Introduction of Deborah Guidez in the meeting on Human Rights, organised in the feminist camping in Greece, the last day, 9th of July 2017. In the same meeting we had two more contributions, by Vicky Kanata on the Children’s Rights, and by Stella Kokkoli on the rights of women with psycological problems.
Deborah Guidez is sitting, and standing is the interpreter Sissy Vovou
Vicky Kanata (left) spoke about Children’s rights and Stella Kokkoli (right) about women with psychological problems.
I. REFUGEE RIGHTS
Two main instruments: the 1951 Refugee Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Optional Protocol.
It establishes the definition of a refugee in law for the first time. Some regional treaties have modified/extended it in response to displacement crises not covered by the Convention.
Key points:
Asylum proceedings and refugee status determination are left to each State party to develop.
A refugee is an individual who is ‘outside his or her country of nationality or habitual residence who is unable or unwilling to return due to a well-founded fear of persecution based on his or her race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group’ (article 1(A)(2)).
The principle of non-refoulement refers to the obligation of States not to refoule, or return, a refugee to “the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” Non-refoulement is universally acknowledged as a human right.
Freedom of movement is a key right for refugees within their host country.
The right to liberty and security of the person has to be ensured within the intended country of refuge.
The right to a family life. For that refugees are, in most signatory countries, allowed to be joined by their relatives (‘family reunification’). Thus, where an individual is granted asylum, his or her dependent relatives will also receive protection through him or her.
Other rights: as every citizen in the host country, refugees have the rights to education, access to justice, employment, and other fundamental freedoms and privileges similarly enshrined in international and regional human rights treaties.
Limits:
The provisions of the Convention resulted in disparities among different States as governments draft asylum laws based on their different resources, national security concerns, and histories with forced migration movements.
Internally displaced persons (IDPs), individuals fleeing natural disasters, stateless individuals and individuals who have crossed an international border fleeing generalized violence are not considered refugees under these laws.
The national laws of several countries provide for the detention of asylum seekers at one point or another during the adjudication of their claims. It is of serious concern because of the conditions found in the detention facilities of several countries. This is particularly an issue in Greece, a country overwhelmed by the number of asylum seekers it receives.
No State is obliged to accept non-nationals on its territory, even in the case of individuals who want to apply for asylum. The UDHR set the right for every person to apply for asylum and benefit from it in another country, BUT there is no corresponding right for the States to accept asylum seekers. Non-refoulement refers only to the obligation of processing asylum claims once they are lodged.
Gender is not considered as a ground of persecution; on the basis of this sole ground, the Convention does not enable an individual fleeing gender-based violence to be recognized as a refugee.
TOPSHOT – Migrants and refugees walk on January 8, 2016 after crossing the Macedonian border in the Serbian village of Miratovac. Migrants and refugees are facing deteriorating weather conditions as they make their way to the EU via the Balkans. Despite cold and heavy rain, thousands of migrants continue to arrive in Serbia. More than a million refugees and migrants arrived in Europe in 2015 in the worst crisis of its kind to face the continent since World War II. / AFP / ARMEND NIMANI (Photo credit should read ARMEND NIMANI/AFP/Getty Images)A woman looks through a window of rescue ship “Aquarius” as more the 380 migrants arrive in the port of Cagliari, Sardinia, on May 26, 2016, two days after being rescued near the Libyan coasts. The Aquarius is a former North Atlantic fisheries protection ship now used by humanitarians SOS Mediterranee and Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) which patrols to rescue migrants and refugees trying to reach Europe crossing the Mediterranean sea aboard rubber boats or old fishing boat. / AFP / GABRIEL BOUYS (Photo credit should read GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty
FOCUS ON WOMEN REFUGEES
Refugee women are entitled to the same kind of protection as all other refugees. The provisions of the 1951 Convention apply to “any person” who comes within the refugee definition.
But, in practice, asylum-seeking and refugee women often face a number of disadvantages in obtaining international protection, including:
The absence of gender as a ground of persecution in the refugee definition;
Unwillingness to recognise women as a particular social group;
Unequal access to procedures;
Failure of status determination officials to take into account that women are often persecuted and experience their persecution differently from men;
Increased risk of being subjected to sexual violence both in the country of origin and the country of asylum.
