UN Special on Torture Will Present 2016 Report to UN on Gender Perspectives on Torture – Call for Input on State & Non-State Torture

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Website: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Torture/SRTorture/Pages/SRTortureIndex.aspx

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https://antitorture.org/latest-news/

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Will Present 2016 Report to UN Human Rights Council on Gender Perspectives on Torture – Call for Input on State and Non-State Gender Torture By January 31, 2016

This Latest News announcement says Juan E. Méndez, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, is drafting a report on gender perspectives on torture to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2016. That women and girls suffer torture perpetrated by private individuals or groups began being officially acknowledged in 2008 when the UN Committee against Torture wrote, General Comment No. 2, stating that manifestations of violence perpetrated against women and girls can amount to torture. Before this the human right not to be subjected to torture was considered to apply only to men in warring times—only patriarchy ‘owned’ the human right to be protected from acts of torture in the public sphere.

https://antitorture.org/latest-news/

Time to let the Special Rapporteur on Torture know we as women are no longer silent! Let’s send in reports or personal stories describing the acts of non-State torture suffered by women and girls in the private or domestic spaces, i.e., in prostitution, in human trafficking, in exploitation, in pornography, in the home, or by employers of domestic workers for example. Non-State torture is the UN term for torture inflicted by private persons or groups (non-State actors) such as pimps, punters/johns, traffickers, pornographers, family members, spouses, and others known or unknown. To our knowledge there has never been a holistic report on perspectives of gender-based torture. Let’s not miss this “her-storical” opportunity. Let’s break the silence by writing and expressing our human right to equality, to have it globally acknowledged at the UN and national levels that we have the right to name, to truth-tell, to be protected, to seek justice and redress when suffering acts of non-State torture inflicted in the private or domestic sphere.

When & where to send reports and/or personal stories.

Send by JANUARY 31, 2016. CONTACT: Juan E. Méndez office: sr-torture@ohchr.org

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For questions or if more resource information is wanted: Jeanne Sarson| twin2@eastlink.ca; Linda MacDonald | flight@ns.sympatico.ca (23 years grass root work with non-State torture victimization), Jackie Jones (feminist lawyer & professor), & Lisa-Marie Taylor | resistpornculture@gmail.com (Women’s Rights Activist).