Parliamentarians discuss penalisation of forced marriage as a crime against humanity
Co-organised by Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) and Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice (WIGJ)
On April 22nd, 2021, Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) and Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice (WIGJ) convened a roundtable where Members of Parliament (MPs) from Afghanistan, Argentina, Canada, Ecuador, Kenya, Mauritania, Romania, São Tomé & Principe, Sweden, Uganda and Zimbabwe as well as experts, survivors and victims of international crimes, academics and representatives of civil society gathered to discuss what concrete impact the Ongwen decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) might have on States’ willingness to criminalise forced marriage as a crime against humanity and to implement the Rome Statute in their national legal frameworks. PGA used this occasion to launch its new toolkit on The Role of Parliamentarians in Implementing Forced Marriage as a Crime against Humanity in their Domestic Legislation – a tool which can be used by Parliamentarians to better support their legislative work as well as by other stakeholders advocating to promote the domestication of this crime.
The roundtable, moderated by Ms. Alix Vuillemin, WIGJ Senior Advocacy Adviser, began with remarks by Hon. Levy Nazaré, MP (São Tomé & Principe), Vice-President of the National Assembly and PGA Board Member, who highlighted that with this landmark decision, the Court sent a clear message to the international community that forced marriage, committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against civilians, is a crime against humanity falling under its jurisdiction. Hon. Nazaré recalled that it was the responsibility of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC to implement this crime into their domestic legal framework.
On that note, Ms. Anushka Sehmi, Legal representative of victims before the ICC in the Ongwen case, offered a comprehensive overview of the decision and reflected on the advances it created for gender jurisprudence in international criminal law. Ms. Sehmi recalled that Dominic Ongwen was found guilty of 61 charges, including for direct and indirect commission of the crime of forced marriage as a crime against humanity. Ms. Sehmi explained that the ICC, in accordance with previous jurisprudence of the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, ruled that the central element of forced marriage was the imposition of an exclusive, conjugal union to the victim. Ms. Sehmi stressed that the crime of forced marriage was not predominantly a sexual crime, and that survivors suffered severe physical and mental pain, and that both, the survivors and their children, were often stigmatized by their communities and families.
Hon. Mariam Solaimankhail, MP (Afghanistan), PGA Member, discussed the challenges Afghan MPs had met when they issued the Ending Violence against Women Law in 2009, notably prohibiting forced marriage. She also explained the challenges in lobbying for the adoption of the Child Protection Act, which established 18 yeas as the minimum legal age for marriage, but has not been yet signed into law. Resistance in Afghanistan can be explained by cultural and religious beliefs and a lack of education regarding women’s and girls’ human rights. Hon. Solaimankhail strongly urged the international community to take advantage of the peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban to raise issues directly affecting the rights of women, children, and minorities and to ensure the establishment of a peace agreement expressly guaranteeing these rights and stipulating that all Parties to the agreement, including the Taliban, must respect these rights under all circumstances.
The U.S. and its allies want to pull out the troops, leave Afghanistan, stop funding and hand Afghan women and children back in the hands of the Taliban with no guarantee that we will get education back or that it will stay to where it is right now. Today, we have women ambassadors, ministers, deputy ministers. Millions of women are getting educated in the villages. But in the areas where the Taliban are, they are destroying girls school and girls do not have access to education. This the foundation of the issue in Afghanistan. At this point, where we would like the international community’s help and efforts is, instead of just handing Afghanistan back to the Taliban, which will have global repercussion, we need clear guarantees by the Taliban that they will respect women’s rights. Mariam Solaimankhail, MP (Afghanistan)
Ms. Grace Acan (Uganda), Community Right Advocate from the Women’s Advocacy Network, shared how the decision by the ICC in The Hague had been perceived by some victims and survivors of the Lord Resistance Army (LRA) in Northern Uganda. While most victims and survivors welcomed the decision and felt that justice had been done, Ms. Acan raised the following question to the audience: “What is next for the victims?”
