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Euro-Latin American Parliamentary AssemblyAssemblée Parlementaire Euro-Latino-AméricaineAsamblea Parlamentaria Euro-LatinoamericanaAssembleia parlamentar Euro-Latino-Americana

Parlamentarische Versammlung EuropaLateinamerika

EURO-LATIN AMERICAN PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY

Committee on Social Affairs, Youth and Children, Human Exchanges, Education and Culture

17.6.2013

WORKING DOCUMENTFemicide in the European Union and Latin America

EP rapporteur: Raül Romeva i Rueda

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I. Introduction: femicide - a problem brought to light

Homicide is a serious crime everywhere. It violates an individual’s right to life and has terrible consequences for society as a whole, in the form of the suffering which the loss of a loved one causes and the feelings of public insecurity that homicide provokes, which in turn erode social and human capital and undermine community development1. The repercussions are even worse in the case of femicide, in that it fuels discrimination against women, reinforcing sexist stereotypes by virtue of the nature of the crimes committed and the State's repeated failure to respond appropriately (by preventing, investigating and punishing those crimes), which then has a direct impact on victims' families, particularly their children, etc.

The term ‘femicide’ has been used since the beginning of the 1990s to refer to and to condemn cases in which women have been killed on account of their gender2, and has been employed most widely over the past twenty years in Latin America, where it is known as femicidio or feminicidio. It has also come to be used in recent years in European countries such as Spain and Italy3.

Femicide includes, but is not limited to, the serious cases of disappearance, sexual violence and killings of women and girls in certain parts of Mexico and Central America, whose perpetrators often go unpunished and which have been condemned by the women's movement since the beginning of the 1990s. Femicide also refers to the widespread killing of women and girls in other Latin American countries, Europe and the rest of the world, by their partners or ex partners, or in sexual attacks by persons unknown to them. Most killings of women worldwide are cases of femicide4.

Femicide is the most extreme form of violence against women in patriarchal cultures; it is the ultimate manifestation of a continuum of violence which includes various kinds of mistreatment, harassment and sexual violence and which affects women everywhere and in all walks of life. Crimes of this kind reinforce the idea that women are sexual objects and belong to men.

Femicide is a key indicator of the state of play as regards violence against women in different 1 Ganpat, Soenita; Granath, Sven; Hagstedt, Johanna; Kivivuori, Janne; Lehti, Martti; Liem, Marieke and Nieuwbeerta, Paul (2011). Homicide in Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden. A First Study on the European Homicide Monitor Data. Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, National Research Institute of Legal Policy and Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology at Leiden University. p. 10. 2 Russell, Diana and Caputi, Jane (1990). ‘Femicide: Speaking the unspeakable’. Ms. magazine, September-October / 1990, pp. 34 – 37. Diana Russell had already used the term ‘femicide’ at the International Tribunal on Crimes against Women in 1976 (Russell, Diana and Van de Ven, Nicole (1976). Crimes against women. Proceedings of the international tribunal, Les Femmes Pub, Millbrae – California).3 For example: Adolfi, Laura; Giusti, Sara; Breveglieri, Agnese; Ottaviani, Elisa; Karadole, Cristina; Venneri,Virginia and Verucci, Cinzia (2010). Il costo di essere dona: Indagini sul femicidio in Italia. I dati del 2010. Casa delle donne per non subire violenza di Bologna; Spinelli, Barbara (2006). Violenza Sulle Donne: Parliamo di Femminicidio. Spunti di riflessione per affrontare a livello globale il problema della violenza sulle donne con una prospettiva di genere. Giuristi Democratici; Instituto Centro Reina Sofía (ICRS) (2010), III Informe Internacional. Violencia contra la mujer en las relaciones de pareja. Estadísticas y Legislación, Serie Documentos 16, Consejo General del Poder Judicial (CGPJ), España (2011). Informe sobre víctimas mortales de la violencia de género y de la violencia doméstica en el ámbito de la pareja o ex pareja en 2011.4 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) (2011), Global Study on Homicide 2011. Trends, contexts, data.

