ours.
“Gender-related killings of women” is the expression that
Rashida Manjoo, United Nations Special Rapporteur (UNSR) on Violence Against
Women (VaW), has chosen for her 2012 report2
to name the most “extreme manifestation of existing forms of
VaW”. Feminicide is the term Latin Americans (LA) and some European
countries are using to refer to these crimes. Following Rashida Manjoo’s report
“these manifestations are reaching alarming proportions all around the
world where they continue to be accepted, tolerated or justified – with
impunity as the norm”.
LA countries have made different efforts to fight against feminicide.
Some have reformed their criminal laws to include feminicide as a specific
crime and increase the penalty for such murders. Some have initiated preventive
programmes to take into account the gender discrimination that cause such
crimes or action plans to tackle the problem in a more holistic way. Parallel
to this, the European Parliament, the Council and the EU External Action
Service have expressed their political willingness to support LA countries to
fight against feminicide. Moreover, the EU has developed some instruments to
try to implement this willingness but despite the progress that has been made,
the remaining challenges are huge and the situation on the ground is pressing.
What are Rashida Manjoo’s assessments and recommendations about the
situation in LA? How effective are the EU instruments such as the EU Guidelines
on VaW and Girls, the EIDHR, the political and Human Rights dialogues as well
as the bilateral- regional cooperation? And what are the EU challenges? How
could the EU support to the LA countries to make eradication of VaW be more
effective? Especially in those countries where the implementation of the due
diligence obligations by the State is week?
Femicide/ feminicide (both in Europe and Latin America) refers
to the killing of women because of their sex and/or gender and constitutes the
most extreme form of violence against women. As such, gender-related killings
of women form the most violent manifestation of discrimination and inequality
against women.
It results in clear violations of the most fundamental human rights of
women, including the right to life, freedom from torture and the right to a
life free of violence and discrimination. Feminicide is a global phenomenon
and, as highlighted by the Secretary General of the United Nations3, it takes place in many contexts, both the
private and the public spheres, including intimate partner violence, armed
conflict, dowry disputes or the protection of family „honor‟. Such
killings are not isolated incidents which arise suddenly and unexpectedly,
these are the ultimate acts experienced in a continuum of violence.
3 Report
of the Secretary-General, In-depth study on all forms of violence against
women, A/61/122/Add.1, para. 84.
While feminicide is the crime of killing women and girls for reasons related
to their gender and their subordinate position in society, feminicide is
considered a State crime. Either by action or omission, feminicide has been
tolerated by public institutions and officials due to the inability to prevent,
protect and guarantee the lives of women who have consequently experienced
multiple forms of discrimination and violence throughout their lifetime.
Gender-related killings of women are often the final and the most serious
consequence of a reality often characterized by pervasive discrimination,
particularly acts of violence, and which reflects women‟s subordination
and perpetrators impunity. In such contexts, women are confronted by a
systematic disregard of their human rights and the failure of States to comply
with their due diligence obligation to prevent, investigate, punish and provide
compensation for all acts of violence against women. Gender-motivated brutal
killings of women have taken disturbing proportions in the last few years.
While important legal and institutional initiatives are underway to address
weaknesses in investigation and prosecution of gender-related killings of
women, impunity remains widespread and the underlying causes of socio-economic
inequalities, high levels of violence and a strong patriarchal culture persist.
Terms such as femicide, feminicide, honour killings, crimes of passion and
so on, have been used to define such killings of women. Rather than a new form
of violence, gender-related killings of women have been occurring worldwide and
are the extreme manifestation of existing forms of VaW.
What are the assessments and recommendations about the situation in LA?
Some relevant contextual factors in Latin America include amongst others:
post-conflict situations with fragile States and institutions; the
establishment of conservative governments; the influence of neo-liberal
economic policies; little or no efforts at the judicial level for crimes
committed during the conflict; the absence of disarmament and reintegration
programmes for military and paramilitary personnel (which has made them an easy
target to be absorbed by organized crime and private security companies). These
factors and others have contributed to the establishment of a culture of
terror, corruption and impunity at the state and non-state levels. The
devastating effects of neoliberal economic policies and Structural Adjustment
Programmes imposed in this region by the IMF, and in the case of Mexico by the
North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have resulted in the creation of
export-oriented manufacturing industries, i.e. the maquilas, that
directly influence the appearance of VaW.
LA has been characterized by increasing levels of violence perpetrated
within the family and also the community. Such violence has disproportionately
affected more women than men. While the killings of men have been high and
stable over the last few years, the increase in killings of women is shocking
compared to that of men. Studies have shown that victims come from a wide range
of social and economic backgrounds, which vary from country to country, as do
the circumstances in which they are killed. However, many of the murdered women
come from the most marginalized sectors of society. It has been expressed on
many occasions by women‟s organizations and feminist activists that the
perpetrator can be either known or unknown to the victim. When the perpetrator
is known by the victim, it is often a current or former intimate partner, a
family member, a friend of the family or a person with a position of authority.
