I don't usually do this: SIGN THIS PETITION

Feminists all over the world need to be pressuring governments to define rape as torture and persecution. Please sign this U.K. petition, and then post or email the link to help spread the word:

And a heartfelt thank you to my friend [I guess I can say that as she hasn't banned me yet, hehehe], Dr. Violet Socks.

No. I think the U.S. needs to act as a government and make some penalties apply, unlike they have been doing for a long time. But foreign individuals interfering with Britain’s decisions about whom to grant asylum is another matter. I don’t tell others whom to allow into their homes nor other countries whom to allow into their nations.

In addition, I am very leery of attempts to make some kind of international law or treaty defining torture without more information and a look at the whole picture. This petition, while aimed at Britain, sure sounded as if it would be used to pressure other nations to change their own definitions of torture. I am not in favor of making life harder for women in third world countries but sometimes the best intentions come back to bite us, especially in international affairs. I already am suspicious of the Violence Against Women Act and its international cousins. Too often those acts shoehorn in matters which wander far afield of the original selling point used to solicit support.

That said, I have no problem with you signing it. I just will withhold my support.

To: UK Government

Asylum from Rape Petition

Women and children are 80% of refugees and displaced people worldwide. International courts have recognized that rape is routinely used as a weapon of war (*1) and an estimated 50% of women seeking asylum in the UK are rape survivors (*2). Yet the UN Convention on Refugees which defines who is entitled to protection does not recognise the specific persecution of women. Each woman must battle against institutional sexism, and institutional racism if she is a woman of colour, forced to show how her case relates to the Convention.

Gender Guidelines, provided to the Home Office (*3) and immigration judges in the UK (*4) acknowledge how hard it may be for women to speak about rape, and give practical guidance about how to ensure women have a fair hearing. But officials have no statutory obligation to implement the Guidelines, and rape survivors seeking asylum are treated with disbelief and even hostility. Case law and international precedents are rarely referred to and frequently flouted. And while victims of torture are considered “vulnerable” people who should not be detained, many are detained, including rape survivors.

Even when women are believed, rape can be dismissed as “simple lust” or “random acts” by “unruly officers”, or women are told it is safe to live somewhere else in the country they fled – with no means of survival, except begging or prostitution.

Women are denied any support or even legal representation. As a result, many cases are closed and women fight for years to get justice. Trafficked women who escaped forced prostitution or other bonded labour, mothers of children conceived as a result of rape, under-age girls and other rape survivors, are left destitute and detained. Most are ultimately removed.

WE DEMAND THE OFFICIAL RECOGNITION OF RAPE AS TORTURE AND PERSECUTION:

• The Home Office must make public how many women’s asylum claims include reports of rape or other sexual torture, and how many of these are refused and on what basis.
• The Asylum Gender Guidelines must be implemented by statute to help ensure that: women have the opportunity to give a full account of what they suffered; decisions on their claims consider the traumatic impact of rape, the difficulty of speaking about such experiences, the stigma survivors suffer including as mothers of children conceived as a result of rape; and that all aspects of whether it would be safe for them to be returned to their country of origin are considered.
• Women reporting rape as part of their claim must have immediate access to an independent expert assessment, including medical examination, interpreters, counsellors and appropriate specialist organisations.
• Abolition of the Fast Track system for asylum applications, which denies victims of torture, especially rape survivors, access to reliable legal representation and the time and resources they need to fully present their case to the relevant authorities.
• Restoration of full legal aid for all who report rape or other torture, enabling access to independent legal advice.
• An end to the detention of rape survivors and other victims of torture, and their families.

FOOTNOTES:
(*1) “International criminal law has always encompassed crimes of sexual violence: rape can be a violation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, the 1948 Genocide Convention, the 1984 Torture Convention, and a crime against humanity under the Nuremberg Charter. After World War II, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg established rape as a crime against humanity, but did not actually prosecute it.” Human Rights Watch, Feb 1998.
(*2) Legal Action for Women’s recent report “A Bleak House for Our Times: An investigation into women’s rights violations at Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre” revealed that 2/3 of women detained there had survived rape and other torture by soldiers, police and others acting on behalf of the authorities in the countries they fled.
(*3) Home Office Gender Guidance (issued in 2004)
(*4) Immigration Appellate Authority Gender Guidelines (November 2000)

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

I have read the petition back at the website you linked. It creates more questions than it answers but, bottom line, I don’t feel comfortable telling the UK how to handle its asylum laws. The petition appears to give the woman an almost irrefutable presumption of torture if she claims rape. The crime, and it is a serious crime, is nevertheless quite difficult to prove one way or another by the time an asylum hearing might be held. The petition generally says as long as she claims rape by authority or claim of authority, it becomes the burden of the UK government to disprove it. I am not willing to extend those rights here in this country. I am certainly not going to lend my name to pressuring the UK to do so. Nor am I going to dictate the UK provide the claimant with full legal assistance, counseling and free rein for her and her family to settle in the country while the proceedings are going on.

It appears that the UK does allow the woman to make her case but that the petition is implying the burden is too high for her. It may be but the petition seems to go the other direction, basically creating a carte blanche procedure for any woman who claims rape as the reason for her request for asylum for herself and her family. If the UK has signed on to treaties which govern the matter, I think any attempt to enforce it ought to be brought in whatever jurisdiction is empowered to decide whether the UK is in compliance. I, as an American, will not tell Britain whom to allow into their country. Rape is an extremely difficult area of the law, primarily because it is very difficult to prove when a substantial period of time has elapsed since the deed. We struggle in this country with burdens of proof and presumptions. I have seen abuses both on the side of the accused and the victim and I am not going to tell Britain how to balance the concerns here.

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