ONU Diritti umani – È urgente mettere fine alla pandemia di femminicidi e violenza contro le donne

 

Urgent action needed to end pandemic of femicide and violence against women, says UN expert

GENEVA (23 November 2020) – The COVID-19 pandemic is overshadowing the pandemic of femicides and gender-based violence against women and girls, Dubravka Šimonovic, special rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, said today, calling for the establishment of national femicide watches or observatories around the world to prevent such killings. 

 Ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, she issues the following statement:

As the world grapples with the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its negative impact on women, a pandemic of femicide and gender-based violence against women is taking the lives of women and girls everywhere.

I call on all States and relevant stakeholders worldwide to take urgent steps to prevent the pandemic of femicide or gender related killings of women, and gender-based violence against women, through the establishment of national multidisciplinary prevention bodies or Femicide watches/observatories on violence against women. These bodies should be mandated to 1) collect comparable and disaggregated data on femicide or gender-related killings of women; 2) conduct an analysis of femicide cases to determine shortcomings, and recommend measures for the prevention of such cases, and 3) ensure that femicide victims are not forgotten by holding days of remembrance.

Data this mandate has collected since 2015 through my Femicide Watch initiative corroborates the data available from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, and indicates that among the victims of all intentional killings involving intimate partners, more than 80% of victims are women.  Many of these femicides are preventable.

Since 2015, a growing number of States have either established femicide watches or observatories, and in an increasing number of countries, it is the independent human rights institutions, civil society organizations, womens groups and/or academic institutions that have established femicide watches or observatories.

The outcome document of the Beijing+25 regional review meeting organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in October 2019 also supports this femicide watch initiative. Its recommendation 31(j) calls on all countries to establish multidisciplinary national bodies such as Femicide Watch with the aim of actively working on prevention of femicide or gender-based killings of women.

In his statement to the High-Level Meeting on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women on 1 October 2020, the UN Secretary General called for affirmative action to prevent violence against women, including femicide.

On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, I, and the undersigned UN and regional human rights expert mechanisms, call on all States and other relevant stakeholders to establish a femicide watch and/or observatory on violence against women with a mandate to recommend measures for the prevention of femicides and gender-based violence against women and to collect comparable and disaggregated data under categories of intimate partner and family related femicides (based on the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator) and other femicides by unrelated perpetrators. Data should also be disaggregated based on age, disability, gender identity, migrant status, internal displacement, racial or ethnic origin and belonging to indigenous communities or to a religious or linguistic minority.

 

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Dubravka Šimonovic, is the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences. Her recommendations were endorsed by the following UN human rights experts: Elizabeth Broderick (Chair), Dorothy Estrada Tanck, Meskerem Geset Techane, Ivana RadačIć, Melissa Upreti (Vice Chair), Working Group on discrimination against women and girlsSiobhán Mullally, Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and childrenClément Nyaletsossi Voule, Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of associationAlioune TineIndependent Expert on the situation of human rights in Mali;  Isha DyfanIndependent Expert on the situation of human rights in SomaliaThomas AndrewsSpecial Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in MyanmarMama Fatima SinghatehSpecial Rapporteur on sale and sexual exploitation of childrenClaudia Mahler, Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons Tlaleng MofokengSpecial Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental healthAlice Cruz, Special Rapporteur on the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members  Pedro Arrojo-AgudoSpecial Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitationFabian SalvioliSpecial Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence Nils MelzerSpecial Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment Ikponwosa Ero, Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinismMary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; David Boyd, Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environmentChris Kwaja (Chair-Rapporteur), Jelena AparacLilian BobeaRavindran Daniel, and Sorcha MacLeod, Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination;  Michael Lynk, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967;  Michael Fakhri, Special Rapporteur on the right to foodObiora OkaforIndependent Expert on human rights and international solidarityOlivier De SchutterSpecial Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights; Diego García-Sayán,  UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers;  Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expressionGerard QuinnSpecial Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities; Javaid RehmanSpecial Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran; Ms. Karima Bennoune,Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights; Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this contextFionnuala Ní Aoláin, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism;  Yao Agbetse, Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Central African Republic; Felipe Gonzalez Morales, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants; Saad AlfarargiSpecial Rapporteur on the right to development; Cecilia Jimenez-DamarySpecial rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced personsLivingstone SewanyanaIndependent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order Ahmed Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief

  

And regional human rights expert mechanisms:

 Tatiana Rein Venegas, President of the Committee of Experts of the Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention; Marceline Naudi, President of the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence of the Council of Europe (GREVIO); Margarette May Macaulay, Inter-American Commission on Human Right’s Rapporteur for Women’s Rights 

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 Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms 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.

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