Most of these cases show a history of physical, psychological and sexual
violence experienced by the victim for long periods. In the majority of the
cases, the family or the community knows who the perpetrator is, but there is
no formal investigation or punishment. When the killer or killers are unknown
to the victims, studies show that gangs, organized crime groups, drug dealers,
human and drug trafficking networks, or random perpetrators acting alone, are
usually the perpetrators.
The obligation of the State to realize women‟s rights under
international human rights law arises in particular from the duty of States to
prevent, protect, punish and compensate individuals for human rights
violations. The failure of States to guarantee women‟s right to a life
free from violence allows for violence to continue, including the deaths of
women.
The European general assessment is that Latin American countries have made
progresses in gender issues, besides some exceptions. However, Europe expects
more advance in woman access to education and better protection against violence,
as far as there are several countries that have established a legal framework
in order to punish feminicide as proper crime. There have also been
improvements about the identification of vulnerable groups in Chile, Cuba,
Guatemala and Mexico, as well as a better promotion of woman participation in
politics and institutionalization of gender issues. Despite the situation is
not perfect and the legislative frameworks are diverse, the countries of the
region are advancing in all those aspects, because the issue of gender is more
and more in the agenda of these countries lately.
As far women participation in politics is concerned, civil society believes
that despite it has grown exponentially during the last decade, the objective
is to assure that there is a real participation and not just their presence. On
the other hand, Europe believes that quotas can be useful in order to assure
the participation of women in politics.
Accordingly, some attempts to establish positive discrimination in private
companies has been established. However, Europe cannot interfere in the
national legislation of any Latin American country, and actually, Europe is not
in a position of giving lessons to anybody in those issues. Specially,
considering that Latin American countries are pretending to be treated more and
more as equals in their dialogue with the European counterpart. Thus, Europe
perceives that different measures can be discussed with Latin American
partners, but never through an intervention in their national spheres. Quotas
are then important because they assure women presence and push them to
participate assuring that some forgotten issues by men, can be also brought to
the table. However, despite quotas can be useful, in some countries it is
difficult to establish them. In any case, some criteria can be determined in
order to promote women in public positions. Nonetheless, even if quotas and
criteria are in place, they do not assure that the sexist environment has
changed. Accordingly, if women perceive that despite being present, the
political process is still developed under a sexist mentality; quotas are not
useful because business remains as usual.
How effective are the EU instruments such as the EU Guidelines on VaW and
Girls, the EIDHR, the political and Human Rights dialogues as well as the
bilateral- regional cooperation?
The initiative that is currently being launched in a cooperative effort
between European and Latin American experts on violence against women to draft
a “Model Protocol” on the prevention, legal investigation and
effective documentation of feminicide in Latin America and the Caribbean is
overwhelmingly welcomed. The document aims to provide judicial, fiscal, and
medical-legal guidance on the investigation and documentation of crimes against
women, as well as to establish the ethical guidelines and functions that
lawyers, doctors and other service providers should follow when dealing with
victims and their families. However, VaW and feminicide are far from being
resolved.
In Europe, the most important instruments of dialogue between the EU and
Latin America are the EU-CELAC Strategic Partnership4, together with the Development Cooperation Instrument (DCI)5, the Bilateral Relations with Latin American
Countries (Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia and Cuba)6 and the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights
(EIDHR)7. As far as the Bi-lateral
Relations instrument is concerned, the issue of gender is included in the
majority of the bi-lateral relations, as well as in the Action Plans. In fact,
the gender issue is coming up in the agenda lately. Working Groups have been
also established together with Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador as well as in some
states of Central America. Despite Europe has today, less relation with the Caribbean
and Mercosur member countries, the dialogues and structures are very
well exported from one country to another. As far the cooperation instrument is
concerned, the list of initiatives and activities developed through the EIDHR
is long. Briefly, in relation to the rule of law and gender democracy,
cooperation has been set-up between the EU and Brazil, Honduras, Ecuador,
Mexico and Bolivia, while in relation to encouraging an active participation of
women in politics, initiatives have been established together with Honduras,
Mexico and Brazil (specially for indigenous peoples).
