Honour Killings: Causes and Strategies for Intervention

watch Killings Causes and Strategies for InterventionWhat is detect cleansing?Every year, hundreds of women ar killed in the name of esteem by their family elements because they redeem brought shame to the family and the community.Honour killing is defined murdering a component of the family in the name of prize, it is commonly the female who is murdered for bringing shame to the family. In r ar cases, men ar also murdered if they bring infract to their family or community.It is believed that prize killing is a private family affair and it should eat upure between the four w tout ensembles of the house, no accurate statistics are avail suitable on this social evil. It should be n atomic number 53d that detect killing is a gender-neutral thought only if overwhelming mass victims are women.The only fundamental dispute is that the male accussed of dis esteeming might be failn a chance to explicate his situation before the trible leaders and outhouse escape the d eath penalisation by braggy compensation to the family who has been dishonoured. Women are rarely condition oppurtunaties to explicate their side of the story and the only mathematical way to restore the honour is by killing the women who has brought shame to the family.Where does it take mystify?Pakistan consists of four commonwealths cognize as Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab and North west Frontier Province(NWFP). The menance known as honour killing frequently only four provinces of Pakistan. In Sindh, the practise of honour killing is known as Karo Kari, meaning subdued female and black male. In Balochistan it is known Siahkal. The majority of the honour killings take place in hoidenish areas, however, there return been some reported incidents of honour killings in urban cities of Pakistan much(prenominal)(prenominal) as Karachi and Lahore.How bum genius be dishonoured?Honour killings for a choosing a marriage collaborator correspond to the word 16 of Universal Dec laration of hu valet de chambre rights, two men and women of secure age, irrespective race, religion and nationality can enter into marriage with each partner of their choice. It is our fundamental to marry a partner of our choice, however in Pakistan, women are non encouraged to bind this right because women are seen as individualised property of a man, whence women should exercise their right.Women are seen as goodness owned and keepled by their fathers, husbands and brothers. Women are not suppose to express some(prenominal) desires and feelings contrary to the wishes of their fathers, husbands, and brothers.Traiditionally women are not allowed to choose their partners for marriage. The head of the family, usually the father, chooses the groom. the bride does not have any say in the process and any insubordination a offst the process is considered a taboo.Women who have been succesful in marrying partners of their choice are a good deal threatened by their father tha t charges of zina(un rectitudeful sexual relations) would be brought against them. Under the Islamic law of marriage, the wali(the closest male adult relative) has the responsibilty and authority with respect to marriage, the wali is usually the father and if it can be proved that the father did not give consent to the marriage consequently it bequeath be considered invalid, if marriage is invalid then any sexual relations which took place between the man and the women would amount to zina. Most of the time, family members take matters into their own lots sort of of breathing out to court. A women who married a man of her choice was murdered outback(a) Peshawar court by her brother in the name of honour.Women seeking fall apartThe article 16 of Universal declaration of compassionate beings rights states that men and womanhood should have bear on rights regarding dissolution of marriage. Under Islamic marriage law, a man is allowed to split up his wife anytime, the divor ce can be given verbally barely a women cannot divorce her husband, she can apply for Khula(Separation) in the court of law. Divorce is seen as a very serious difficulty in the Moslem world and muslim women are enouraged to avoid divorce at any cost, even if it means by putting up with a naughtily abusive husband.In 1999, S take ina Sarwar was shot dead in a lawyers office because she attempted to obtain divorce from her husband inexorablely abusive husband. The killing was instructed by her uncle but he was soon released Qisas and Diyat laws which states that the person(s) regard in killing entrust go free if he is par dod by the Wali of the victim.Her uncle went unpunised as he was pardoned by her husbad and father in the capacity of Wali. It should be noted that Saima Sarwar belonged to a upper-class prominent family, her father is a entrepenuer and the scram is a doctor, this case shows the social evil in challenge is a cause of concern for both rural and urban populati on.The local tenderspapers in the region overwhemingly lifeed the killing, arguing that it was accordance to the tradition and therefore it cannot be a villainy.Honour killings for rapeA woman brings shame to the family if she becomes a victim of rape. In 1999, a 16 year old mentally-retarded fille was raped on some occasions by junior shop assistant