Human rights violations against women have, for too long, been denied the attention and concern of international organizations, national governments, traditional human rights groups and the press. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of girls and women around the world continue to endure debilitating and often fatal human rights abuses. These are only a few instances of abuse which occur every single day all around the world. Human rights violations against women must be documented, publicized and stopped.
 Brazil: A man who confessed to stabbing his wife and her lover to death is for the second time acquitted of murder by an all-male jury. The acquittal is based on the argument that he acted in legitimate defense of his
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(Afkhani 176)
Centuries of rule by various foreign authorities have reinforced the family as a location of power in some Middle Eastern societies. (Ruggi, 144) Even today, the family is directly responsible for defending its honor. In many communities, this means that murder in the name of honor is family business, not frowned upon by the local community. As a result, the murderer is unlikely to be reprimanded in court, and is seen as a hero by many.
One truly frightful story belongs to that of Samia Sarwar, a 29-year-old Pakistani woman, mother of two young boys. On April 6, Samia was sitting in the office of a leading human rights lawyer, Ms. Hina Jilani, sister of another well-known human rights activist and Supreme Court advocate, Ms. Asma Jahangir, chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Samia had been trying to get a divorce from her husband, Dr. Imran Saleh, for the last 4 years. She had left her marital home in 1995 after years of abuse and violence at the hands of her husband. Dr. Imran had pushed Samia down the stairs while she was pregnant with their second child. That was when she decided to do something about her situation, packed her bags, and fled her husband's house, in hopes that her mother and father would give her shelter in
For a woman living in Afghanistan in the late twentieth century, following the rules is essential to staying alive. Mariam is used to following the rules in her life, starting as a small child listening to her mother, Nana. The forced obedience she adopts because of Nana follows her throughout her whole life, all the way through her arranged and abusive marriage to Rasheed. Eventually, the abuse from Rasheed grows to be overwhelming, and Mariam breaks an ultimate law: she commits murder. Mariam lives nearly her entire life abiding by rules set for her by her mother and her husband, but when she goes against them she is able to briefly experience freedom.
The article by Meetoo and Miraz define extreme forms of domestic violence, which often lead to the death of a woman at the hands of her loved ones or community. Interestingly, "honour" only arises as a motivation for murder when religion or ethnic communities are involved. In the article, the author asserts that ethicized women (women of colour and other minorities) who are victims of honour killings are unrecognized in both multicultural discussion and domestic violence discussion. Since 9/11, these women have become much more visible, but unfortunately this increased recognition is due to a heightened sense of fear and danger associated with the idea of a "Muslim alien 'other'". By employing an approach focused more on human rights, people
The oppression of women and girls in the developing world is this era’s most pervasive human rights violation. In the world today, being a girl means being sentenced to a life of poverty, abuse, exploitation and deprivation. Denied the most basic human rights, millions of girls and women are deprived of education, security, and most importantly, a voice. And yet, despite the cruel circumstances they endure, girls and women constantly strive to rise above their oppression. Marina Nemat, author of the memoir, Prisoner of Tehran and Meena Hasina from Nicholas D. Kristoff’s Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide are testaments of the bravery and willpower of women.
The rights and opportunities are different but the feelings in the hearts of those fighting and living to support women’s rights have never changed. Some of the issues women are fighting today are poverty and hunger with the largest number of homeless being women and children. The continuing wage gap and the fact that women make 77 cents to every dollar men do, violence against women, with the staggering statistic that there are 270,000 rapes or sexual assaults a year. Women are treated poorly in prison with 70% subject to rape, extortion, and groping and denied medical resources and treatment, as well as human trafficking and sex slavery, which has a 32 billion dollar annual income. (Top 18 Issues Challenging Women
It’s hard to second guess the individual soldiers and their actions in the case of the two Afghans that attempted to elope. I’m sure they were just doing what was correct procedure for security threat at the time. Had they interpreted the Father’s intent or motivation for wishing to see his daughter they likely would’ve reached a different conclusion to the conflict. This scenario highlights the need to have interpreters that are well versed in local customs and culture, had any of the soldiers or interpreters been dialed into the fact that what the two young elopers were doing would be grounds for an honor killing they would likely choose a different COA. I’m also interested in the timeline that this case occurred, I know early on in the conflict US service members were not clued in on the honor killing to restore a family’s name and reputation but after a couple of high profile cases here in the States I would think that someone might have seen the danger in allowing the father to see his daughter. The soldiers were no doubt applying the golden rule in allowing the father to see his daughter. Being a father myself if my daughter ever ran away I would place a pretty high premium on seeing her and most authorities would allow that once she was detained, not thinking twice about what my motivations to see her are.
The Massie case is a very important case historically, where we can learn from out mistakes and hope that the injustices would not be repeated. One of the most important aspects of the case is its location, Hawai 'i. Described as "an American playground for the wealthy" Hawai 'i was a paradise controlled by wealthy Americans (Stannard 23). Even though it was not yet a U.S. state, at the time of the case, the ideas and influence of Americans overruled that of the native Hawaiians. This is shown especially when the alleged rape of Thalia Massie became public. Even before a trial was held, most people believed the six men to be guilty just because of their race and who the victim was, a white woman and the wife of a navy officer. David Stannard reinforces the idea that the alleged rape, murder of Joseph Kahahawai, and the outcome of both trials could have only happened in Hawai 'i during the 1930s in his book "Honor Killing". The three reasons for this are that all of the suspects were either Hawaiian or Asian, most Americans living in Hawai 'i at the time were wealthy, and Hawai 'i was not a U.S. state until 1950.
