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INTER-AMERICAN
CONVENTION ON THE
(Adopted
in Belém do Pará, Brasil, on June 9, 1994,
THE STATES
PARTIES TO THIS CONVENTION,
RECOGNIZING
that full respect for human rights has been enshrined in the American
Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, and reaffirmed in other international and regional
instruments;
AFFIRMING
that violence against women constitutes a violation of their human rights
and fundamental freedoms, and impairs or nullifies the observance,
enjoyment and exercise of such rights and freedoms;
CONCERNED
that violence against women is an offense against human dignity and a
manifestation of the historically unequal power relations between women
and men;
RECALLING
the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, adopted by
the Twenty-fifth Assembly of Delegates of the Inter-American Commission of
Women, and affirming that violence against women pervades every sector of
society regardless of class, race or ethnic group, income, culture, level
of education, age or religion and strikes at its very foundations:
CONVINCED
that the elimination of violence against women is essential for their
individual and social development and their full and equal participation
in all walks of life; and
CONVINCED
that the adoption of a convention on the prevention, punishment and
eradication of all forms of violence against women within the framework of
the Organization of American States is a positive contribution to
protecting the rights of women and eliminating violence against them,
HAVE AGREED
to the following: CHAPTER
I DEFINITION
AND SCOPE OF APPLICATION Article
1 For the
purposes of this Convention, violence against women shall be understood as
any act or conduct, based on gender, which causes death or physical,
sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, whether in the public
or the private sphere. Article
2 Violence
against women shall be understood to include physical, sexual and
psychological violence:
a.
that occurs within the family or domestic unit or within any other
interpersonal relationship, whether or not the perpetrator shares or has
shared the same residence with the woman, including, among others, rape,
battery and sexual abuse;
b.
that occurs in the community and is perpetrated by any person,
including, among others, rape, sexual abuse, torture, trafficking in
persons, forced prostitution, kidnapping and sexual harassment in the
workplace, as well as in educational institutions, health facilities or
any other place; and
c.
that is perpetrated or condoned by the state or its agents
regardless of where it occurs. CHAPTER II RIGHTS PROTECTED Article 3 Every woman has
the right to be free from violence in both the public and private spheres. Article 4 Every woman has
the right to the recognition, enjoyment, exercise and protection of all
human rights and freedoms embodied in regional and international human
rights instruments. These
rights include, among others:
a.
The right to have her life respected;
b.
The right to have her physical, mental and moral integrity
respected;
c.
The right to personal liberty and security;
d.
The right not to be subjected to torture;
e.
The rights to have the inherent dignity of her person respected and
her family protected;
f.
The right to equal protection before the law and of the law;
g. The right to simple and prompt recourse to a competent court for
protection against acts that violate her rights;
h.
The right to associate freely;
i.
The right of freedom to profess her religion and beliefs within the
law; and
j. The right to have equal access to the public service of her country
and to take part in the conduct of public affairs, including decision-making. Article 5 Every woman is
entitled to the free and full exercise of her civil, political, economic,
social and cultural rights, and may rely on the full protection of those
rights as embodied in regional and international instruments on human
rights. The States Parties
recognize that violence against women prevents and nullifies the exercise
of these rights. Article 6 The right of
every woman to be free from violence includes, among others:
a.
The right of women to be free from all forms of discrimination; and
b.
The right of women to be valued and educated free of stereotyped
patterns of behavior and social and cultural practices based on concepts
of inferiority or subordination. CHAPTER III DUTIES OF THE STATES Article 7 The States
Parties condemn all forms of violence against women and agree to pursue,
by all appropriate means and without delay, policies to prevent, punish
and eradicate such violence and undertake to:
a.
refrain from engaging in any act or practice of violence against
women and to ensure that their authorities, officials, personnel, agents,
and institutions act in conformity with this obligation;
b.
apply due diligence to prevent, investigate and impose penalties
for violence against women;
c.
include in their domestic legislation penal, civil, administrative
and any other type of provisions that may be needed to prevent, punish and
eradicate violence against women and to adopt appropriate administrative
measures where necessary;
d.
adopt legal measures to require the perpetrator to refrain from
harassing, intimidating or threatening the woman or using any method that
harms or endangers her life or integrity, or damages her property;
e. take
all appropriate measures, including legislative measures, to amend or
repeal existing laws and regulations or to modify legal or customary
practices which sustain the persistence and tolerance of violence against
women;
f.
establish fair and effective legal procedures for women who have
been subjected to violence which include, among others, protective
measures, a timely hearing and effective access to such procedures;
g.
establish the necessary legal and administrative mechanisms to
ensure that women subjected to violence have effective access to
restitution, reparations or other just and effective remedies; and
h.
adopt such legislative or other measures as may be necessary to
give effect to this Convention. Article 8 The States
Parties agree to undertake progressively specific measures, including
programs:
a. to
promote awareness and observance of the right of women to be free from
violence, and the right of women to have their human rights respected and
protected;
b. to
modify social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, including
the development of formal and informal educational programs appropriate to
every level of the educational process, to counteract prejudices, customs
and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or
superiority of either of the sexes or on the stereotyped roles for men and
women which legitimize or exacerbate violence against women;
c.
to promote the education and training of all those involved in the
administration of justice, police and other law enforcement officers as
well as other personnel responsible for implementing policies for the
prevention, punishment and eradication of violence against women;
d.
to provide appropriate specialized services for women who have been
subjected to violence, through public and private sector agencies,
including shelters, counseling services for all family members where
appropriate, and care and custody of the affected children;
e.
