How You Can Fight for Women & Girls Forced to Marry Their Rapists in Mozambique

March 7, 2014 at 8:00 AM

Portrait of a mother with her child in Chimoio, Mozambique (Photo Credit: Ute Grabowsky/Photothek via Getty Images).

This month, Mozambique is considering draconian revisions to its criminal code that will allow accused rapists to escape punishment if they marry the sexual assault survivor.

To say this is a violation of the rights of the survivors is a gross understatement. The law not only minimizes the trauma of the survivor and ignores their rights to bodily integrity and not be subjected to torture, cruel, inhumane and and degrading treatment, it encourages impunity and escape from legal repercussions for heinous criminal violations.

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Celebrate International Women’s Day – Equality for Women Is Progress for All!

By Guest Writer

March 6, 2014 at 3:30 PM

By Rebecca Landy, Women’s Human Rights Coordination Group

Saturday, March 8 is International Women’s Day – a day marking global recognition of women’s rights. International Women’s Day (IWD) was first celebrated in 1911 in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland as a day of demanding women’s rights to work, hold office, and vote. It wasn’t until 1975 that it was given official U.N. recognition. Every year, the U.N. designates a theme for the day.

For 2014, the year’s theme is: Equality for Women is Progress for All.

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Have You Seen These Stunning Images Created for our My Body My Rights Campaign?

By The Editors

March 6, 2014 at 10:22 AM

The images are striking. A woman holds the key to her own body. Another woman’s wrist disappears, gives way to a blister pack of contraceptive pills. A pile of books are embedded in a man’s back.

These are some of the illustrations painted on real bodies by Tokyo-based artist Hikaru Cho to kick-start “My Body My Rights,” Amnesty International’s new global campaign on sexual and reproductive rights.

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This Friday, Rise for Justice!

By Cristina Finch

February 11, 2014 at 11:48 AM

Amnesty activists at One Billion Rising demonstration in Times Square last year (Photo Credit: Amnesty International).

Amnesty is once again a sponsoring partner of One Billion Rising, V-DAY’s campaign to mobilize women and men across the world to demonstrate their collective strength and solidarity in support of justice and the elimination of violence against women and girls.

Violence against women is one of the world’s most pervasive violations of human rights. One out of every three women worldwide will experience physical or sexual abuse during her lifetime and in some countries, rates of violence reach as high as 70 percent.

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Closing Morocco’s Rape Loophole is Just the First Step

By Guest Writer

January 31, 2014 at 3:00 PM

Zohra Filali holds a picture of her daughter, Amina, the week after she committed suicide. Amina took her own life by drinking rat poison in March 2012 after being forced to marry the man who allegedly raped her.

By Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Program. This post originally appeared in the International Business Times.

Amina Filali was just 16 years old when, in the depths of despair, she decided to take her own life.

Several months earlier the teenager from Morocco had been forced to marry a man whom she said had raped her.

In March 2012, Amina lost all hope. She swallowed rat poison in her hometown of Larache and died shortly afterwards.

Up until last week, men accused of rape in Morocco were able to escape prosecution by marrying their victim, if the girl was aged under 18.

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THIS EXISTS: Law Allows Rapists to Escape Prison If They Marry Underage Victims

By The Editors

January 22, 2014 at 2:30 PM

Amina Filali committed suicide by swallowing rat poison in March 2012. She was 16 years old. Her desperate act showed the depth of her pain and despair: she must have felt that nobody was there to help her.

We soon learned that Amina had been raped in her small Moroccan town, by a man she was then forced to marry. Imagine being married to your rapist, to be forced to see that person all the time – it would be devastating.

He married her because Moroccan law allows rapists to escape prosecution by marrying their victim, if she is aged under 18.

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The Quick Way You Can Take Action for Syrian Women Facing Gender Violence

By Geoffrey Mock

December 3, 2013 at 12:52 PM

To get to the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan, Syrian women and girls had to face a gauntlet of deadly violence including extortion, trafficking and abuse. Once in the camps, they expected to find safety.

What they found, according to Amnesty International researchers, was more danger and the threat of gender violence.

A majority of the 2.9 million Syrian refugees are women and children. Having fled violence, and often surviving a treacherous journey across the Syrian desert, these refugees sought safety and shelter in the camps. More than 120,000 of them made their way to the Za’atri camp, making it the largest refugee camp in Jordan.

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Congress, You’ve Been Given Homework: Pass I-VAWA!

By Julia Drost

November 21, 2013 at 5:44 PM

(Photo Credit: Futures Without Violence).

Yesterday, an overflowing Congressional hearing room sat (and stood) captivated as witnesses described the ongoing struggle to end gender-based violence (GBV) globally to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.

While it was exciting to be in a packed hearing room on Capitol Hill with many youth activists, all wearing bright Amnesty “Stop Violence Against Women” stickers, I will be the first to admit that the topic of the hearing wasn’t exactly uplifting. The global epidemic of violence against women is disturbing, astounding, and infuriating. Would there be any good news to report? Any glimmers of hope or progress that has been made?

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What I’ll Tell Congress About Violence Against Women

By Cristina Finch

November 19, 2013 at 11:24 AM

On Wednesday I will testify on behalf of Amnesty International USA before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hearing on gender-based violence. I’ll use the opportunity to talk about how gender-based violence affects everyone but also how it disproportionately affects women and girls.

I’ll tell Congress that violence against women takes many forms, including rape, domestic violence, female genital mutilation, child and forced marriage and acid attacks, to name a few. It’s a global human rights crisis that exacerbates instability and insecurity around the world.

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THIS EXISTS: Country Bans All Women From Driving

By Guest Writer

October 24, 2013 at 11:08 AM

Eman Al Nafjan is a female blogger from Saudi Arabia who has been campaigning against the driving ban. She was arrested by police earlier this month as she filmed a female driver breaking the ban. Get involved with the Women Driving Campaign on their official site, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

If there was one word to describe what it is like to be a Saudi woman, it would be the word patronizing. No matter how long you live, you remain a minor in the eyes of the government.

In Saudi Arabia, we take patriarchy to the extreme. The fact that the culture, like many others around the world, is male-dominated is not the major challenge. The real challenge is that the government has allowed this patriarchy to dictate how it deals with citizens.

Female citizens are assigned a legal male guardian from her immediate relatives. This male guardian can legally marry her off as a child to a man decades her senior. He can also legally and easily ban her from education, work and marriage. He has to pre-approve any international travel officially. Since basic education is free and college education comes with a stipend paid by the government to all public college students, most male guardians prefer to send their daughters to school. Yet in those cases where the male guardian chooses to imprison his female ward at home, the legal system makes it almost impossible for her to be able to get away.

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Human Rights Now Blog

Tag Archives: womens health sexual and reproductive rights

Closing Morocco’s Rape Loophole is Just the First Step

THIS EXISTS: Law Allows Rapists to Escape Prison If They Marry Underage Victims

The Quick Way You Can Take Action for Syrian Women Facing Gender Violence

Congress, You’ve Been Given Homework: Pass I-VAWA!