Gender discrimination and violence against women were not part of the Human Rights Agenda until the 1990s when feminists began to push for this change (p84/book). One of the slogans of their campaign was that “Women’s Rights
On October 30th, 2014, over 220 women were raped in less than 36 hours in Tabit. The HRW (Human Rights Watch) had been following the case with caution. Although the Tibet government has been trying to hide this terrible case, a man told the HRW, “They said if I talked about Tabit again that I was going to be finished. They kicked me. Tied me and hanged me up. They beat me with whips and electric wires” (Human Rights Watch). This mass rape was claimed to be a “deliberate attack on Tabit and the mass rape of the town’s women and girls is a new low in the catalog of atrocities in Darfur” (Human Rights Watch). The Sudanese armed forces caused a mass rape of over 200 women as a political statement in war. One of the soldiers told a mother “You killed our man. We are going to show you true hell” (Humans Right
In every country in Latin America and the Caribbean, women suffer acute discrimination. Often, the discrimination women face is related to social prejudices regarding appropriate patterns of conduct for men and women. This entrenched sex inequality provides the backdrop for the pervasive and widespread human rights violations women face in the region, with little chance of justice. The most pernicious types of women's human rights abuses in the Americas occur in the areas of women's reproductive and sexual health and rights, discrimination and violence against women in the workplace, and violence against women in the home. After decades of dictatorships in some countries, democracy has not meant an end to impunity for violations of women
Human rights violations occur all around the world whether it's the genocide of millions because of beliefs or if it’s the fact that people are left with restrictions that others are not affected by, similar to the segregation that previously existed in the United States . One violation of human rights that occurred in Australia that has caused controversy was the sterilization of disabled women in Australia. This sterilization caused an uproar because of the violation of a woman’s right to produce offspring, regardless of her mental status. This forced sterilization on the mentally disabled women of Australia became a situation in which the UN became involved because of the violation of human rights. Globally, it it considered inhumane to
The Ethics of Capital Punishment Ethics is "the study of standards of right and wrong; that part of philosophy dealing with moral conduct, duty and judgement. '[1] Capital Punishment is 'the death penalty for a crime. '[2] The word "capital" in "capital punishment" refers to a person's head as in the past; people were often executed by severing their head from their body.
However, in Saudi Arabia killing people in the name of honor will not be considered as illegal and therefore it will not be counted as a crime, an evidence of this is that a women 45 years old originally from Sri Lanka was “being stoned to death after being convicted of adultery in Saudi Arabia - while the man she was caught with faces 100 lashes” (Wheatstone, 2017). Moreover, another evidence which supports this notion is that a Saudi Arabian woman from Riyadh was “woman was murdered by her father for chatting on the social network site Facebook” (Correspondent, 2017). These demonstrates that not all crimes are considered as deviant
These killing normally result from a suspicion that one is engaging in acts that impinge on the family’s and society’s conservative views. This can include partaking in relationships outside of marriage, refusal of an arranged marriage, seeking divorce, homosexual acts, and being a victim of rape. The victims of honor killings are often murdered in the name of family honor for bringing shame and disgrace to the family. In many cases, these killings occur within a family unit— between father-daughter, husband-wife, brother-sister, etc. Since they occur so regularly, “most honor killings are not classified as such, are rarely prosecuted, or when prosecuted in the Muslim world, result in relatively light sentences” (Chesler, 2010).
When a human rights violation occurs, the violated individual is deprived of his or her basic freedoms—the right to life, liberty, and security. When individuals experience human rights violations it is not of their own volition. An individual does not choose to partake in the wrongdoing and thus did not give explicit permission or consent to the practice. While the concept of consent is a fundamental principle in western societies, all communities and people are vulnerable to human rights violations. No individual, regardless of his or her society’s level of development or an element of his or her individual identity— socioeconomic status, ability, nationality, race, religion, gender, or sexuality—is immune. However, certain groups of people are more likely to experience human rights violations than others. Even today, many societies still stereotype women as weak or inferior beings. Due to this stigmatization, women are more likely to suffer limitations of their human rights. Such violations include female genital cutting (FGC), also referred to as female genital mutilation, the ritual removal of some or all of the external female genitalia and human trafficking. There are four types of FGC— clitoridectomy, excision, infibulation, and other miscellaneous mutilations (Refworld 1995: 5). Human trafficking takes on many forms, not just sexual exploitation, and does not require crossing a border as its name suggests (UNODC 2016). While there are different types of trafficking
Bangladesh is an impoverished country of over 160 million people. In its short history as an independent nation, Bangladesh has faced an Independent war, massive internal displacement, famines and frequent natural disasters. In addition, Bangladesh is hosting over 200,000 Rohingya refugees from Burma in the eastern region(AKM.Ahsan, 2011 p.139). The Rohingya ethnic minority of Burma are trapped between severe repression in their homeland and abuse in neighboring countries. Bangladesh has hosted thousands of Rohingyas fleeing persecution for more than three decades, but at least 200,000 Rohingya refugees have no legal rights there (Samima&Kayoko,2014 p.225). They live in squalor, receive very limited aid and are subject to arrest, extortion and detention. Refugee women and girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual and physical attacks. In the registered refugee camp their movement is highly restricted; they have no permission to go outside from the camp. In the camp they live in small shed which is allotted for 7 members (Source). There is no electricity and have not any recreation. They have no work in the camp. So they become very frustrated and it directly affects women through violence.For the purpose, the study aims to shed light on violence against womenin Rohingya camp. It intends to analyze the root causes of violence against refugee women and investigate who is the perpetrator of violence.