4 http://eeas.europa.eu/lac/index_en.htm
5
http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/latin-america/index_en.htm
6
http://www.eurunion.org/eu/images/stories/eufocus-globpartglobchall-lac-9-10.pdf
7
http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/how/finance/eidhr_en.htm
Furthermore, in the concrete issue of violence against women and children,
projects have been launched in countries such as Dominican Republic, Uruguay,
Ecuador, Mexico or Honduras (in Honduras a project of women rehabilitations has
also been established). In addition, also projects in border areas have been
set-up in order to deal with displacement, prostitution and trafficking issues
in Honduras, while in Brazil and Mexico, projects related to women immigration
have been also launched. In terms of cooperation, mechanisms of bilateral
relations that indentify gender issues as one of the main objectives, as well
as entrepreneurship or employment issues have been also established. Finally,
other initiatives have been taken in order to assure access to national
services, as well as reducing violence against women through the provision of
funds for NGO´s.
What are the EU challenges?
The previous EU-CELAC Summit between Heads of State and Government that took
place in Madrid in May 2010, concluded with the adoption of the Madrid
Declaration as well as an Action Plan for 2010-2012. The commitments agreed
upon during the Summit include, inter alia, the promotion of cooperation
programmes to combat and prevent trafficking and migrant smuggling networks,
and to assist the victims, with special attention to women and children. There
is however no reference made to other forms of violence against women which are
pervasive in the Latin-American region, such as domestic violence or femicide.
Building on the momentum generated, it is important that the issue of violence
against women and femicide is addressed as a priority theme for the EU and the
CELAC Summit, in Chile in January 2013, to ensure that specific commitments in
this regard are included in its Declaration and Action Plan.
There is a need to ensure effective investigations, prosecution and
sanctions; guaranteeing de jure and de facto access to adequate and
effective judicial remedies; treating women victims and their relatives with
respect and dignity throughout the legal process; ensuring comprehensive
reparations to victims and their relatives. Identifying certain groups of women
as being at particular risk for acts of violence, due to multiple forms of
discrimination; and modifying the social and cultural patterns of conduct of
men and women as well as eliminating prejudices, customary practices and other
practices based on the idea of the inferiority or superiority of either of the
sexes, and on stereotyped roles for men and women.
In these regard, the European assessment results from what the EU
delegations defined through certain number of subjects to approach using a
cross-cutting analysis about the region. The first challenge is to give
continuity to gender policies, because usually, these policies vary when there
is a change in the governments of the region. And these changes affect
negatively the implementation of previous laws. The other challenge is to
realize how to change the social barriers that undermine the opportunities of
the society to change because of cultural or historical reasons as well as due
to the economic crisis. Among others, legal parity in terms of salaries or the
ambiguity between the objectives of the law and how it is implemented are also
perceived as two of the most important challenges.
Regarding the next EU-CELAC Summit next January in Chile, it has to be
underlined that gender issues and specially, the issue of violence against
women and femicide or feminicide are included in the agenda. Accordingly, the
debate about these topics will be discussed at the ministerial level. In
parallel, a space of dialogue between both regions had been established last
march, in order to serve as a platform to advance towards a stable Action Plan
about gender issues. In conclusion, the EU assessment is that the issue of
gender had been out of the agenda for many years, but now it is again in the
agenda and there is the political impulse to create a good legal framework and
the necessary instruments to assure a good implementation strategy.
As far as the strategy of the EU towards the problem of violence against
women from a more global perspective is concerned, there are some concerns
within the civil society about how the EU includes its work within a more
multilateral framework, such as the UN, in terms of reporting and information
sharing. Specially, in the eve of the next meeting about the Status of Women at
the UN, it is perceived that the EU should have a strong position. In these
sense, Europe beliefs that there are some well-established examples that
demonstrate that things are evolving properly, such as the recently opened
dialogue between the UN, the EU and the US about how to tackle violence in
Central America, through focusing in human and soft security (and not in hard
security). In these regard, the objective is to have a financial package
(within the Multi-annual Financial Framework) in order to better implement
these new instruments that will also include the issues related to gender.
How could the EU support to the LA countries to make the eradication VaW
be more effective? Especially in those countries where the implementation of
the due diligence obligations by the State is weak?
In the first place, there are some concerns about the problem of simulation,
in the sense that some states simulate that they are taking measures to fight
VaW but in reality they are not. Accordingly, Europe beliefs that there is a
difference between what they would like to do and what it can be effectively
done. The EU can observe and ask how a country is implementing its compromises,
and disagree about how certain policies are implemented. However, despite it is
not possible to intervene in the legislative process of a country, in its
agreements with other countries in Latin America (bi-lateral relations,
cooperation agreements, free trade agreements, etc.) the EU introduces clauses
that refer to the obligation of the partner country to accomplish its
obligations in relation to the international law and the UN Conventions on
human rights. If the LA counterparts do not respect these clauses, the
agreements can be suspended by the EU at any time.