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countries; the seriousness of the problem calls for political responses, and for appropriate and coordinated measures in those countries, including action by legislative bodies. The EuroLat Parliamentary Assembly has a vital role to play in that respect.

II. Society’s condemnation and the responses of countries to femicide

Following the dramatic cases in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, global condemnation of femicide has raised the profile of this problem in many countries. Condemnation of femicide had huge political force because it highlighted the extreme nature of the violence against women, in that this even endangers the right women have to life, something which – in the majority of cases – could have been avoided through use of suitable preventive and protective measures

In Latin America, the driving force behind the first reports and studies on femicide in various countries at the beginning of the last decade – which showed that femicide does not always take the same form throughout the American continent – was the particular way the women’s movement was coordinated.

In some countries, – especially in Central America and Mexico – the prevalence of organised crime, armed violence and the weakness of the justice systems all create a setting conducive to the intensity, magnitude and impunity of crimes against women increasing. Although the number of male homicides has also risen in these countries in recent years, the number of women murdered has risen far more1.

As in other armed conflicts, the highly violent situation in these countries means that the structural violence women confront is stepped up and intensified. In highly violent contexts, cruelty against women has symbolic connotations within armed groups, which treat women’s bodies brutally. But it is also easy in highly violent contexts for people who do not belong to armed groups to obtain weapons and use them on women in the domestic setting. Likewise they benefit from the justice system being weak in its actions and the resultant impunity.

In other Latin American countries, such as Chile, Argentina or Peru, it is primarily the women’s partners or spouses, or former partners or spouses, who commit femicide, often after years of brutal treatment. These cases confirm the failings of measures implemented to prevent this extreme form of violence against women and to protect women at risk.

Europe too has started to pay more and more attention to femicide under a variety of official terms, although the limited information available often only includes deaths of women caused by their partners/spouses or former partners/spouses2. While figures for homicides have tended to fall in Europe in recent years, figures for domestic homicides – which are the cases that affect women the most – have not fallen3. Half of the women murdered in Germany died

1 Carcedo, Ana (coord.) (2010), No olvidamos ni aceptamos: Femicidio en Centroamérica 2000-2006, San José, Costa Rica. Asociación Centro Feminista de Información y Acción (CEFEMINA).2 In Spain, for instance, they are described as deaths caused by ‘gender violence’, in France, they are caused by ‘domestic violence’.3 UNODC (2011), op. cit. p. 60.

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at the hands of their partner/spouse or former partner/spouse1, while in France the number of women murdered in ‘domestic violence’ has risen in the last year by more than 20 %2. In Italy too, feminist organisations report a sustained increase in female homicides in recent years3.

The term femicide began to be used in feminist activism in countries such as Spain and Italy, in condemning the failure of measures implemented to date by countries to prevent and eradicate femicide. It was also used in recommendations by the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women in Italy in 20124.

Condemnation of femicide in both Latin America and Europe receives broad support in international law. Numerous instruments, declarations, conferences and resolutions from international bodies, both worldwide and regional, address discrimination and violence against women5. The specific treaties on violence against women that have been adopted in both the Americas and in Europe are of particular importance: the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women (Belem do Pará Convention) adopted by the Organization of American States in 1994 and the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention) adopted in 2011. The latter has not yet entered into force as it has not yet been ratified by a sufficient number of countries.

In Latin America, the Belém do Pará Convention contains specific obligations on States Parties which must act with due diligence to prevent, punish and eradicate violence against women, both in the public and private spheres. In addition, various international human rights bodies have gone further by making specific recommendations to countries on femicide –such as the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, the Special Rapporteur on women’s rights of the Inter-American Commision on Human Rights, the Human Rights Committee, the CEDAW Committee, etc. – particularly in countries where not only are women murdered, but passivity and negligence by state officers leads to impunity.

