full version - World Organisation Against Torture

Braziloften receive reduced sentences. The defence of “honour” is equated withlegitimate self-defence.Trafficking in girls and women remains a serious problem in Brazil andOMCT would urge the government to make a binding commitment to preventingand combating trafficking by ratifying the Protocol to Prevent,Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women andChildren Supplementing the UN Convention against TransnationalOrganized Crime. OMCT would also urge the government to considerusing the Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights andHuman Trafficking (UN Doc. E/2002/68/Add.1) as adopted by theEconomic and Social Council in July 2002 as the basis for the developmentof a comprehensive legislative and policy response to the issue.In relation to the prevention of trafficking, OMCT would recommend thatthe government make further efforts to address some of the root causes oftrafficking through, inter alia, ensuring that women’s economic, socialand cultural rights are protected and respected in practice. To this end,effective measures to prevent and eradicate discrimination against womenin employment, to facilitate access to affordable housing and to preventand combat gender-related violence need to be adopted.OMCT would recommend that the government give serious considerationto the adoption of comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation that enshrinesthe rights of trafficking victims to appropriate protection and assistance.OMCT notes with concern that the Penal Code still discriminates severelyagainst women, particularly in relation to rape. Article 107, para. VII ofthe Brazilian the Penal Code stipulates that a man who rapes a womanwill be exempt from punishment if he offers to marry her (“reparatorymarriage”) and article 215 of the Brazilian Penal Code contains the criteriafor punishment of a minor sexual assault that the victim is an “honest”woman. OMCT would urge the government of Brazil to repeal these discriminatoryprovisions as soon as possible.The moral judgements towards victims of sexual violence by membersof the police and the judiciary have lead to a lack of confidence in thelaw enforcement response to acts of violence against women and thus tothe subsequent under-reporting of rape and other forms of violenceagainst women in Brazil. For this reason, OMCT would recommend that97