Pakistan: Violence Against Women in the Name of Honor,

Amnesty International,
published by Amnesty International, September 1999.

Chapters: 1. Introduction, 2. Violence Against Women in the Name of Honor, 3. Honor Killings and the State, 4. Amnesty International's Recommendations to the Government of Pakistan.

This report is the fourth in a series Amnesty International has published over the past few years on different aspects of women's rights in Pakistan. It is the first report on abuses of women's rights by private actors in Pakistan. It describes the different facets of the phenomenon of honor killings in the country, and looks at the tradition that forms the framework of such killings, particularly the commodification of women and the notion of honor. The report then describes how the lure of compensation and the lenient treatment of honor killings by courts have led to abuses of the system in which women are killed supposedly on grounds of honor, but really for an ulterior purpose. It summarizes the doctrines of international human rights law which establish state responsibility beyond acts of its agents to include abuses by private actors if the state has failed to exercise due diligence in preventing, investigating and punishing them. The report points to the various areas in which the Pakistan government's failure to exercise due diligence is manifest, including the government's failure to respond to reports of honor killings, and to amend overlapping and often contradictory legal regimes and discriminatory laws which prevent redress. It also looks at the gender bias shown by police and parts of the judiciary when dealing with crimes of honor. The report describes the limited reform moves undertaken by tribal leaders and ends with a set of recommendations to the government of Pakistan. The report recognizes the fact that both men and women can become victims of honor killings but girls and women have less chance to physically escape such killings and to socially redeem themselves. Consequently, it focuses specifically on the violence suffered by women, while recognizing that men are sometimes its targets as well. [also see Simorgh 1998]

Key words: Violence against women, Honor killings, Domestic violence, Human rights, International human rights law, Marriage, Divorce, Rape, and Tribal justice.