End all kinds of Violence Against Women

平等機會婦女聯席
終止對女性的一切暴力行為──就印度女性受性暴力事件聯署聲明

印度女性長期處於受壓迫的位置，針對女性的性暴力從未止息。十二月二十九日清晨，新德里巴士輪姦案的二十三歲女大學生因多個器官衰竭延醫不治。除此，印度接連番爆出多宗駭人的針對女性的嚴重暴力事件，包括少女受到輪姦後報警，竟受到負責調查的督察性侵犯、以及以「榮譽」之名殺害有婚外情的女性等等，印度民眾不理宵禁令上街舉行反性暴力示威，要求政府正視性暴力的問題。

根據印度官方數字，去年共有228650宗針對女性的暴力罪行，平均每二十二分鐘就有一名女性被強暴，然而有不少女性因怯於社會壓力而對暴力啞忍，更有女性在報警後受到更沉重的壓力和進一步的傷害。印度女性於社會上受到不同形式的暴力對待，除了數之不盡的性暴力事件外，她們會因嫁妝不足而受到夫家虐待、家庭地位低落屢受丈夫毆打、殉葬制度（sati）令不少寡婦被活活燒死，其嚴重及普遍程度致使每六小時就有一名印度婦女因家庭暴力而喪命。印度警方不但沒有正視這些暴力事件，反而縱然警方侵犯及傷害受害女性，更打壓關注事件及參與示威的群眾。而女性反而成為被怪責的對象，她們的行為及衣著被指責，女性的自主被限制。

聯合國《消除暴力對待婦女宣言》中指出，國家必須「施行審慎評鑑(due diligence)以防止、調查及按國家立法懲處暴力對待婦女的行為，無論是國家或私人干犯均需一視同仁」。意指國家必須確保人權法所列明的權利在現實生活中得到實踐，一旦權利受到侵犯，國家需要負起挽救及補償的責任。可惜，從諸種案例中均可見到，印度政府不旦沒有負起改變性別不平等的情況，更遲遲未肯制定有效的政策保護女性免受暴力侵犯，甚至意圖將防衛責任推諉女性，要求女性學習自衛術以減低性罪行的發生。

Hong Kong Women’s Coalition on Equal Opportunities

End all kinds of Violence Against Women---Joint Declaration on Sexual Violence Incidents Against Women In India

Women in India suffer from an extremely low social status and social oppression, and sexual violence against women has never ceased. In early morning on 29th December, the 23-year-old female university student, victim of the New Delhi bus gang rape, passed away as a result of organ exhaustion. Apart from this, a series of incidents of serious violence against women were unveiled in India: for example a teenage gang-rape victim was sexually assaulted by the superintendent who was responsible for the investigation after reporting her case to the police, and the women having extra-marital affairs were murdered in the name of “honour”, so on and so forth. The India public went on street to protest against sexual violence in spite of the curfew and demanded the government to look into the problem of sexual violence.

According to the Indian official figures, last year there were totally 228650 cases of violent crime against women, and every 22 minutes there would be one woman get raped. However many women kept silent towards violence in fear of social pressure, some of them even suffered from heavier pressure and further trauma after reporting to the police. The Indian women face different kinds of violence in society: apart from numerous sexual violence incidents, they are abused by the husband’s family due to insufficient dowry, repeatedly beaten up by the husband due to lower family status, many widows are burnt alive due to the institution of widow immolation system (sati); the level of severity and prevalence has resulted in the death of one Indian women in every six hours due to domestic violence. The Indian police does not look into these violence incidents, instead the police tolerates the assaults and harms the women, and even suppresses the public which is concerned about the incidents and protests. Women turn out to be the target to be blamed: their behavior and dressing are being blamed while the female autonomy is restricted.

The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women by the United Nations points out that states have an obligation to “exercise due diligence to prevent investigate and, in accordance with national legislation, punish acts of violence against women, whether those acts are perpetrated by the State or by private persons”(Article 4c), which means that states must ensure those rights listed in the human rights’ law should be put into practice in reality; once the rights are violated, states need to take up the responsibility to remedy and compensate. Unfortunately, it is seen from various case laws that the Indian government does not only fail to change gender inequality, but also delaying in enforcing effective policies to protect women from violent assaults.

Worse still, the government even intends to shift the responsibility of defence to the women, and blames the women for being unable to protect themselves in times of sexual violent crimes.