of the local government department of agriculture in hotel in Parachinar, NWFP. The uncle of the young lady lodged a complain, the accussed was taken into entertainive custody and the girl was handed to her tribe. The Jirga(tribal court) headstrong that she has brought shame to her tribe and the honour can only be restored by killing her. She was shot dead in front of tribal gathering. rule rich quick scheme?Ratio of venerate killings is higher in those provinces where agriculture devours are abundant. Land is the chief(prenominal) reason behind a majority of honor killing incidents in Sindh and Punjab.In overwhelming majori ty of cases, there is incessantly a ulterior motive such as lust for money, land, lust for another women or to conceal other crimes. galore(postnominal) individuals exploit the concept of honour killing for gaining compensation or land. If both accused of karo kari are murdered then the matter usually ends but if only kari is killed and karo escapes, the karo has to compensate the affected man by giving him money, land or another women.Nafisa Shah, a leading homo rights activist describes honour killing as industry which has range of stakeholders including tribes people, natural law administration and tribal mediators, honour killing is used as an excuse to hide sins and gain money. law accept bribes of about 7000 rupees(equivalent to 70) for not investigating claims of honour killing.The foreign LawInternational forgiving rights law recognises honour crimes as a radiation diagram violence against women, therefore it is a direct violation womens right to life and security fre edom from torture and cruel, in pitying, and degrading manipulation and the right to equality before the law and equal protective cover of the law. revere crimes also violate rights guaranteed to women by the UN Convention on the Elimination of only Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), such as the right to freely choose ones spouse and the right to equality in marriage. CEDAWs commonplace Recommendation Number 19 defines gender-based violence as a form of contrariety against women and makes explicit reference to honor crimes. CEDAW obligates States to protect women from gender-based violence, including violence perpetrate by family members and to prevent, investigate, and punish acts of violence against women.The Convention also requires States to disqualify honor as a legal defense for acts of violence against women. The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women echoes these obligations and states that, States should condemn violence against women and should not invoke any custom, tradition or spiritual consideration to avoid their obligations with respect to its evacuation (Article 4).International human rights law is enforced through and through the state and by way of treaties. A state becoming the ships company to a external pact allow for be bound by th conformity and it is the states responsibility and duty to protect the rights of the citizens. Pakistan is a party to a Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the agreement has been ratified and as a result of that, the Pakistani government ammended the felonious Act 2004 which makes Honour killing a punishable offence. away from reservation the ammendment to Criminal Act 2004, Pakistan has taken several other intitaves to confine honour killings and domestic violence against womenEstablishment of gender Crime CellGender Crime Cell was established in National Bureau on 1st April 2006 to tick off violence against women. The f unction of the Cell is to gather, collate and discerp data on cases of violence against women. The cell give act as central repository of relevant data on cases of violence against women and it will assist top- indemnity makers in developing holistic and rough-and-ready policy countermea for certains to control the social evil volence against women.Gender and Human Rights SensitizationTo sensitize the police and to further improve law enforcement response to human rights situations, a spatiotemporal program has been included in the cirruculum of police precept schools, police training colleges and national police academy.Cooperation/Collaboration with nongovernmental organizations/ Civil societyNational Police Bureau has welcomed visits from NGOs who monitored severall police stations across the country, the main aim was to imagine into the business procedures, handling of public complaints against police, infra-structure, and facilities in lock-up of the stations.According to the regime of Pakistan, all these prises will legions service directly or indirectly contribute against keep back crimes against women.After reading the responses submitted to UN by the presidential term of Pakistan regarding the issues relating to violence against women, one would get the impression that Pakistan is trying to rigging the conundrum, some measures have been to curb the problem mentioned but the measures taken are not adequate enough to protect women, controversial laws such as Qisas fluid exist which are often exploited by receivers.Qisas LawQisas law is relates to offences involving bodily injury or loss of life. The aim of the Qisas law is to put the victims family in control, ir is up to the family members of the victim to decide whether to bring