The judgment by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the Cotton Field Case6 was fundamental in laying down clearly the specific obligations on countries in preventing, investigating, punishing and providing reparation in cases of women being murdered on account of their gender, and in recognising that countries bore responsibility on account of the failure by justice systems to respond to crimes that affect women, as well as the measures that

1 According to figures from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) for 2011: of 313 women murdered, 154 died at the hands of their partner/spouse or ex partner/spouse. The report for 2011 (published in 2012) is the first in which the BKA has provided information on the relationship between victim and murderer in homicides.2 Rising from 122 women killed through domestic violence in 2011 to 148 in 2012, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior published in June 2013.3 Rising from 84 cases in 2005 to 120 in 2011, according to cases reported by the press.4 Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Rashida Manjoo. Addendum: Mission to Italy (15 June 2012). A/HRC/20/16/Add.25 Already in 1992 the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, in its General Recommendation No 19, recognised that violence against women is a form of discrimination in accordance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979. The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women was adopted in 1993 and violence against women was addressed in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995). Since then the number of references to violence against women has multiplied in a wide variety of international instruments. 6 Inter-American Court of Human Rights, judgment of 16 November 2009 in González et al (‘Cotton Field’) v. Mexico.

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must be taken in this respect.

The result of all this, together with constant activism on these crimes by the women’s movement, is that, in just six years, nearly a dozen Latin American countries have approved specific laws punishing femicide1. In some case, as in Guatemala for instance, special courts have also been set up for offences involving violence against women.

Progress has also been made in Europe in devising instruments to tackle violence against women in its many forms. In addition to specific instruments on violence against women2, the European Union has approved legislation that specifically meets the needs of women who are victims of gender violence, such as the EU Directive on victims of crime3 and the Directive on the European protection order4.

The Istanbul Convention adopted in 2011 will become the first international treaty on this problem at European level – equivalent to the Belem do Pará Convention at inter-American level – even though it has not yet received the number of ratifications required to enter into force. The Convention contains specific obligations on countries in regard to violence against women and children, creating a common base that will lead to the adoption of similar laws and policies in the different countries.

The European Parliament has also been proactive in regard to violence against women, regularly adopting resolutions and declarations5, including one on its concern over femicides in Latin America, and especially those in Mexico and Central America, and the importance of EU action6. The 2010 Declaration of the High Representative of the European Union, Catherine Ashton, on behalf of the EU on femicide addressed this problem specifically. 7

Condemnation of femicide and activism in the field have led to significant progress being made in both Latin America and Europe. However, reality shows that the instruments currently available are proving insufficient to stop the scourge of femicide.

1 Costa Rica, Guatemala, Colombia, Chile, El Salvador, Peru, Nicaragua, Honduras, Mexico (and more than 20 Mexican federal bodies), Argentina and Bolivia.2 For instance: Recommendation Rec(2002)5 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the protection of women against violence Adopted 30 April 2002. Available at http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/standardsetting/equality/03themes/violence-against-women/Rec(2002)5_Spanish.pdfIn addition, on 8 December 2008 the General Affairs Council adopted guidelines on violence against women and girls and combating all forms of discrimination against them. Available at:http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cmsUpload/16173en08_web.pdf. 3 Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime, and replacing Council Framework Decision 2001/220/JHA.4 Directive 2011/99/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on the European protection order.5 For instance, European Parliament resolution of 5 April 2011 on priorities and outline of a new EU policy framework to fight violence against women (2010/2209(INI)) (2012/C 296 E/04), European Parliament resolution of 26 November 2009 on the elimination of violence against women (2010/C 285 E/07), and the Declaration of the European Parliament of 9 September 2010 on establishing a European Year of Combating Violence against Women (2011/C 308 E/18).6 European Parliament resolution of 11 October 2007 on the murder of women (feminicide) in Mexico and Central America and the role of the European Union in fighting the phenomenon (2007/2025(INI)).7 Declaration by the High Representative Catherine Ashton on behalf of the European Union on Femicide (June 2010) http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/es/cfsp/115603.pdf

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III. The ongoing nature of the problem and the urgent need for new strategies

Although there has been a worldwide downward trend in murders in recent decades – despite the upsurge in several Latin American countries – this has not been the case with murders ofwomen. Although the majority of all murders are committed against men, women are the most likely victims of killings within a relationship or family unit. No such gradual downward trend has been observed in such crimes at global level1. This relative increase is a worldwide phenomenon, but its nature and magnitude differ from country to country.

