Moreover, the report underscores that States must look at the totality of the circumstances of women, girls, and LGBTI persons in order to account for the lived realities and compounded forms of oppression that include race, social status, ability to pursue life goals, and extant discriminatory legal, normative, and legislative frameworks. Reparations for harms suffered should be comprehensive and accompanied by diverse measures and reforms designed specifically to combat gender-based discrimination.听Incorporation of a gendered analysis also allows the torture and ill-treatment framework to more effectively qualify and address human rights violations committed against all people across sexual and gender norms. In this way, a gendered analysis is important for a comprehensive understanding of torture as much as a study of torture is important for gender studies, and the full recognition of the lived realities of the world鈥檚 most disenfranchised people.
Starting in March 2021, the ATI commenced a new project to address femicide,听the gender-related killing of women or girls because of their sex and/or gender, in Mexico. Despite being party to the U.N Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Inter-American Convention of Belem do Par谩, Mexico has yet to address the 137% increase in the number of cases of femicide occurring over the last five years.听听Widespread impunity in Mexico has exacerbated this crisis.听听While over 1,000 femicides were registered in Mexico in 2019, many of these were classified as homicides that were not investigated.听听Compounding the issue of impunity is the fact that gender-based violence against women in Mexico is often perpetuated by State and non-state actors.听听The stay-at-home orders associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have further exacerbated the issue of femicide, with 267 women murdered in April 2020 alone.听听Increased outrage over the growing crisis prompted the national women鈥檚 strike in March 2020, yet the government鈥檚 response was to reduce the budgets of agencies working to address women鈥檚 issues, as part of its COVID-19 austerity measures.听听The disturbingly high number of women and girls killed every year continues to grow, particularly within the context of worsening global crises.听The ATI will听complement the work of local stakeholders by contributing to the increased understanding of the context surrounding the issue of femicide and support international human rights bodies and other independent experts in pressuring the Mexican government to more effectively address femicide.
Professor Mendez's 2015 thematic report examined the situation of children deprived of liberty in a variety of contexts around the world, from the perspective of torture and other ill-treatment in international law. 听Children in detention are at a heightened risk of experiencing violence and abuse, and significantly more vulnerable than adults to being subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, due to their unique physiological and psychological needs. In view of their unique vulnerabilities, the detention of children, whether within criminal or juvenile justice systems, administrative immigration detention, or in institutions, is inextricably linked鈥攊n fact if not in law鈥攚ith the ill-treatment of children.
Detention of children often occurs in squalid conditions, without adequate oversight or proper regulation, and has devastating effects on children鈥檚 psychological and physical development. As such, even very short periods of deprivation of liberty can undermine a child鈥檚 psychological and physical well-being and compromise his or her cognitive development. Children鈥檚 unique vulnerability, therefore, requires higher standards and broader safeguards to protect them from being subjected to torture or other ill-treatment in detention, or from experiencing developmentally harmful and torturous conditions of confinement. Evidence shows that depriving children of their liberty is costly, ineffective, and, more often than not, results in serious violations of their human rights, often amounting to torture and other ill-treatment. Many practices imposed on children in conflict with the law around the world today run afoul of the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment, despite the solid international legal framework in place. For example, life sentences without parole, life imprisonment, and lengthy sentences鈥攕uch as consecutive sentencing鈥攁re grossly disproportionate and therefore cruel, inhuman or degrading.
EVENTS & Speaking engagements
March 20, 2018: Launch of Gender Perspectives on Torture: Law and Practice听笔耻产濒颈肠补迟颈辞苍.听The publication was launched at a side event at the 62nd Session of the Committee on the Status of Women. The volume on gender and torture brings together contributions by more than 25 experts on gender rights from around the world in response to former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture鈥檚 groundbreaking thematic report focusing on gender perspectives on torture and other cruel, inhuman and dreading treatment or punishment.
March 10, 2016: Torture and Ill-Treatment of LGBTI Persons.听Side Event at the 31st Session of the UN Human Rights Council. The event was co-hosted by the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT), the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association (ILGA), the Anti-Torture Initiative (ATI), and the COC Netherlands.听 The Panel examined the specific situations faced by LGBTI persons in detention and looked at ways to reduce risk factors for these population groups, including by providing alternatives to imprisonment.听 The Panel also considered the effective oversight mechanisms needed in order to end impunity for torture and ill-treatment based听on sexual orientation and gender identity.
March 9, 2016: Gender Perspectives on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment.听Drawing on Profesor M茅ndez鈥檚 thematic report on gender perspectives on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (A/HRC/31/57), the side-event sensitized member States to their heightened obligations to prevent and combat gender-based violence and discrimination against women, girls and LGBTI persons that amount to torture or other ill-treatment. The side-event also highlighted the wide range of contexts in which women, girls, and LGBTI persons are at particular risk of torture and ill-treatment, whether by State agents (i.e. when deprived of liberty) or by non-State or private actors (i.e. in the contexts of harmful practices; domestic violence; trafficking; or sexual violence in the context of armed conflict).
March 8, 2016: Special Rapporteur on Torture & Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography, speaking during the
November 5-6, 2015: .听The consultation brought together a diverse group of internationally recognized experts in international human rights; women鈥檚 rights; LGBTI rights; the prohibition and prevention of torture and ill-treatment; and cross-cutting issues ranging from criminology and corrections to healthcare policies, reproductive rights and the laws of armed conflict.
May 19, 2017:听.听The Anti-Torture Initiative, the Office of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on Violence against Children, the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the UN, Disability Rights International, and Human Rights Watch celebrated the launch of the edited volume reflecting on the former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture鈥檚 thematic report on children deprived of liberty.
April 21, 2017:听Children in Prison: Strengthening International Norms in the US and Abroad.听The panel discussed international norms and protections for juveniles in prison, and how the inconsistent application of these norms has resulted in ongoing mistreatment and lack of due process for incarcerated youth.
May 5, 2015:听Webinar: Torture of Children Deprived of Liberty: Avenues for Advocacy Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.听Professor M茅ndez discussed the unique vulnerability of children and the need for higher standards and broader safeguards to protect children deprived of liberty.听 He 听noted that life without parole sentences for children, life imprisonment, and lengthy sentences such as consecutive sentencing are grossly disproportionate and therefore constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment when imposed on children. Furthermore, the imposition of solitary confinement, the death penalty, or any sort of corporal punishment on children are strictly prohibited under international law, and contrary to the prohibition of torture or other ill-treatment.
March 9, 2015: Presentation of Thematic Report about Children in Detention before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva
Resources
Report: Gender Perspectives on Torture: Law and Practice (2018)