an action against the murderer or pardon the murderer. Under the law, murdering a family member virtually carries no punishment as the other family members have the right to pardon the killer. In June 2002, Zak ir killed 18- year Sabiha on suspicion that she had become pregnant, Zakir was pardoned by uncle of Sabiha, therefore his crime went unpunished.In a situation like such as this, courts and law enforcement agencies cannot take further action if the pardon is granted by the family member of the victim. n 90 percent cases of honor killings, the culprits are close relatives and therefore they are easily forgiven by the family of the deceased, in order successfully tackle this social evil, Qisas and Diyat Ordinance should not be in practise at all as it allows murderers to walk away free.It is evident that more than inevitably to be done to tacke the menance known as honour killing, but the question what can the further steps can UN take to ensure that Pakistani organization makes further ammendments to the law to ensure that no murderers goes unpunished?The enjoyment of United NationsThe human rights machinery in the UN systems works in three areas information, analyis and policy de velopment provision of support to human rights bodies and organs and promotion and apology of human rights. In order for this machinery to be successful, the UN has developed human rights institutions at the country level. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights(OHCHR) assigns human rights advisers to country teams and their aim is to advance human rights through legislative, judicial and other enforcement mechanisms.The UN has created commitees to oversee slaying of implementation human rights but the commitees have a limited supply to investigate or monitor violations of human rights. The UN machinery is merely way of arranging information. If a state fails to comply with demands of UN then procedures usually range from palaver to naming and shaming, it is very rare that sanctions are imposed for human rights violations because of the unwanted consequences.UN is also having monetary problem, umpteen of the major member states have refused to accept their assesed share of costs, the guaranteed budget of OHCHR has fallen less than half.United nations is not in force(p) in curbing human rights violations, it has no other to make sure that the human rights are not violated, they do not have effective mechanisms to make sure that human rights are enforced and they do not have the necessary resources. Simply by signing and ratifying a treaty does not ensure that the State will carry their duties and protect human rights. The only serious measure which the UN can take is impose sanctions. It is possible to impose sanctions solely on the foundation garment of human rights, imposing sanctions for breaches of human rights is rare.Should the UN impose sanctions to pressurize the governance?UN can impose sanctions such as diplomatic isolation , restrictions on internationalistic travel, good deal and financial transactions. Sanctions is regarded a tool created to ensure that States comply with demands of UN. Imposing may seem as attractive option but it can discredited on the basis of its harsh consequences on the citizens of the state. Sanctions have a bad history as they inflict undeniable pain on the citizens which the UN is trying to protect. If UN was to impose trade and financial sanctions to pressurise Pakistan to do more to curb honour killlings, then it is highly unlikely the sanction will work because Pakistan already a despicable country, 17% of the population lives under $1 a day.Pakistan saving nearly went bankrupt as a result of sanctions imposed by UN for carrying out nuclear tests. Economic sanctions means that the Pakistan economy will resist and therefore the people of Pakistan will suffer, the overall level of poverty will increase and it is likely that honour killings will increase as rise up because honour killings are often carried to gain compensation or land. Sanctions will have a counter-productive effect on Pakistan, therefore it should be avoided.The place of NGOsTraditionally NGOs are consid ered to be more effective than United Nations, in the sense that they are better at monitoring than UN. NGOs tend to rivet on one issue at a time compared to UN which focuses and many issues at a time, thus there is overload of work inwardly the UN, therefore the procedure of monitoring is not effective. NGOs do not have any authority, it can pressurise Government by way of protest, NGOs can run aware campaigns and admit support and counciling services to the victims.NGOs cannot directlty enforce human rights, for human rights to be enforced, NGOs rely on courts, there are still loopholes in the law which favour the murderer, unless the loopholes are closed, the NGOs will not be effective. Majority of honour killings take place in remote areas such as NWFP due to poor infrastructure, as a result of poor infrastructure, it can be very difficult for NGOs to monitor remote areas of Pakistan.According to Khawar Mumtaz, a leading human rights activist said there were many as eight NGO s working in the NWFP and for betterment of women. The organisations were targeted by religious extremists, the houses of workers and directors were destroyed. The NGOs