The growth in information available and the increasing severity of incidents has led the United Nations to address specifically the issue of femicide in recent documents2, such as the Summary report on the expert group meeting on gender-motivated killings of women3, an addendum to the 2012 Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Rashida Manjoo.

In Latin America, although the laws against femicide are a step towards recognising its enormity and specific nature, simply adopting legislation is no guarantee that the public policies needed to help prevent and eliminate this phenomenon will be implemented. Few of these laws actually provide for preventive measures or public policies that seek to investigate, punish or prevent this phenomenon. In many cases, only murders committed by the female victim’s partner or ex-partner are prosecuted as femicides – crimes committed by sex offenders are excluded – a classification that is so narrow it often simply ignored in practice. Furthermore, there are still some countries in which those guilty of femicide may plead extenuating circumstances such as being overcome with violent fits of emotion or jealousy.

If we wish to reduce impunity, a further problem in several countries in the region, we must first address the structural problems besetting their justice systems, such as the negligence by law enforcement and legal agencies in criminal investigations. Such issues cannot be resolved by merely coming up with a satisfactory legal definition of femicide.

In Europe, information on femicides remains neither comprehensive nor comparable Although Europe’s various countries have statistics on homicides, there is insufficient information on murders of women, and not all cases of gender-based killings can therefore be identified. Even in Spain, where records are kept of murders of women by partners or ex-partners but not of other gender-based killings, feminist organisations maintain that there are almost twice as many femicides as the official figures state4. The paucity of information on

1 UNODC (2011), op. cit. 2 For example the Secretary-General's in-depth study on all forms of violence against women (A/61/122/Add.1) and, in particular, the CEDAW Committee and the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women. 3 United Nations Human Rights Council (2012). Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Rashida Manjoo. Addendum: Summary report on the expert group meeting ongender-motivated killings of women, 16 May 2012, A/HRC/20/16/Add.4http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session20/A-HRC-20-16-Add4_en.pdf4 Laporta, Elena (2013). España. Una restringida acepción de la “violencia de género” y los feminicidios. In: Heinrich Böll Stiftung-European Union, Feminicidio: Un fenómeno global. De Madrid a Santiago.http://www.boell.eu/downloads/Feminicide_ES_new_.pdf

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these cases makes it impossible to adopt effective policies and preventive measures that reflect the reality of the situation; a state of affairs made worse by the fact that crimes committed by partners or ex-partners of women are surely far more predictable and avoidable than violent deaths attributable to other social causes.

The structural adjustment policies currently being implemented in the various EU Member States are seriously curtailing the exercise of citizens’ rights and having a severely retrograde effect on policies to address and eliminate violence against women1. This has led to losses in not only financial, but also human, resources: the departure of specialist professionals who cannot be easily replaced.

IV. Challenges for the European Union and Latin America

Femicide, the most extreme of the many forms of violence against women, is one of the most shocking symptoms of the persistent, deep-rooted discrimination against women in our societies. This structural discrimination remains present around the world, but has characteristics particular to each country and region and is particularly aggravated when combined with other forms of discrimination, social or economic inequalities – for reasons of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, social origin, geographic location, etc. – or weaknesses in the rule of law.

The European Union and the countries of Latin America currently have a specific legislative framework for the eradication of violence against women. The Convention of Belém do Pará and the Istanbul Convention should form the framework for the implementation of common strategies for the reduction of violence against women, and femicide in particular.

In recent years, various stakeholders in Europe and Latin America, both governmental bodies and non-state actors, have examined and addressed the issue of femicide. The EuroLat Parliamentary Assembly notably condemned femicide in its resolution on ‘Poverty and social exclusion’, adopted in 20082. In 2010, the EU-LAC Summit again condemned all forms of gender violence and called for the adoption of any and all necessary measures to prevent and eradicate it3.

