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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SHOCKING: Teenage Gang-Rape Survivor in Sudan Convicted of ‘Indecent Acts’

By Guest Writer

February 25, 2014 at 8:00 AM

An 18-year-old Ethiopian migrant woman in Sudan was gang-raped – and now faces prison and a hefty fine for coming forward (Photo by Eric Lafforgue/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images).

By Alice Dahle, Amnesty USA’s Women’s Human Rights Coordination Group

An 18-year-old Ethiopian migrant woman in Khartoum, Sudan was out looking for housing, when she was lured into an empty property and gang-raped by seven men. A police officer found her after the attack and took her to the police station. However, since it was a public holiday, a formal complaint was not filed.

The perpetrators of the rapes filmed the attack and distributed the video through social media six months later. As a result, everyone involved was arrested.

Of the seven men put on trial, three were convicted of adultery and sentenced to 100 lashes. Two more were convicted of indecent acts and sentenced to 40 lashes and fines. Another man was convicted of distributing indecent material and sentenced to 40 lashes and a heavy fine. The seventh individual was released on grounds of insufficient evidence against him. Those sentenced to lashing had their sentences carried out immediately after the trial in a closed court.

But that’s not where the story ends.

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BREAKING: President Karzai Rejects Law Rolling Back Violence Protections for Women

By Julia Drost

February 19, 2014 at 12:47 PM

Afghan university students and independent civil society activists take part in a demonstration in support of passing the Elimination of Violence against Women law in front of Parliament in Kabul (Photo Credit: Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images).

This is what protecting human rights looks like: responding to resounding national and international outcry, including the voices of Afghan women and Amnesty activists around the world, early this week Afghan President Karzai blocked a new discriminatory law that would have denied justice to women and girls subjected to domestic violence, rape, and forced or child marriage.

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On the Desk of President Karzai: A New Discriminatory Law Against Afghan Women

By Julia Drost

February 14, 2014 at 8:00 AM

The deeply flawed Article prohibits the relatives of an accused individual from acting as witnesses during a criminal prosecution, including cases of violence against women (Photo Credit: Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images).

President Karzai’s pen is poised to approve a revision to Afghanistan’s Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) passed by Parliament that will prove catastrophic for the ability to Afghan women and girls to seek justice when family members commit acts of violence against them. His signature could come within a week’s time.

The deeply flawed Article 26 (clauses 4 and 6) of the CPC prohibits the relatives of an accused individual from acting as witnesses during a criminal prosecution, including cases of violence against women. This would mean that testimonies of relatives witnessing the rape of a family member or an honor killing will not be taken into consideration – a major concern where violence, including domestic violence and forced or child marriage, is predominantly perpetrated and/or witnessed by family members.

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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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U.S. Congress Takes Another Critical Step to Help Afghan Women’s Rights and Security

By Julia Drost

December 20, 2013 at 12:15 PM

Lieutenant Islam Bibi Helmand’s top female police officer (R) talking to a colleague on March 8, 2013. Known as the most senior female police officer in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, Bibi was shot dead on July 4, 2013 by unknown gunmen while being driven to work. The attack is seen as part of a series violence against top women officials (Photo Credit: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images).

Elsie De Laere, our Afghanistan country specialist, co-authored this piece.

The situation is unfortunately not unfamiliar yet it deteriorates with each passing day: Afghan women working to protect and advance their rights continue to face growing threats to their lives and safety.

Well-documented threats to female Members of Parliament and government, women’s human rights defenders, and female police officers occur on a daily basis, all set against the terrifying backdrop of an uncertain future currently being shaped by attempts to revoke provisions of the country’s Elimination of Violence Against Women law and potential peace negotiations with the Taliban and other insurgent groups that threaten to rollback gains for women’s human rights.

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Tag Archives: women peace and security

Closing Morocco’s Rape Loophole is Just the First Step

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