|
|
|
|
Concluding Statement Court of Women1
Teresa C. Ulloa Ziáurriz2
This First Court of Women, celebrated on the occasion of the First Social Forum of the United States of America, in Atlanta, Georgia, on the 28th of June, 2007, me, Teresa Ulloa, one of the invited judges, convened facing the increase of violent murders of women in the Americas and the impunity that surround them, thought about the serious violation of human rights, in each one of our countries, to which we cannot remain indifferent nor silent, the reasons why I proclaim the following Declaration:
Considering:
That violence against women cannot be part of an abstraction, considering it as an individual act realized by certain persons in specific circumstances, but it must be considered as the States responsibilities to guarantee the life, integrity and security of women and girls, an obligation that is binding upon the state.
That violence against women and girls is a mechanism used to maintain the authority of men, reinforcing the existing patriarchal norms and, consequently, it is necessary to think about a wider social context such as the one of power relations in order to find the converging factors of these patriarchal norms.
That every day and in every part of our continent and of the world, women and girls are being murdered. Those crimes are perpetrated in situations of armed conflicts or war, in the streets, associated with violations or with organized crime, prostitution or snuff pornography; or realized by their husbands, boyfriends, or ex-boyfriends. All the crimes related to sex-gender have the same risk factor: being a woman or a girl.
That the murders of women and girls must be understood in the wider context of relations of dominion and masculine control on women, relations naturalized in the patriarchal culture, in its multiple mechanisms to violate, silence, and allow their impunity.
That as the society excuses, the ones interpreting and applying the laws, also excuse and allow to maintain as invisible this serious problem and collaborate to create an impunity that has severe social effects.
That those crimes, as well as those occurring within the framework of personal relations, the intimate femicides, are excused using the arguments of violent emotion, passion, etc. This situation only reinforces the impunity.
That the pain that the family suffers, and its consequences on their daughters and sons, mothers or fathers is irreparable. The justice system also offends the victims by stigmatizing them and re-victimizing their families, denying them the access to justice and the reparation or compensation for the damages caused. Consequently, as long as this is not made visible and the gravity of the problem is not recognized, there cannot be any effective sanctions.
That violence against women is an obstacle that prevents democracy, development, and peace and that it is urgent to stop the abusive and indiscriminate murders of women, to resist and fight against the normalization of the problem. It is also urgent that the States and the justice systems implement, put in place, and execute security policies in order to recuperate the rights of women to live a life free of any form of violence.
That the forced disappearances of women, men, girls, and boys, the feminicides and State homicides perpetrated by dictatorships, paramilitaries, armies and polices, with the complicity of political and economic power sectors, at the national level as well as at the international level, these products of repression, wars, internal armed conflicts, dirty wars, and low intensity wars, cannot be forgotten. It is necessary to recuperate the historic memory of those facts that constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity and that provoke deep pain and suffering.
CONSEQUENTLY, WE DEMAND:
First. To promote the elaboration of Inter-institutional plans for the prevention of the feminicides that would include, among others aspects: the education for peace and non- violence against women, the strict fulfillment of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women; the measurement and criterion about the risk and the magnitude of the facts; an emergency alert system, activation of the existing resources and presentation of annual reports on femicides, as well as the elaboration of social audits (social autopsies to detect where were the failures of the social tissue) for every murdered women.
Second. That femicide be legally recognized as a crime, through a special law or by including it in the penal codes. In addition, some work should be done about penal procedures that reduce all possibility of impunity such as: non conciliation, preventive prison or the establishment of effective measures to protect the victims, like the fact that the burden of proof should not be their responsibility.
Third. That the judgment of civil workers, social justice operators, security corps, and religious leaders involved in the violation of human rights of women and girls be recognized.
Fourth. That the rejection, condemnation, and zero tolerance of violence against women and girls be exerted by civil workers and by international or regional organizations and their staffs.
Fifth. That the Inter-American Human Rights System be recognized and accepted, in fact and not only legally, applying without any delay the urgent protection measures dictated by this System.
Sixth. That unified data bases be created, for all the institutions involved in registering the cases of femicides in order to allow the corresponding institutions to analyze the cases and then take the necessary measures to fight them, prevent them, and sanction them.
Seventh. That a registry of human rights’ violators and perpetrators of violence against women be created in order to name them and to legally prosecute them and to socially condemn them, in any country of the world.
Eighth. That laws be implemented to allow the recuperation of historic memory of the crimes committed during wars, internal armed conflicts, dirty wars, and low intensity wars; that the damages occasioned by State violence be repaired; that the perpetrators be sanctioned and persecuted; and that the victims be dignified in order to never allow, accept or realize these type of crimes, crimes that only brought suffering and mourning, and that have never allowed recuperative justice.
We Convene:
To all Participants of the First USA Social Forum to adopt the present Declaration and to collectively and individually condemn femicide violence.
We Condemn and Reject:
We demand the total elucidation about the facts, the punishment of the intellectual and material perpetrators, and we dedicate this Declaration to Her memory.
Proclaimed on June 28, 2007, in Atlanta, Georgia.
About the Facts and the Perpetrators, not forgetting, nor forgiving.
For Women’s Life, No more Impunity.
For Women’s Life, No more Deaths.
Stop the War against Women.
Truth, Justice, and Reparation.
1 Court of Women, First USA Social Forum. Atlanta, Georgia, June 28, 2007.
2 Regional Director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Girls for Latin America and the Caribbean.
bravenet.com