Promoting and Protecting the Human Rights of Women and Girls A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions 2.9. REMEDIES FOR VIOLATIONS OF WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS The particular circumstances in which women and girls are made victims of crimes and human rights violations … require approaches specially adapted to their needs, interests and priorities, as defined by them.52 All women and girls who have experienced violation of their human rights have an internationally recognized legal right to access fair and adequate remedies. Remedies are a practical means by which victims can both access and receive justice. States are under an international legal obligation to provide access to appropriate remedies. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, for example, requires States parties to ensure “that any person whose rights or freedoms as herein recognized are violated shall have an effective remedy”.53 There has been extensive recognition at the international level of the right to remedies for women who are victims of gender-based violence. All major legal and policy instruments relating to violence against women affirm the importance of remedies, including the Organization of American States’ Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women,54 the United Nations General Assembly’s Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women,55 the CEDAW Committee’s General Recommendation No. 19 on violence against women56 and the Beijing Platform for Action.57 An important, non-legal instrument that deals specifically with this issue, in the particular context of human rights violations in situations of conflict, is the Nairobi Declaration on Women’s and Girls’ Right to a Remedy and Reparation, adopted at a regional meeting of women’s rights activists and advocates in 2007. It is also relevant to note that the CEDAW Committee has consistently affirmed that CEDAW includes an implied right to a remedy.58 An important instrument for understanding the right to a remedy is the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy, adopted by the General Assembly in 2005. The Basic Principles affirm that: • The general obligation on States to ensure respect for and to implement human rights law includes an obligation to ensure equal and effective access to justice and the availability of remedies • The right to a remedy for gross violations of human rights, a term that would incorporate egregious violations of women’s human rights, includes the right of access to justice and the right to reparation for harm suffered and access to information concerning violations and reparation mechanisms • Reparation for victims of gross violations of human rights should be full and effective, while respecting the principles of appropriateness and proportionality. 22 52 Nairobi Declaration on Women’s and Girls’ Right to a Remedy and Reparation, para. 7. 53 Article 2(3). 54 See article. 7(g) which requires women victims of violence to have “effective access to restitution, reparations or other just and effective remedies”. 55 See article 4(d) which requires States to provide women subjected to violence with “access to the mechanisms of justice and, as provided for by national legislation, to just and effective remedies for the harm that they have suffered; States should also inform women of their rights in seeking redress through such mechanisms”. The Declaration was adopted by General Assembly resolution 48/104. 56 See para. 24(i) which holds that States should provide “[e]ffective complaints procedures and remedies, including compensation”. 57 See para. 124(d) which encourages States to provide victims of violence against women with “access to just and effective remedies, including compensation and indemnification and healing of victims”. See also para. 124(h) which states that victims of violence against women should have access to the mechanisms of justice and effective remedies for the harms they have incurred and to be informed of their legal rights. Note also the Beijing+5 Outcome Document, para. 69(b) (Governments to take measures to provide victims with avenues for redress) and para. 98(a) (Governments and international organizations should “improve knowledge and awareness of the remedies available for violations of women’s human rights”); adopted by General Assembly resolution S-23/3. 58 See further the discussion in A. Byrnes, “Article 2”; in M. Freeman, C. Chinkin and B. Rudolf (eds.), The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women: A Commentary, 2012, pp. 71-97.