Following up on this, Ms. Jackline Atingo (Uganda), Research-Consultant for the Justice & Security Research Project at the London School of Economics, who has been closely working with more than 400 victims and survivors, including survivors of forced marriage with Dominic Ongwen, also raised concerns as to the long-term impact of the ICC ruling. Having listened to all the stories of the victims, she explained that while the decision gave hope and showed that no one was above justice, the decision could change neither what had happened to the survivors, nor the challenges they were facing today, including rejection from their communities and families, and the lack of psycho-social support. Ms. Atingo urged Members of Parliament in Uganda to implement legislation to support survivors of forced marriage as well as their children and to ensure their access to land and to education. Lastly, Ms. Atingo stressed that reparations in Uganda should seek to rebuild the lives of the survivors and their children and to increase acceptance within their communities.
Hon. Millie Odhiambo-Mabona, MP (Kenya) and PGA Board Member, offered a comprehensive overview of best practices in Kenya regarding the implementation of laws regulating child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) and strengthening women’s and girl’s human rights. Referring to the practice of CEFM in Kenya, Hon. Odhiambo-Mabona informed that child marriage was criminalized in the Kenyan Constitution and that international and regional treaties ratified by Kenya prohibiting forced marriage, including the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, were a part of Kenyan legal framework. Hon. Odhiambo-Mabona stressed the importance to change the law in order to make a change in societies, including by raising the minimum age of marriage to 18 years. She thanked her colleagues from the Kenyan Women Parliamentary Association attending the roundtable for their work in protecting and upholding the Rule of Law in their country. In addition, Hon. Odhiambo-Mabona discussed how the PGA’s National Group in Kenya was actively working to end CEFM, including through meetings with Girls Not Brides and a PGA-hosted strategic dialogue with civil society. Hon. Odhiambo-Mabona raised the importance of protecting victims’ rights constitutionally and stressed it was States’ responsibility to provide reparation to the victims.
Ms. Frederika Schweighoferova, PGA Senior Legal Officer of the International Law and Human Rights Program, presented the new Toolkit on the Role of Parliamentarians in Implementing Forced Marriage as a Crime against Humanity in their Domestic Legislation. Recognizing the achievement made by the ICC to advance accountability for sexual and gender-based crimes, Ms. Schweighoferova stressed that the Court was an instrument of last resort and that States had the primary responsibility to investigate and prosecute crimes. Parliamentarians, therefore, play a key role to end CEFM as it is their responsibility to promote and propose policies, to set a political agenda, to prepare a budget accordingly, to monitor the implementation, and to address the root causes of this crime – including discriminatory practices entrenched in their legal systems. Ms. Schweighoferova called on Parliamentarians to ratify and implement regional and international instruments, including the Rome Statute of the ICC, to guarantee enhanced protection to survivors of sexual crimes. She further encouraged the incorporation of the crime of forced marriage as a stand-alone crime against humanity in domestic frameworks to recognize its gravity and to ensure legal certainty. Finally, following up on Ms. Atingo’s remarks, Ms. Schweighoferova called on States to adopt laws facilitating the reintegration and rehabilitation of victims and survivors, and guaranteeing their safety and psychological well-being.
Dr. David Donat-Cattin, PGA Secretary-General, briefly took the floor to stress the objective responsibility of States to provide reparations to victims, in accordance with the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and other international and domestic jurisdictions. He added that PGA stands for individual reparation since it is the right of each victim and survivor to receive reparations and support they need, in accordance with States’ available resources. Dr. Donat Cattin also mentioned the complementary role of the Trust Fund for Victims of the ICC.
Hon. Dorcas Sibanda, MP (Zimbabwe), PGA Member, criticized the underreporting of this crime and recalled the importance of holding accountable all perpetrators of forced marriage, including those encouraging it, stressing the importance of criminalizing forced marriage at the national level.
In her closing remarks, Ms. Grace Acan’s underscored that victims and survivors are tired of waiting for reparations in Uganda given the long and complex implementation of this process. She was nevertheless hopeful that this roundtable could assist in raising the issue among parliamentarians. She also recommended an establishment of an independent body to monitor and register the cases of forced marriages. Stressing the importance of its transparency, she added that this body should be predominantly composed of victims and CSOs.
