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Redressing
Sexual Violence
in Gujarat
After nine months of battling the absence of national political will to
apply existing laws and redressal mechanisms to ensure justice for the
victims of the attacks on the Muslim community in Gujarat
since 27th February 2002, several women's groups in India launched an
International Initiative for Justice in Gujarat (IIJ).
The Panel of feminist jurists, activists, lawyers, writers and academics
from various parts of the world visited Gujarat between 14th and 17th
December and investigated the violence - particularly the physical and
sexual - in the light of existing international laws, conventions and
norms. The Panel also addressed the complicity of the State in the
violence, the lack of effective redressal for the victims and the
implications of the recent BJP victory in the state. Members of the Panel
visited Ahmedabad, Baroda, and Panchmahals and met with affected people,
support workers, lawyers and government officials. They also held
confidential meetings with women impacted in different ways.
"The Panel is not simply a 'fact-finding' mission, but an attempt to
support efforts toward achieving justice for the survivors, as well as to
support the prevention of future attacks against minorities, particularly
women," said Chayanika Shah, a member of the Forum Against Oppression of
Women, Mumbai, one of the main organizers of the Initiative. The
correlation between what has happened in Gujarat - particularly to
minority women - and the massacre of various cultural, religious, and
ethnic
subgroups around the world prompted the convening of an international
panel.
"As a Jew, meeting people from the Muslim community, seeing the terror on
their faces, the ghettoisation and the privations of the economic boycott
made me feel as though I was looking at my forebears in Nazi Germany,"
said Rhonda Copelon, Professor of Law, City University of New York. For
the past ten years, Copelon has been examining the relationships between
conflict situations and violence against women, and has monitored and
filed amicus briefs, which influenced the jurisprudence of the
International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda with
respect to the recognition of gender violence as a form of torture and
genocide.
Gabriela Mischkowski, historian and co-founder of Medica Mondiale, Germany
- a women's organization - initiated medical and psychological care and
support for women subjected to rape in the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina
and drew parallels between these situations. "The medical system has
proved to be unresponsive to the needs of women victims of violence,
including sexual violence. Survivors of sexual violence have little access
to counseling and issues relating to their sexual and reproductive health
and rights are neglected. We found very little attention paid to issues
relating to pregnancy, abortions and sexually transmitted infections as a
consequence of sexual violence, and were appalled at the lack of safe
spaces for women to recover and defend themselves."
The pattern of sexual violence in Gujarat, while echoing situations in
Rwanda and Bosnia, was different in some ways, feel the panelists. "We
were struck by the public nature of the violence, the social sanction to
it and the continuing threats we witnessed soon after the announcement of
the
electoral victory of the BJP," said Nira Yuval-Davis, Professor of Gender
and Ethnic Studies at the University of Greenwich, UK. biases of the
police, the medical and legal systems, as well as those of
their families and communities who seek to hide their 'shame' have
silenced many women victims of sexual violence. "We met many mothers who
admitted that they had been compelled to send their daughters 'away' or
marry them off to men they knew to be unsuitable. The failure of state
agencies to prosecute perpetrators of violence means that rapists are free
to continue threatening and taunting women on a daily basis," said members
of the Panel.
Healing the wounds of, and building future security for the women has been
impossible due to the denial of justice. A high placed police official who
did not want to be named admitted to the Panel that legal redressal was
negligible. While 2,200 cases were instituted in Gujarat, all 10 that have
been dealt with in the Panchmahals led to acquittals. He estimated that
convictions were likely in only about five cases in all. "The results of
the recent election in Gujarat give the instigators and perpetrators of
violence in that state the power and potential to continue their campaign
of hate and terror against the Muslim community," said Sunila Abeysekara
from Colombo. Abeysekara has been involved in monitoring the on-going
peace process in Sri Lanka, and promoting the participation of civil
society, especially women, in negotiations at the local level.
"The post-election scenario in Gujarat exposes the fallacy of India's
claim to be the world's largest democracy and raises a clear question
about whether a 'free and fair' election alone is a sufficient indicator
to guarantee and assert the existence of democracy in any society," said
Farah Naqvi, an Indian panelist urging that the 'sham' of Indian democracy
be exposed.
The Panel's Interim Report voiced strong concern. "Inspite of the totally
inadequate legal and other responses to the violence in Gujarat, the
government has continued to deny permission for international scrutiny of
the situation... In a pluralist society such as India, ensuring equal
representation and participation of all communities and guaranteeing the
rights of women and of minorities are among the most important tests of a
genuine democracy. The propagation of fear and hatred among communities is
anathema to these principles and is inconsistent with both national and
international law."
The Report also addressed the similarities and differences in the way
sexual violence has been used in cases of religious, ethnic or communal
violence in other parts of the world. It says: "This violence, which
reflects a longer and larger genocidal project, in our view constitutes a
crime against humanity and satisfies the legal definition of genocide,
both of which are crimes of the most serious dimension under international
law."
The Interim Report outlines 'Urgent Actions to Be Taken' by the state, the
national and international community. It stresses on the restoration of
constitutional rights of the Muslims of India, and asserts the need for
ensuring the protection of their human rights in accordance with
international norms. It also recommends the setting up of special courts
for immediate redressal for crimes of sexual violence, broadening the
understanding of rape and eliminating the insistence on production of
medical evidence and corroboration of victims' testimonies.
Panel members also called for specific measures with regard to the issues
of justice, the continuing impact of the violence, and the marginalization
of the Muslims of Gujarat.
– Laxmi Murthy
December 29, 2002
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By arrangement with
Womens Feature Service
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