had to close their operations and flee from NWFP because of security concerns.Who else can serve well?Apart from the United Nations and NGOs, countries such as United Kingdom can help to tackle problems such as honour killings in Pakistan by giving them aid, which then can be used to improve the situation of human rights in Pakistan. The United Kingdom donated 2m in 2006 to set up a gender and justice protection fund, the main aim of the fund is to curb violence against women. Many critics argue that the aid which is given is not always spent on protection of human rights due to high levels of putridness within the the Government.How can we raise up this social evil?Legal measuresThe Government of Pakistan must repeal the Qisas law as it provides a loophole for murderers to exploit, the fight against the menance c annot be won unless Pakistani Government makes further ammendments to law.Adopt a jurisprudence which would criminalise all forms of domestic violence, The UN has developed a framework for a model legislation which can be adopted.Honour killing should be treated as a crime against the state and Preventive measures stomach campaigns to inform citizens of their human rights througout the country. Currently Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights is running a human rights mass awareness campaign throughout the country. The campaign is approached through print and electronic media, the campaign is delivered in the form of jingles, talk shows, commercials, slogans and promotional material in the Newspapers.In remote areas such as NWFP and intimate Sindh, the people dont usually have access to electronic media or recentspapers. The literacy levels are low in pakistan, the literacy rate for women in 16%, this means that media is ineffective in remote areas because there is no televisi ons and majority of the women cannot read and write. The women who live in remote areas are most vunerable.Honour killing crimes are under-reported, as a result it is not possible to estimate the real magnitude of the problem. Monitoring and collecting information would help the Government to understand the problem better, and therefore it will enable the Government to come up with better strategy.Protective measuresProvide adequate protection to human rights activists and lawyers, often leading human rights activits such as Hina Jilani and Asma Jehangir. In one incident, the two daughters of Asma Jehangir were assaulted and illegally held for several hours along with their friends by build up persons because they were making a video clip. The police did eventually arrive but failed to take any action againt the perpertrators, the police asked Asma Jehangir to remain quiet otherwise the girls would be kidnapped, raped and killed.If activists are not adequately protected by law enf orcement agencies then they will not be able to fight for protection of human rights.Long term strategiesHonour killing is not a recent phenomoen, similar practices have been known since ancient popish times, when the Pater Familias (senior male within a household) retained the right to kill an unmated but sexually active daughter or an adulterous wife. In order to fully eradicate this menance, we should sense of smell at the true gouge causes in order to curb this heinous crime against women. The three main factors areMale dominationFinancial dependencyLack of educationMale dominationBoth men and women should be delineated equally in all public institutions, most importantly there should be proportiante representaion of women in the Government. The National Assemebly of Pakistan(equivalent to Parliament) has a total number 342 seats and 60 seats are reserved for women, only 17.5% of seats are meshed by women, in order to protect rights of women, it is imperative they are rep resented proportionaly in the Government.At the moment, there are few women in the Government who are holding key Government ministry, Sherry Rehman is the only women who is holding the Ministry of discipline and Broadcasting which considered one of the important ministries. Recently Dr Fehmida Mirza was elected as the vocaliser of National Assembly, she is the first woman is Pakistan to be elected as the speaker unit of Natioanl Assembly.Late Benazir Bhutto was the first female apex minister of a muslim country. To end male domination, women should participate in politics, proportiante representation would mean that it will not possible to pass discriminatory laws in future against women such as Hudood ordinance as women would have a great say in the law making process.Financial dependency farthestming is the largest of economy of Pakistan, 79.8% of rural women are engaged in some material body of agricultural work. Majority of rural women have dual responsibilties, they hav e to look after house and work in agricultural land as well but they are grossly underpaid, in many cases they are not paid at all. Most women living in rural areas of Pakistan are not aware of their rights such as equal pay, the Government should run campaigns to em federal agency women and inform them of their rights.The Government should run courses to give women vocational training, this would improve womens capacity to earn by increasing womens access to source of livelihood, in particular cottage industry, livestock end