Identify and discuss the three general areas for reform that Amnesty International recognized in their quest to improve te lives of women who may be victims of the practice of honor killings.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Legal Measures--The current legal system in many of these countries does little to protect victims from potential violence under the normative structures that condone the practice of honor killings. Women have few, if any, legal rights that protect them from these harms. Legal reforms must address the status of women and provide them with opportunities for equal protection under the law. In cases where women survive an attempted honor killing, they need access to remedies that address the damages they experience. In addition, the perpetrators of these crimes are rarely subjected to punishment for their actions. Indeed, the first step toward reform includes recognizing that violence against women is a crime, and such abuses need to be enforced by the legal communities. International law also needs to recognize these crimes and enforce sanctions against governments that fail to act against these offenders. However, it is unclear how effective these legal measures will be for individual communities. In their discussions of what can be done to stop the practice of honor killings, Turkish activists did not feel that increasing the punishments for honor-based violence would serve as an effective deterrent, particularly in regions where the practice is more common and accepted within the community, as “punishments would not change the social necessity to kill and that to spend long years in jail can be seen as less important than lifelong loss of honor.” Preventive measures--Education and public awareness is the first step toward reducing honor-based violence toward women. These practices are rooted in culture and history. Attempts to change these deeply held attitudes will require time and resources aimed at opening communication on these beliefs. This is no easy task given the normative cultural values that perpetuate these crimes. One of the first tasks may be to adopt sensitivity-training programming for judicial and legal personnel so that they may be able to respond to these acts of violence in an impartial manner. In addition, it is important to develop a sense of the extent of the problem in order to provide effective remedies. Here, an enhanced understanding of data on these crimes will help shed light on the pervasiveness of honor-based violence as a first step toward addressing this problem. Protective measures--Given the limited options for women seeking to escape honor-based violence, additional resources for victim services need to be made available. These include shelters, resources for women fleeing violence, legal aid to represent victims of crime, provisions for the protection of children, and training to increase the economic self-sustainability for women. In addition, the agencies that offer refuge for these women need to be protected from instances of backlash and harassment.