Geneva – Dubravka Šimonovic, Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Its Causes and Consequences, said today that the COVID-19 pandemic overshadows the pandemic of homicide and gender-based violence against women and girls. observatory around the world to prevent such killings.
Before the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, she makes the following statement:
‘While the world is grappling with the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its negative impact on women, a pandemic of women’s deaths 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 urgently take steps to prevent the pandemic of homicide or gender-based killings of women, and gender-based violence against women, by establishing national multidisciplinary prevention bodies or Femicide watches / observatories on violence against women. These bodies must be instructed to 1) collect comparable and divergent data on murders of women or gender-related murders of women; 2) conduct an analysis of cases of female homicides to determine shortcomings, and recommend measures to prevent such cases, and 3) to ensure that female homicide victims are not forgotten by keeping days of remembrance.
Data collected by this mandate through my Femicide Watch initiative since 2015 confirms the data available at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, indicating that more than 80% of victims are women among the victims of all intentional killings involving intimate partners. Many of these murders can be prevented.
Since 2015, a growing number of states have set up women murder guards or observers, and in an increasing number of countries, it is the independent human rights institutions, civil society organizations, women groups and / or academic institutions that set up woman murder guards. or observatories.
The outcome document of the Beijing + 25 local review meeting organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in October 2019 also supports this initiative on women’s killings. Recommendation 31 (j) calls on all countries to set up multidisciplinary national bodies such as Femicide Watch with the aim of actively working to prevent the murder of women or the genocide of women.
In his statement at 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 murder.
On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, I, and the undersigned UN and regional human rights mechanisms, call on all states and other relevant stakeholders to set up a women’s assassination and / or observatory on violence against women with the mandate to recommend measures for the prevention of murders of women and gender-based violence against women and to collect comparable and divergent data among categories of female murders with an intimate partner and family (based on the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator) and other murders by unrelated offenders. Data must also be set out on the basis of age, disability, gender identity, migrant status, internal displacement, racial or ethnic origin and belonging to indigenous communities or to a religious or linguistic minority. ‘
Dubravka Šimonovic, is the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Its Causes and Consequences. Her recommendations were endorsed by the following UN human rights signatories:
Elizabeth Broderick (Chair),
Dorothy Estrada Tanck,
Meskerem Geset Techane,
Ivana RadačIć,
Melissa Upreti (Vice-Chair),
Working group on discrimination against women and girls;
Siobhán Mullally, Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, in particular Women and Children;
Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, Special Rapporteur on the Freedoms of Peace of Peaceful Assembly and Association;
Aljoner Tine, independent expert on the human rights situation in Mali;
Isha Dyfan, independent expert on the human rights situation in Somalia;
Thomas Andrews, Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar;
Mama Fatima Singhateh, Special Rapporteur on Children’s Sexual Exploitation;
Claudia Mahler, Independent expert on the exploitation of all human rights by older persons; Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right of all to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health;
Alice Cruz, Special Rapporteur on the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons Affected by Leprosy, and Their Relatives;
Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, Special Rapporteur on Human Rights on Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation;
Fabian Salvioli, Special Rapporteur on Promoting Truth, Justice, Recovery and Guarantees of Non-Repetition; Nils Melzer, Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment;
Ikponwosa Ero, Independent expert on the enjoyment of human rights by people with albinism;
Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders;
David Boyd, Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment;
Chris Kwaja (Chairman-Rapporteur),
Jelena Aparac,
Lilian Bobea,
Ravindran Daniel and Sorcha MacLeod,
Working group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and hindering the exercise of the right of people to self-determination;
Michael Lynk, Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in the Palestinian Territories since 1967;
Michael Fakhri, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food; Obiora Okafor, independent expert on human rights and international solidarity;
Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights;
Diego García-Sayán, UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Advocates; Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Expression and Expression;
Gerard Quinn, Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities;
Javaid Rehman, Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran;
Ms Karima Bennoune, Special Rapporteur on 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 context;
Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the fight against terrorism;
Yao Agbetse, Independent expert on the human rights situation in the Central African Republic;
Felipe Gonzalez Morales, Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants;
Seed Alfarargi, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development;
Cecilia Jimenez-Damary, Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Displaced Persons;
Livingstone Sewanyana, Independent expert on promoting a democratic and just international order;
Ahmed Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief
And regional human rights mechanisms:
Tatiana Rein Venegas, President of the Committee of Experts on the Succession Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention;
Marceline Naudi, President of the Council of Europe Expert Group on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO);
Margarette May Macaulay, Inter-American Commissioner for Human Rights’s Rapporteur on Women’s Rights
The special rapporteurs are part of the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest group 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 specific situations in the country or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and receive no salary for their work. They are independent of any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.
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