Sexuality Policy Watch

Gender Perspectives on Torture: Law and Practice

Imagem1

I once asked a Guatemalan public defender how she knew when a woman’s murder was the result of gender-based violence and not a simple homicide. She showed me several pictures of women’s half or fully naked bodies exhibiting obvious signs of torture, mutilation, and violent sexual assault prior to their deaths. She said that was how women’s bodies were usually found. That was the difference between gender-based violence and simple homicide. Women’s bodies are often used as instruments to send messages of terror, or as instruments of pleasure, or as instruments of experimentation. In all of these cases, gender-based violence is recognizable because of its profound denial of personhood. The common thread running through the collection of articles presented in this publication is that women’s bodies are still looked at and treated as instruments, or means to achieving a goal, rather than as autonomous individuals. Killing a body to end a life is different than killing a body to send a signal. In both cases, the person is refused her or his basic right to life, but in the latter, the person is a mark, a sign for others to see and use.

This is how Macarena Saéz introduces the book Gender Perspectives on Torture: Law and Practice, a publication issued by the Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law: Anti-Torture Initiative at the Washington College of Law at the American University.

Download the book here.

List of Contents:

Preface: Macarena Sáez
xi Introduction: Juan E. Méndez
xv Foreword: Dubravka Šimonović

1 I. GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE: STATE RESPONSIBILITY

3 The Vital Voices Justice Institute: Helping States Combat Gender-Based Violence
Gigi Scoles and Anupama Selvam

19 Reparations for Sexual and Other Gender-Based Violence
Carla Ferstman

33 How Non-State Torture is Gendered and Invisibilized: Canada’s Non-Compliance with the Committee Against Torture’s Recommendations
Jackie Jones, Jeanne Sarson, and Linda MacDonald

57 The Importance of Investigating Torture Against Women and Girls by Non-State Actors: Applicable Legal Standards from International Human Rights Law
Teresa Fernández Paredes

 

87 II. GENDER AND SEXUALITY AS THE BASIS FOR SPECIFIC HARMS

89 Murdered in the Name of “Honor”
Aisha K. Gill

105 Female Genital Mutilation as a Form of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment”: Intersections with the Migration Context
Els Leye and Ino Kehrer

123 Pregnancy and Virginity Testing in Educational Settings and the Torture and Other Ill-Treatment Framework
Esther Major

139 Forced Contraception as a Means of Torture
Christie J. Edwards

161 The Humanisation of Women: A Work in Progress
Purna Sen

183 Gendering the Lens: Critical Reflections on Gender, Hospitality and Torture
Mauro Cabral Grinspan and Morgan Carpenter

 

197 III. GENDER, SEXUALITY AND DEPRIVATION OF LIBERTY

199 Crime and Multiple Punishments: The Vulnerability of LGBTI Persons in the Criminal Justice System
Jean-Sébastien Blanc

217 Women in the Criminal Justice System and the Bangkok Rules
Therese Rytter and Andrea Huber

239 Mothers Behind Bars: Reflecting on the Impact of Incarceration on Mothers and
their Children
Maria Eva Dorigo

257 Making the Global Local, and the Local Global: Lessons Learned
Brenda V. Smith

 

263 IV. HEALTHCARE AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

265 Reproductive Rights Violations as Torture or Ill-Treatment

Katherine Mayall, Onyema Afulukwe, and Katrine Thomasen

279 Torture and Ill-Treatment: Forced Sterilization and Criminalization of Self-Induced Abortion
Cynthia Soohoo and Farah Diaz-Tello

 

295 V. ANNEX

297 Gender perspectives on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment (A/HRC/31/57)
Juan E. Méndez



Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Skip to content