full version - World Organisation Against Torture

Eritreain accordance with the guidelines submitted by the United NationsSpecial Rapporteur on Violence against Women to the fifty-second sessionof the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 1996 (UNdoc. E/CN/.4/1996/53, Add.2).OMCT is deeply troubled that marital rape is not currently a crime inEritrea and that the Draft Penal Code only envisions recognizing thiscrime where the spouses are separated. Marriage and cohabitation shouldnot provide impunity for men who rape their wives. The absence of criminallegislation concerning marital rape while the spouses are livingtogether is a denial of women’s right to be free from violence in the homeand OMCT insists on the need for marital rape to be criminalized in allsituations, including where the spouses live together.Equally disturbing are reports that girls and women who become pregnantbefore marriage can be subject to violence, sometimes fatal violence. TheEritrean government must take steps to protect girls and women whobecome pregnant before marriage from such violence, and where suchviolence occurs, exercise due diligence to ensure that the crime is investigatedand that the perpetrators are punished accordingly.Several traditional practices continue to occur in Eritrea, which violate thehuman rights of girls and women. OMCT is concerned by reports thatindicate a high rate of early marriage in Eritrea. The government muststrictly enforce the minimum age of marriage, which is 18 for both girlsand boys, in order to protect girls from the harms associated with earlymarriage. The government of Eritrea must also be rigorous in its enforcementof the ban on polygamy. Additionally, the practice of making dowrypayments can lead to discrimination against girls and women, and canmake girls and women vulnerable to violence within the family. OMCTinsists on the need to ban all of these practices and suggests that the governmentinstitute programs to raise awareness about the ways that thesepractices can jeopardize the full enjoyment of rights by girls and women.While OMCT commends the Eritrean government’s efforts to eradicateFGM through public awareness campaigns, it is equally important to outlawthe practice. Such a law should provide protections to girls andwomen who choose not to undergo the surgery and punish persons whosubject girls and women to this practice.215