In relation to the question of impunity (one of the most important
challenges regarding VaW in Latin America according to civil society
organizations) the EU assessment is that despite the problem is still there, it
is believed that there have been progresses. Specially, thanks to the
negotiation process of trade agreements between the EU and Latin American
countries (Colombia, etc.), that include a deep reform of laws to achieve the
end of impunity.
Furthermore, in the declaration of the EU-CELAC Summit that has been
filtered, there is a paragraph that makes reference to the issue of VaW. However,
it has to be taken into account that there is no specific reference to
feminicide as the last consequence of a continuum of violence as far as it is
different to speak about gender in general, than to speak about violence
against women, which constitutes a clear violation of human rights.
Accordingly, Europe beliefs that this declaration is very important in the
actual context considering that the EU is now preparing and programming, the
future cooperation between the two regions.
The aforementioned draft declaration about VaW in the eve of the CELAC-EU
Summit is written as follows: “Gender-based killing of women are the
violent death of women and girls based on their gender whether if it occurs at
the domestic, familiar or other inter-personal levels, in the community by any
person or group, or when it is perpetrated or tolerated by the state or its
agents by action or omission”. In this sense some concerns appeared in
relation to the term “violent deaths” of the declaration as far as it
could be interpreted that only extreme violent deaths should be persecuted,
when the reality shows, that the deaths of women do not necessarily have to be
always extremely violent. And of course, despite whether it is an extremely
violent death or not, all forms of femicide should be persecuted. In these
regard, Europe argues that in political declarations, flexibility is needed in
order to arrive to some agreements, while it is clear that in a juridical text,
terms should not leave space for confusion.
Both the EU and Latin America have their regional instruments to fight
against VaW. Nonetheless, the EU and Latin America need to strengthen their
cooperation in the framework of the existing regional mechanisms of each region
in order to fight more effectively against VaW and femicide. In Latin America,
the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of
Violence against Women (Convention “Belem do Pará)8 has provided an excellent normative framework for legislative
initiatives and reforms on violence against women in Latin America. The
Inter-American Commission and Court have also comprehensively
8
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/publisher,OAS,,,3ae6b38b1c,0.html
addressed the issue of gender-related killing of women in the case of González
et al. (“Cotton Field”) vs. Mexico9.
The Court found violations of the general duty to ensure the human rights of
the three victims under Article 1.1 of the American Convention, by reason of
the State‟s failure to act with the due diligence required to protect
their rights to life, humane treatment, personal liberty, and their right to be
free from violence, and to conduct an adequate and effective investigation into
their disappearances and homicides. The Court also addressed the issue of
reparations through a gender perspective, particularly measures of
satisfaction, rehabilitation, guarantees of non-repetition and compensation.
The judgment also discusses in detail the obligation of States to provide
adequate access to justice and remedies to victims and their family members in
situations of gender discrimination and violence against women, and how this
obligation relates to the due diligence. In Europe on the other hand, the
Istanbul Declaration10 should be useful in
order to achieve commitments and strengthen the bilateral cooperation.
Regarding the Inter-American system on human rights, many different
stakeholders are worried about the recent attacks that the system is receiving
recently by some countries in Latin America. In fact, it is perceived that those
attacks are due to political reasons rather than real ones. In fact, the system
is a reference in the world, and it is a great complement of what it is done in
bigger multilateral spaces of human rights protection. In these regard, Europe
clearly supports the system as far as it functions properly, it haves good
judges and people both in the Commission and the Court. Accordingly, the track
record is really valuable in terms of functioning and jurisprudence. In
consequence, together with the civil society, Europeans are also worried about
the attacks to the system, something which is particularly risky taking into
account that the US do not belongs to the system. In these regard, some
countries are thinking about creating (and some have already withdrawn from the
actual one) a new system more adapted to their own beliefs and concerns,
something that, according to some civil society actors, only hides the
unwillingness to accomplish with their human rights obligations.
With regard to the implementation of the due diligence obligations by those
states in which it is weak, the civil society is worried because even if there
have been improvements at the legislative level, in certain cases an
institutional duplicity do not allows a good implementation of these legal
instruments. And the EU, until some extent, is co-responsible of the situation
because it has been funding those double structures. Furthermore, other studies
show that many women organizations do not know the EU guidelines to implement
the legislative frameworks which try to tackle VaW, resulting in a difficulty
to identify potential allies when it comes to the implementation of the rules
to fight against VaW. Moreover, it is also perceived that there is not a true
coordination between the EU and its delegations as well as with civil society
organizations in the region. While at the same time, there is a lack of
information about indicators and the different political points of dialogue
regarding implementation issues, something that should be more periodically
revised in order to identify which ones work and which ones do not work.
Finally, to effectively tackle VaW, it should be considered as an issue of
citizenship, as far as violence takes away humanity, and governments have
obligations in relation to human rights and citizenship, especially, in Europe.
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