ICCPR (arts. 2, 3 and 26)
CEDAW (preamble, paras. 3, 9 and 14; arts. 1, 2(d)-(f), 3, 5(a), 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15)
Declaration on Discrimination against Women (preamble, paras. 2 and 4; arts. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10)
Declaration on Violence against Women (preamble, paras. 5 and 8; arts. 1, 2, 3 and 4) Code of Conduct (preamble, para. 8(a); arts. 1 and 2)
SMRTP (rules 23 and 53)
Principles on Detention or Imprisonment (principle 5)
Standards
Women are entitled to equal enjoyment and protection of all human rights in the polit-ical, economic, social, cultural, civil and all other fields.154
These rights include the rights to life; equality; liberty and security of person; equal protection under the law; freedom from discrimination; the highest attainable standard of mental and physical health; just and favourable conditions of work; and freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.155 Violence against women may be physical, sexual or psychological and includes batter-ing, sexual abuse, dowry violence, marital rape, harmful traditional practices, non-spousal rape and violence, sexual harassment, forced prostitution, trafficking in women and exploitation-related violence.156
Violence against women, in all its forms, violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoy-ment by women of human rights and fundaenjoy-mental freedoms.157
Police shall exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and make arrests in respect of all acts of violence against women, whether perpetrated by public officials or pri-vate persons, in the home, the community and official institutions.158
Police shall take rigorous official action to prevent the victimization of women and shall ensure that revictimization does not occur as a result of police omissions or gen-der-insensitive enforcement practices.159
Violence against women is a crime and must be treated as such, also when it occurs within the family.160
Arrested or detained women shall not suffer discrimination and shall be protected from all forms of violence or exploitation.161
Women detainees shall be supervised and searched by female officers and staff.162 Women shall be detained separately from male detainees.163
Pregnant women and nursing mothers shall be provided with special facilities in deten-tion.164
Law enforcement agencies shall not discriminate against women in recruitment, hir-ing, trainhir-ing, assignment, promotion, salary or other career or administrative mat-ters.165
Law enforcement agencies shall recruit sufficient numbers of women to ensure fair community representation and the protection of the rights of female suspects, arrestees and detainees.166
Practice
All police officialsTreat domestic violence crimes as legally equivalent to other assaults.
Respond promptly to domestic violence and sexual violence calls, inform victims of available medical, social, psychological and material support, and provide transporta-tion to a safe place.
Investigate domestic violence thoroughly and professionally. Interview victims, wit-nesses, neighbours and medical professionals.
Prepare detailed reports of domestic violence incidents and follow-up carefully, both with superiors and with the victim, check reports against previous incidents in the files, and take all necessary action to prevent a recurrence.
After medical, administrative and other procedures have been completed, offer to accompany a victim of domestic violence to her home to move her personal effects to a safe place.
Enrol in training to develop your skills in aiding and protecting victims of domestic violence.
Cooperate closely with medical professionals and social agencies in handling cases of domestic violence.
Ensure that a female officer is present during all contacts with women offenders and with women victims of crime. Defer completely to female colleagues, where possible.
Separate female from male detainees. Be sure that female officers supervise and search female detainees.
If male, abstain from and discourage gender-insensitive conversations and jokes with male colleagues.
Ask female colleagues for their feelings and perceptions on any policies, practices, behaviour or attitudes that are gender-specific, initiate improvements yourself, and support them in their efforts to do so.
Command and supervisory officials
Provide regular training to officials on addressing violence against women.
Establish a special police unit for domestic violence calls and consider assigning social workers to serve jointly in such units with police.
Establish close liaison and joint strategies with medical professionals, social work agencies, local “safe houses” and relevant community organizations.
Assign female officers to deal with female victims of crime.
Review recruitment, hiring, training and promotions policies to remove any gender bias.
Assign female officers to carry out all searches and supervision of female detainees, and separate female from male detainees.
Provide for special detention facilities for pregnant women and nursing mothers.
Adopt policies prohibiting discrimination against officers on the basis of pregnancy or maternity.
Establish open channels of communication for complaints or recommendations by female officers on issues of gender bias.
Increase patrols and preventive action in high crime areas, including foot patrols and community involvement in crime prevention, to reduce the risk of violent crimes against women.
Questions
01. Identify the factors that work against all people being given equal protection of the law, and state what can be done to improve the situation.
02. Physical violence against a women by her male partner is a crime. In view of this, why has it been necessary to emphasize to police agencies and police offi-cials that such crimes are to be fully and fairly investigated?
03. It has been argued that social, economic and political inequalities of women in relation to men provide a structure in which men perpetrate violence against women. Do you accept this argument? If not, why not, and what alternative argu-ment would you propose? If you do believe it is true, what can be done to cor-rect the situation?
04. In what ways does violence against a woman by her male partner differ from unlaw-ful acts of violence between other categories of people? Are such acts of violence dealt with under the normal law of assault in your country or is there a separate and special offence of “wife assault” or “violent assault on a woman” with more severe penalties on conviction than other forms of assault? Discuss the advantages and dis-advantages of having such a separate and special category of offence.
05. It is sometimes argued that, for social and cultural reasons, police responses to victims of sexual offences are not satisfactory. Specify what these cultural and social reasons might be. Are they applicable in your country? What can be done to overcome the problem?
06. One way of ensuring adequate cooperation between the various agencies that provide a response to domestic violence and other crimes against women would be to form a unit consisting of, for example, police officials, social workers, health workers and specialists in emotional counselling. What would be the advantages and disadvantages of forming such a unit?
07. Consider the various ways in which a police agency can provide a sympathetic
09. If women were able to exercise fully their right to free choice of a profession, it could mean that about half the members of a police agency would consist of women police officials. Would such an agency be operationally more effective or less effective than agencies with a much smaller ratio of women to men offi-cials? State what you consider to be the ideal ratio of women to men police officials in a police agency. Give reasons for your reply.
10. For the sake of discussion, imagine that a series of rapes and other violent attacks on women have taken place in the area of your police agency and that the attack-er or attackattack-ers remain undetected. Considattack-er all the steps that could be taken by your police agency to advise women on how to avoid becoming victims; to pre-vent further attacks; and to reassure the population generally.