to promote and support governmental and private sector education
designed to raise the awareness of the public with respect to the problems
of and remedies for violence against women;
f.
to provide women who are subjected to violence access to effective
readjustment and training programs to enable them to fully participate in
public, private and social life;
g.
to encourage the communications media to develop appropriate media
guidelines in order to contribute to the eradication of violence against
women in all its forms, and to enhance respect for the dignity of women;
h.
to ensure research and the gathering of statistics and other
relevant information relating to the causes, consequences and frequency of
violence against women, in order to assess the effectiveness of measures
to prevent, punish and eradicate violence against women and to formulate
and implement the necessary changes; and
i.
to foster international cooperation for the exchange of ideas and
experiences and the execution of programs aimed at protecting women who
are subjected to violence. Article 9 With respect to the adoption of the measures in this Chapter, the States Parties shall take special account of the vulnerability of women to violence by reason of, among others, their race or ethnic background or their status as migrants, refugees or displaced persons. Similar consideration shall be given to women subjected to violence while pregnant or who are disabled, of minor age, elderly, socioeconomically disadvantaged, affected by armed conflict or deprived of their freedom. CHAPTER
IV INTER-AMERICAN
MECHANISMS OF PROTECTION
Article 10 In order to
protect the rights of every woman to be free from violence, the States
Parties shall include in their national reports to the Inter-American
Commission of Women information on measures adopted to prevent and
prohibit violence against women, and to assist women affected by violence,
as well as on any difficulties they observe in applying those measures,
and the factors that contribute to violence against women. Article 11 The States
Parties to this Convention and the Inter-American Commission of Women may
request of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights advisory opinions on
the interpretation of this Convention. Article 12 Any person or
group of persons, or any nongovernmental entity legally recognized in one
or more member states of the Organization, may lodge petitions with the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights containing denunciations or
complaints of violations of Article 7 of this Convention by a State Party,
and the Commission shall consider such claims in accordance with the norms
and procedures established by the American Convention on Human Rights and
the Statutes and Regulations of the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights for lodging and considering petitions. CHAPTER V GENERAL PROVISIONS Article 13 No part of this
Convention shall be understood to restrict or limit the domestic law of
any State Party that affords equal or greater protection and guarantees of
the rights of women and appropriate safeguards to prevent and eradicate
violence against women. Article 14 No part of this
Convention shall be understood to restrict or limit the American
Convention on Human Rights or any other international convention on the
subject that provides for equal or greater protection in this area. Article 15 This Convention
is open to signature by all the member states of the Organization of
American States. Article 16
This Convention is subject to
ratification. The instruments
of ratification shall be deposited with the General Secretariat of the
Organization of American States. Article 17 This Convention
is open to accession by any other state.
Instruments of accession shall be deposited with the General
Secretariat of the Organization of American States. Article 18 Any State may,
at the time of approval, signature, ratification, or accession, make
reservations to this Convention provided that such reservations are:
a.
not incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention, and
b.
not of a general nature and relate to one or more specific
provisions. Article 19 Any State Party
may submit to the General Assembly, through the Inter-American Commission
of Women, proposals for the amendment of this Convention. Amendments
shall enter into force for the states ratifying them on the date when two-thirds
of the States Parties to this Convention have deposited their respective
instruments of ratification. With
respect to the other States Parties, the amendments shall enter into force
on the dates on which they deposit their respective instruments of
ratification. Article 20 If a State
Party has two or more territorial units in which the matters dealt with in
this Convention are governed by different systems of law, it may, at the
time of signature, ratification or accession, declare that this Convention
shall extend to all its territorial units or to only one or more of them. Such a
declaration may be amended at any time by subsequent declarations, which
shall expressly specify the territorial unit or units to which this
Convention applies. Such
subsequent declarations shall be transmitted to the General Secretariat of
the Organization of American States, and shall enter into force thirty
days after the date of their receipt. Article 21 This Convention
shall enter into force on the thirtieth day after the date of deposit of
the second instrument of ratification.
For each State that ratifies or accedes to the Convention after the
second instrument of ratification is deposited, it shall enter into force
thirty days after the date on which that State deposited its instrument of
ratification or accession. Article 22 The Secretary
General shall inform all member states of the Organization of American
States of the entry into force of this Convention. Article
23 The Secretary
General of the Organization of American States shall present an annual
report to the member states of the Organization on the status of this
Convention, including the signatures, deposits of instruments of
ratification and accession, and declarations, and any reservations that
may have been presented by the States Parties, accompanied by a report
thereon if needed. Article 24 This Convention
shall remain in force indefinitely, but any of the States Parties may
denounce it by depositing an instrument to that effect with the General
Secretariat of the Organization of American States.
One year after the date of deposit of the instrument of
denunciation, this Convention shall cease to be in effect for the
denouncing State but shall remain in force for the remaining States
Parties. Article 25 The original
instrument of this Convention, the English, French, Portuguese and Spanish
texts of which are equally authentic, shall be deposited with the General
Secretariat of the Organization of American States, which shall send a
certified copy to the Secretariat of the United Nations for registration
and publication in accordance with the provisions of Article 102 of the
United Nations Charter.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned Plenipotentiaries, being duly authorized thereto by
their respective governments, have signed this Convention, which shall be
called the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and
Eradication of Violence against Women "Convention of Belém do Pará."
DONE IN THE CITY OF BELEM DO PARA, BRAZIL, the ninth of June in the year one thousand nine
hundred ninety-four.
BASIC DOCUMENTS PERTAINING TO HUMAN RIGHTS |