In 2001, I wrote a litigation report for the University of Denver's Human Rights Advocacy Clinic regarding violence against women in Pakistan and assessing what tools within the United Nations the international and domestic legal community could use to combat violence against women in Pakistan. I specifically used the examples of the Zina Ordinance and honor killings. This report can be accessed at http://www.du.edu/intl/humanrights under the "reports" section.
I continued this research further when I wrote my thesis on how the United Nations can combat violence against woman and used Pakistan as my case study. Overall, I believe that there are mechanisms within the United Nations that could, and should, be used, specifically the reports of the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, the Commission of Women, CEDAW (which Pakistan is party to, though it is not party to the Optional Protocol), and the Economic and Social Council's 1503 procedure. The Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan in September of 1999. While the Special Rapporteur has issued several statements concerning violence against women in Pakistan, the focus of her report was the plight of Afghan women under the Taliban regime. The extent of her report concerning Pakistan covered Afghan women living in Pakistan as refugees. Violence against women in Pakistan has been overlooked for many years by the United Nations and the international community because of the inhumane situation of women in Afghanistan during the Taliban regime and the lack of resources within the United Nation. Now that the Taliban has been removed and women in Afghanistan are slowly returning to their pre-Taliban lives, perhaps violence against women in Pakistan will receive more attention. The United States additionally has the ability to influence the government of Pakistan to address the issue of violence against women and enforce the Constitution of Pakistan over customary law. Our current diplomatic ties with Pakistan should be used concerning issues of terrorism but also to address human right concerns in Pakistan. However, the United States does not have the leverage to argue for Pakistan's adherence to CEDAW until the United States itself ratifies CEDAW. I am happy to see a dialogue on this subject and hope that we will continue to fight for the women who suffer from violence in Pakistan and around the world. If any one is interested in receiving a copy of my thesis or ligation report, please contact me at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. Alice Bettencourt ***End-violence is sponsored by UNIFEM and receives generous support from ICAP*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe end-violence OR type: unsubscribe end-violence Archives of previous End-violence messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/end-violence/hypermail/
