"CONVENTION OF BELEM DO
PARA"
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PREAMBLE
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:
- 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;
- 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
- 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:
- The right to have her life respected;
- The right to have her physical, mental
and moral integrity respected;
- The right to personal liberty and
security;
- The right not to be subjected to
torture;
- The right to have the inherent dignity
of her person respected and her family protected;
- The right to equal protection before the
law and of the law;
- The right to simple and prompt recourse
to a competent court for protection against acts that violate her
rights;
- The right to associate freely;
- The right of freedom to profess her
religion and beliefs within the law; and
- 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:
- The right of women to be free from all
forms of discrimination; and
- 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:
- 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;
- apply due diligence to prevent,
investigate and impose penalties for violence against women;
- 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;
- 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;
- 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;
- 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;
- 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
- 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:
- 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;
- 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;
- 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;
- to provide appropriate specialized
services for women who have been subjected to violence, through public
and private sector agencies, including shelters, counseling services
for ail family members where appropriate, and care and custody of the
affected children:
- 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;
- 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;
- 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;
- 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
- 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 right 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 a.ffected 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
Conventinn
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 ereater 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 insttuments 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:
- not incompatible with the object and
purpose of the Convention, and
- 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 BELEN DO PARA, BRAZIL,
the ninth of June in the year one thousand nine hundred
ninety-four.
