PRESS RELEASE

The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) launches its
publication "Violence Against Women: 10 Reports/Year 2003" covering
the situation of women in Bangladesh, Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia,
Eritrea, Estonia, Mali, Russia, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

Wednesday, 7th July 2004

The World Organisation against Torture (OMCT) has published a fourth
collection of reports, Violence Against Women: 10 Reports/Year 2003,
within the framework of its Violence against Women Programme. The
publication forms part of the Programme's work in the field of
integrating women's human rights and a gender perspective into the
activities of the United Nations human rights treaty monitoring
bodies. Over the past year, OMCT submitted ten alternative country
reports to the five "mainstream" human rights treaty bodies: three
alternative reports to the Committee against Torture on Cameroon,
Colombia and Turkey; two alternative reports to the Human Rights
Committee on Estonia and Mali; two alternative reports to the
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on Brazil and
Russia; two alternative reports to the Committee on the Rights of the
Child on Bangladesh and Eritrea; and one alternative report to the
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on the United
Kingdom.

The ten country reports in this compilation confirm that violence
against women is clearly a universal problem. Although distinct
social, cultural and political contexts give rise to different forms
of violence, its prevalence and patterns are remarkably consistent,
spanning national and socio-economic borders as well as cultural
identities. Women in Turkey, Bangladesh and Brazil are subjected to
violence committed in the name of honour or passion, while women in
Cameroon, Mali and Eritrea undergo genital mutilation in the name of
tradition. Immigrant women victims of domestic violence in the United
Kingdom, although not more likely to be victims of domestic violence
than women in the majority population, risk losing their residency
permits if they leave their violent husbands. In Cameroon, Brazil,
Turkey and Eritrea, marital rape is not a crime. Women and girls in
Estonia and Russia are particularly vulnerable to becoming
trafficking victims. Women in Colombia are targeted for being
relatives or otherwise associated with the "other" side in Colombia's
ongoing armed conflict, and women in Chechnya are subjected to
violence during "clean-up" operations and at checkpoints. Women
human rights defenders in Colombia and Chechnya have disappeared and
have been tortured, threatened and killed as a result of their work.

Violence against women continues to flourish since too many
governments do not accept responsibility to end gender-based violence
and allow it to occur with impunity.
Unequal gender roles and societal structures adversely influence
women's enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, and may
lead to different forms of violence
against women including domestic violence and trafficking. Many
states have failed to pass legislation specifically prohibiting and
punishing violence against women, and
have failed to train State officials to understand the complexities
of the issues surrounding this type of abuse.

Recognizing the important of raising awareness about violence against
women in all of its forms, the OMCT country reports compiled in this
publication serve as important
documentation of the widespread and pervasive nature of violence
against women in the family, in the community and at the hands of
State agents.

Carin Benninger-Budel and Lucinda O'Hanlon, Violence Against Women:
10 Reports/ Year 2003, OMCT, 2004, ISBN: 2-88477-073-9, 418 pp.

The collection of reports is available on the internet site of the
OMCT (www. omct.org). A French and Spanish summary of the ten
country reports in the compilation can also be found on the OMCT
website.

For further information concerning OMCT's Violence Against Programme
please contact the women's desk at: [email protected] [2] or [email protected] [3].

Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture (OMCT)
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
Organización Mundial Contra la Tortura (OMCT)
8 rue du Vieux-Billard
Case postale 21
CH-1211 Geneve 8
Suisse/Switzerland
Tel. : 0041 22 809 49 39
Fax : 0041 22 809 49 29
E-mail : [email protected] [4]
http://www.omct.org [5]