ANTALYA, TURKEY – FEBRUARY 24: Syrians woman holds her children after 50 refugees captured by Turkish coast guard while they were illegally trying to reach Greece’s Kastellorizo island, in shores of Kas District of Antalya, southern province of Turkey on February 24, 2016. (Photo by Süleyman Elcin/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
II. GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE IN TIME OF CONFLICT
Five UN Security Council Resolutions specifically address sexual violence in conflicts:
1. UNSC Resolution 1325 (2000)
The document focuses on the need for specific protections for women and girls in conflict and expresses the need to consider gender perspectives in mission, UN peace support operations, and post-conflict processes.
2. UNSC Resolution 1820 (2008)
Declares that rape and other forms of sexual violence “can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to genocide”.
3. UNSC Resolution 1888 (2009)
Perceived as an advancement in international law as it created the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Sexual Violence in Conflict.
Priorities:
to end impunity for sexual violence in conflict by assisting national authorities to strengthen criminal accountability, responsiveness to survivors and judicial capacity;
the protection and empowerment of civilians who face sexual violence in conflict, in particular, women and girls who are targeted disproportionately by this crime;
to mobilize political ownership by fostering government engagement in developing and implementing strategies to combat sexual violence;
to increase recognition of rape as a tactic and consequence of war through awareness-raising activities at the international and country levels;
4. UNSC Resolution 1960 (2010)
5. UNSC Resolution 2106 (2013)
Reasserts fundamental requirements for the prevention of sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict setting: gender equality, women empowerment.
In parallel, 13 UN bodies have launched a UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict and the Inter-Agency Standing Committee’s Sub-Working Group on Gender. Set up to highlight and create awareness of abuses against women and, ultimately, to end sexual violence and make the world safer for women and girls.
III. WOMEN’S RIGHTS
The general rule of non-discrimination in human rights law (cf the International Bill of Human Rights), provides that everyone in a country is entitled to the same human rights. In principle, women’s rights are protected as well.
However, there was a consensus in the international community that the rights of women were not being adequately addressed by the existing international human rights framework. This was so for some of the following reasons:
The existing framework reflects and was developed from a masculine worldview, without sufficient consciousness of the needs of women:
The development of international human rights law inherently privileged a masculine worldview. This was due to the traditional exclusion of women from the public sphere. Thus these rights reflect the political, and socio-economic perspective of its authors, who were overwhelmingly men from a privileged background.
International human rights bodies have tended to ignore the application of human rights norms to women:
In addition to being conceived from a male perspective, human rights provisions have also generally been understood and interpreted as relating to men and the male experience, rather than in their application to women.
The failure to address injustices in the private sphere:
Much inequality, discrimination and oppression of women takes place in the private sphere, and particularly within domestic and family life, which the existing international human rights framework did not address..
1. The CEDAW
To deal with these issues have been promulgated the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1979, to which over 189 states are parties (but 38 have made objections/reservations & the USA have signed but not ratified). It set standards States should implement:
Suppression of all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of women (Article 6);
Nationality (Article 9);
Education (Article 10);
Employment (Article 11);
Health care (Article 12);
Particular problems of rural women (Article 14 );
Equality before the law (Article 15); and
All matters relating to marriage and family relations (Article 16).
CEDAW codifies women’s rights to non-discrimination on the basis of sex, articulates their equality as a ‘self-standing norm’, and provides that women and men are entitled (on the basis of equality) to the enjoyment of human rights and freedoms in all fields.
2. The DEVAW
In complementarity is the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (DEVAW). Adopted in 1993, it provides a broad definition of violence against women, as well principals and standards key to addressing this global problem.
It stresses “the urgent need for the universal application to women of the rights and principles with regard to equality, security, liberty, integrity and dignity of all human beings”.
VIolence against women is defined as ‘any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life’.
Limits:
Concerns that much of the content has been threatened by the rise of more conservative forces within the international community.
-> In March 2003, during a meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women the delegate from Iran objected to the inclusion of a paragraph that called on governments to “condemn violence against women and refrain from invoking any custom, tradition, or religious consideration (…)”.