product and agriculture.Only 9% of the jobs in the services industry of Pakistan are done by women. The Government should encourgae equal employment oppurtunities, it was only 2001 when an Act was introduced which ensures equal remunaration for men and women for work of equal value.Study carried by a NGO confirmed the widespread occurrence of sexual harrasment of women at the workplace, the Government of Pakistan been able to implement laws which adequately pr otect women at the workplace. Government should undertake measure to make places more safe so women could work without fear of discrimination and harassment.Lack of educationOnly 16% of women in Pakistan are literate. illiteracy rates are very high Pakistan. The education sector in trauma from inadequate financing and infrastructure. The budget allocated to education sector is low, Pakistan is one of the twelve countries who spend 2% of their GDP on eduction sector. Education necessarily to be improved, more schools are needed in Pakistan so more girls could attend school.How practical is it to enforce rights in Pakistan?Lack of eductation and financial independence are the main factors which go against from going to relevant law authorities for protection of their human rights, low literacy rate and lack of awareness does stop women for seeking protection against violations of human rights. Also approching the judiciary through a lawyer can be a expensive proposition, therefor e women do not attempt to take any action.Democracy and human rightsIt is believed that military regime are the worst offenders of human rights, from November 1999 to Feburary 2008, General Pervez Musharraf, a array general has enjoyed absolute power over Pakistan. In his term many human rights abuses took place such lal masjid killings and he sacked 12 judges out of 17 judges to install his own hand picked judges. General Pervez Musharrafs human rights record has been poor.Elections took place on eighteenth Feburary 2008, most specators believe that elections were free and fair and democracy was restored. Recently the new Government ratified a key UN human rights treaty and sign-language(a) two others, this suggests that the new democratic Government is serious about human rights issues and the position of human rights should be better under the Government of Pakistan packs Party.For many years, a military general had absolute power over Pakistan, the military regime was rarely criticised by ground forces or UK because of Pakistan position against war on terror, infact he was praised by George W bush and Tony Blair for his role despite the fact that he committed various violations of international law during his tenure, UN never imposed any sparing sanctions on Pakistan, infact economic sanctions were lifted which were on Pakistan for conducting nuclear tests in 1997 after he promised support to hunt Osama bin Laden. Human rights violations in Pakistan are often snub by major member states such USA and UK. The major member states did provide immunity to a dictator against human right violations, If USA and UK would have not supported Musharraf and would have taken steps primarily to restore democracy in Pakistan then the human rights situations would have been far improved by now.Jirga systemJirga is defined a tribal forum consisting of male elders of the tribe. Majority of the cases relating to honour killings are decided in Jirga instead of a formal court. Jirga should be proscribed because the system is unfit to provide justice to women, male elders are biased towards women, trial by jirga is the prime protector of the tradition of honour killing. The tribal assembly usually consists of noncivilised male elders who do not have the knowledge and the skills to judge.They do not have any jurisdiction to impose capital punishments. Sindh is the only province of Pakistan where the panchayat(equivalent to Jirgra system) have been banned, Jirga system still usable in Baluchistan and North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Jirga system should be be completely banned throughout Pakistan, the only reason why Jirga system is still operational in rural parts of Pakistan because it seen as a cheaper alternative.Any go for?Pakistan is grappling with many crisis at the moment, the burning of judiciary is still unsolved. at that place is shortage flour and food prices are rising dramatically. There is severe shortage of basic neccesat ies such as electricity and clean pee in Pakistan. Recently, one of the most popular leader of Pakistan was shot dead.The new Pakistani Government is facing many problems and as result of that, they are not able to fully concentrate human rights issues, honour killings have rarely received any attention from the media or the new Government. We can only hope that the new Government takes positive steps to curb this social evil, so far there has been no progress do by the new Government to address this problem.Pakistan as a suffering from increasing unemployment, increasing inflation and growing anger and frustrations with the system, lack of opportunities, all these factors can lead to violence against women, all tend to build annoyance in men. At the end of the day, its the women who are at the receiving end of the vented frustration, thus violence against women occurs as a direct result.