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Barbara Spinelli (1982) is a lawyer and a womens right activist. B.S. is member of the Italian NGO Platform 30 years CEDAW-work in progress and of Giuristi Democratici, branch of International Association of Democratic Layers. She has drafted and presented during 49th CEDAW session (2011) the shadow report on CEDAW implementation in Italy , in representation of the Italian NGO Platform 30 years CEDAW-work in progress. She was invited as european expert by the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women Rashida Manjoo to the expert group meeting on gender motivated killings of women, that was convened in the UNFPA New York headquarters on Wednesday October 12, 2011. She presented the Expert Paper on Femicide and feminicide in Europe. Gender motivated killings of women as a result of intimate partner violence .She is author of the book Femminicidio. Dalla denuncia sociale al riconoscimento giuridico internazionale, FrancoAngeli, 2008, and of numerous publications on this issue. 1 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. 2 http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cmsUpload/16173cor.en08.pdf 3 http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=PESC/09/47&type=HTML 4 http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/115578.pdf 5 DAPHNE Project Protect: Good practice in preventing serious violence, attempted homicides, including crimes in the name of honour, and in protecting high risk victims of gender based violence and Protect II: Capacity Building in Risk Assessment and Safety Management to Protect High-Risk Victims.
1/2004, as address both discrimination and violence against women (VAW), considering all the obligation of the State under the due diligence principle to prevent, to protect, to punish, and to provide compensation for human rights abuses that women (subiscono) because they are women. Spanish Organic Law represents without doubt the integrated approach, in that it provides not only for prosecution, including the creation of special courts, but also for preventive and supportive measures (welfare, child support, housing, employment), and it is unique in Europe in its specification of gender-based violence. Under the due diligence obligation to prevent femicide, the most important challenges in Europe regards the difficulty to collect comparable data, to strengthen sensitisation campaign (women have to know their rights, the existence of services in their district, how much they risk feminicide staying in abusive relation), and to train professional on evaluation of risks. But, on these issues, some countries developed good practices that can be shared. In Finland the data collection instrument of the FHMS (Finnish homicide monitoring system) allows in-depth research about femicide/feminicide, for crime prevention and prevention targeting purposes. At the moment this is the most complete data collection instrument in use in Europe: it allows to get particular information on domestic VAW which resulted in the death (suicide or murder) of the victim. Under the due diligence obligation to protect women that experienced IPV to be re-victimized or killed, European countries need to make existent services available, accessible, appropriate, and coordinate, in order to offer immediate protection and to identify ad hoc protection for high risk victims and vulnerable women. To provide support services and assistance available to all victims throughout the country, the secure funding of the services by the State, as is guaranteed in Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands should be considered a promising practice. The implementation of the obligation to persecute include to work for better investigation and to make effective the punishment . An important challenge under this obligation is to train professional to reduce inadequate protection due to police and prosecutor prejudice, and to ensure the respect of dignity and safety of the victims during investigation and until the judgement. Several national experts emphasise the importance of having multi-agency intervention programmes available in which criminal justice and other professionals collaborate in a systematic way. Last but not least, States have to provide compensation for victims. In OPUZ vs. Turkey ECHR judgment, the condemnation for a femicide was only 35.000 (for damages and legal costs). This is not enough to stop femicides. We hope that ECHR rules will be modified in order to introduce the possibility to impose to States the condemn to put in place also acts of transformative reparations, as it is possible for IACtHR trials. 4.The involvement of regional and international human right system in responding to femicide ECHR Judgements, Cedaw Committee decisions under communication procedure, Cedaw Concluding Observation, Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women Recommendation, are important tools to identify minimum standard binding for all the States for the appropriate implementation of due diligence obligations on violence against women. It is remarkable how the interpretation of positive obligation of States to protect (potential) victim of VAW is evolving, especially about victims of intimate partner femicide. Treatiess provision on due diligence obligation have been applied by ECHR and CEDAW Committee to change interpretation on VAW laws in European countries. ECHR judgments as Opuz vs. Turkey6 (2009) show that States are being held accountable for failure to protect women from violations of their rights. They demonstrate that the due diligence requirements are not just theoretical but are usable, practical, reasonable and standards to prevent femicide. The formulation of right-based claims by women remains an important strategic and political tool for women's empowerment and for addressing human rights violation7. Our priorities a s NGO are that international and regional human right system work to: - reinforce obligations of States under international human rights law to prevent and respond to violation occurring in the private sphere, also adopting guide-lines to help them in implementing obligations; - adopt all necessary measures to held States accountable for failure to protect women from their rights, specially right to life and right to access to justice; - promote to change ECHR, in order to modify the Court' rules and introduce the possibility to impose to States the condemn to put in place also acts of transformative reparations. Conclusion Positive changes at national level trough compliance with international human rights standards require political will of the states. This is why the use of the concept of femicide by State actors must have to be a political choice (first than a choice of criminalization of a conduct), that implies for States : - to recognize the connection between violence against women, also in the extreme manifestations, and a dimension of systemic discrimination and oppression of women because they are women; - to recognize that the high number of femicides is also consequence of the failure of the State to protect women from the violation of their rights; - to recognize that to combat femicide is necessary to act with the due diligence in order to change social norms, value system and perception of VAW as a private matter. In our opinion, not all over the world, and specially in Europe, it is useful that regional or international human right system ask States to criminalize femicide conduct introducing a gendered crime. Is not that the priority in Europe. It is easier for State to modify their criminal code than to modify their approach and strategy on protection of women from re-victimization and prevention of femicide. Surely, it is necessary that international and regional human rights bodies contribute to esemplify what is femicide and feminicide and what is not. But this do not have to means codify by law the definition of femicide and feminicide. Femicide and feminicide, first of all, are political and sociological concepts. An open definition of femicide and feminicide will be useful for women in all the world to identify new form of direct and indirect fisical, psycological, social, or cultural annihilation of women because they are women. To prevent femicide and feminicide, we have to work together for the promotion of womens rights, and for a greater justiciability of the violations by States of the due diligence obligations on violence against women. http://femicideineu.blogspot.it (engl.) http://femminicidio.blogspot.com (ita.) http://gdcedaw.blogspot.com (ita and engl.) Mail to: stopfemminicidio@gmail.com
http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view.asp?action=html&documentId=851046&portal=hbkm&source=externalbydoc number&table=F69A27FD8FB86142BF01C1166DEA398649 7 Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Rashida Manjoo, A/HRC/20/16, HRC, 20th session, 23.05.2012, Para. 104.