The 2013-2015 EU-CELAC Action Plan, adopted in Santiago de Chile in January 2013, was the first such document to include a chapter on gender issues – with a focus on eliminating all forms of violence against women – which will be accorded priority status in bi-regional relations. The plan provides for the establishment of a forum for bi-regional dialogue on

1 In Spain the ‘Impacto de Género’ campaigning platform has claimed that, in respect of the 2013 national budget, ‘equality policies have been cut by 24% on 2012 – almost three times average cuts made to budgets for government ministries (8.9%) – and policies to combat gender violence have been reduced by 7%, when compared with the 2011 budget the cuts are of 39% and 27%, respectively.’ http://impactodegeneroya.blogia.com/2012/110501-presupuestos-del-estado-2013-24-menos-en-politicas-de-igualdad-y-del-estado-de-b.php2 Paragraph 18 of the resolution on Poverty and social exclusion based on the report by the Committee on Social Affairs, Human Exchanges, Environment, Education and Culture, (Lima 2008). Available here: http://www.parlatino.org/es/eurolat/declaraciones-eurolat/resoluciones-eurolat/resoluciones/841.html3 Declaration of the VI EU-LAC Summit, Madrid, 18 May 2010 (Paragraph 9) http://ec.europa.eu/research//iscp/pdf/lac/declaration_es.pdf

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gender issues and calls for action to address and eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls, including exchanges of experiences on best practices and measures in this respect, and for concrete measures to be taken to investigate gender-based killings. This dialogue is, it should again be stressed, contingent on the continuation of work in several countries at governmental and civil-society level.

Against this backdrop, the EuroLat Parliamentary Assembly is in the privileged position of being able to set the guidelines that will shape future strategies and action. The role of the Latin America’s and Europe’s legislative bodies has been and will continue to be key in combating violence against women and eradicating femicide, both in terms of the legislation they enact and their close relationship with civil society.

V. Conclusions and recommendations

If progress is to be made towards eradicating femicide in Latin America and Europe, administrative, judicial and legislative instruments and mechanisms are needed at various levels.

It is essential that comprehensive official statistics about femicide, compiled in collaboration with feminist and women’s associations active in this field, should be available in all countries. These statistics should also cover cases of attempted femicide and other serious acts of violence against women, so that comprehensive records can be used to make efforts to prevent the killing of women more effective. Information of this kind will make it easier to take suitable measures to protect women who experience violence, irrespective of whether the crime has been reported or whether criminal or other proceedings have been initiated.

It is crucial to strengthen legislative and administrative measures which guarantee access to effective justice, do away with impunity, and provide for redress for victims and their families. This includes overcoming physical, economic and cultural barriers to women’s access to justice, providing education in an effort to stamp out discriminatory practices, and penalising representatives of the state who fail to exercise proper diligence in this area.

As well as dealing with the criminal aspects of femicide, legislative measures must also address the civil and family law implications, in particular as regards any children of the victim who are minors, and the murderer.

The work of organisations defending women’s rights should be supported and strengthened, including by means of appropriate measures to protect human rights activists who work in the most violent environments and are therefore most at risk.

Particular attention should be paid to the climates of extreme violence in many Latin American countries, and state strategies to combat violence involving weapons should be revised to reflect the disproportionate impact such violence has on the lives and safety of women.

The media plays a fundamental role everywhere, given the direct influence it has on the way violence is perceived and interpreted by society. Basic ethical criteria are needed to govern the way in which violence against women – in particular femicide – is portrayed in the media.

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All the measures outlined above call for consistent state funding, in recognition of the fact that ‘violence against women and girls is both an extreme manifestation of gender inequality and discrimination, and a deadly tool used to maintain women's subordinate status'1.

The issue of violence against women, and femicide in particular, must continue to be addressed regularly in bilateral and regional political forums involving the governments of the EU Member States and Latin American countries and civil society.

EU-CELAC dialogue on gender is essential if this type of extreme violence against women is to be eradicated. It should take account of the differences between individual countries, but also acknowledge that common factors and strategies can be identified in cooperation with women’s associations and representatives of civil society from both regions. In this regard, the EuroLat Parliamentary Assembly is the ideal forum for further and closer dialogue on this subject.

1 UN Women, Progress of the World’s Women 2011-2012: In Pursuit of Justice (2011).