Discrimination in law

Please call urgently on your government to support the creation of a Special Rapporteur on laws that discriminate against women. Continue to write to the governments of countries highlighted in Equality Now’s 2004 updated report Words and Deeds: Holding Governments Accountable in the Beijing + 10 Review Process (PDF, 196K). Call on them to ensure that the laws cited, and any other discriminatory laws in force, are repealed or amended, noting the agreed target date of 2005. Call on your own government to undertake a comprehensive review to identify and address any laws with sex discriminatory language or impact. Share the report and your concerns, and the recent developments noted on the reverse side of this page, with the media and the general public to enlist their support in the campaign to hold governments accountable to the commitments they made in Beijing.

Following are developments relating to the laws highlighted in Equality Now's 2004 Beijing+10 report:

Colombia: The Constitutional Court struck down the discriminatory provisions of Article 140(2) of the Civil Code, ruling that disparities in marriage age based on sex were unenforceable in light of Colombia’s international commitments and the principle of equality enshrined in the Constitution. The marriage age, previously 12 for girls, is now 14 for both boys and girls. While Equality Now welcomes the removal of sex discrimination in this provision, it encourages the government of Colombia to institute further reform to raise the marriage age to 18, the age of majority under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Colombia is a party.

Ethiopia: The Ethiopian Parliament adopted a new Penal Code in 2004 that removes the marital exemption from penalty for crimes of abduction and rape. The new Code will come into force once the final text has been signed into law by the President and published in the official gazette.

Monaco: The government has revised Article 1 of Law No. 1155, so that it now provides equivalent rights to Monegasque mothers and fathers to pass their nationality to their children. The amendments were effected, however, by a structure that enumerates specific categories of mothers who could pass on nationality, while preserving to fathers a blanket right to do so. Consequently, while the change is welcome, the law remains facially discriminatory. According to government officials, this differentiation derives from the law regarding acquisition of Monegasque nationality by marriage, including Article 3 of Law No. 1155, which was also highlighted in Equality Now’s full report as discriminatory. Article 3 permits non-Monegasque women to acquire Monegasque nationality in certain circumstances through marriage to Monegasque men, but Monegasque women do not have the equivalent right to pass on their nationality to their non-Monegasque husbands. Please write to the government, welcoming the changes that have been made to Article 1 but calling for the amendment of Article 3 to provide for equal nationality rights for non-Monegasque men and women who marry Monegasque nationals and further revision to remove the discriminatory structure of Article 1.

Morocco: Morocco has effected broad legal reform that includes the following amendment to the provision cited in Equality Now’s report, which had been limited to violence committed by a husband against his wife:

Section 418—A mitigating circumstance obtains in cases of murder, injury or beating committed by one spouse against the other spouse, when either party is caught in flagrante delicto committing an act of infidelity.

While Equality Now welcomes the revision of this law to eliminate explicit discrimination against women, Morocco, together with other governments, committed in the Beijing Platform to “ensure equality and non-discrimination under the law and in practice” (emphasis added). The new law, while gender neutral on its face, may continue to be applied in a way that discriminates against women by mitigating punishment for offenders who are all, or almost all, men who have killed women in so-called “honor” killings. Please write to the government, congratulating it on the several reforms made that provide for sex equality. Urge the government to continue this reform through the repeal of Section 418, which maintains an exemption from punishment for murder that will in practice largely, if not exclusively, be applied to men who murder women.

Republic of Korea: The Constitutional Court ruled Articles 778 and 781 unconstitutional, but these provisions, establishing male primacy in succession to the role of head of family and mandating that children be given their father’s surname, remain in effect pending enactment of substitute laws.

Corrections and Contact Updates

Updated contact numbers are as follows:

Please write to the heads of state listed in Equality Now's campaign report, and/or to their embassies in your country, expressing your disappointment that the discriminatory laws cited in the report were not repealed or amended prior to the Beijing + 5 Special Session. Raise concern that the failure to implement such a fundamental first step in the effort to end discrimination against women suggests a lack of commitment to the spirit of the Platform for Action as well as a lack of accountability to the specific obligations established therein. Express the hope that governments will demonstrate that they do have the political will to make the Beijing + 5 review process a meaningful one by revoking these laws as soon as possible, in accordance with the commitment made in paragraph 102(b) of the Outcome Document.

Please continue writing to the heads of state and their embassies in your country listed in the campaign report and bring the laws cited in the report to the attention of the media and the general public. You might mention in your letters the above updates and urge these countries to accelerate any initiatives underway so that their successful efforts can be highlighted at the Beijing + 5 Special Session in June 2000. Note the enclosed corrections and contact updates to the campaign report.

Please send urgent appeals directly to the President, the Prime Minister, the Attorney General and the Minister of National Security, calling for clemency on behalf of Denny Baptiste and Haniff Hilaire. Note the background of domestic violence in this case and that Ramjattan's sentence was overturned and reduced on appeal, based on this evidence. Note that Mr. Baptiste and Mr. Hilaire were attempting to rescue her from her husband's violence and that this fact should have been considered in their trials and sentencing. Cite the fundamental right to equal protection of the law, as well as the right to be free from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. It is important that action be taken on an urgent basis, as the government of Trinidad and Tobago could execute these men at any time. You may also want to urge the authorities to reduce Ramjattan's sentence to time served, as she has already spent eight years in prison, four and a half of them on death row. In addition to the authorities listed below, contact your own governments and request their urgent intervention to save the lives of Denny Baptiste and Haniff Hilaire. Please also bring the case to the attention of the media.

The President
The Hon.Arthur Napoleon Raymond Robinson
Circular Road, St. Ann's
Port of Spain
Trinidad and Tobago
Tel: (868) 624-1261/64
Fax: (868) 625-7950

The Prime Minister
The Hon. Basdeo Panday
Level 15, Central Bank Towers
Eric Williams Plaza, Independence Square
Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
Tel: (868) 623-3653/5
Fax: (868) 627-4285

The Minister for National Security
Senator Brigadier The Hon. Joseph Theodore
Knox Street, Port of Spain
Trinidad and Tobago
Tel: (868) 623-2441/5
Fax: (868) 627-8044

The Attorney General
The Hon. Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj
Winsure Building
24-28 Richmond Street, Port of Spain
Trinidad and Tobago
Tel: (868) 623-2010/625-8901/623-4873
Fax: (868) 625-6530

Those of you who would like to make a contribution to "The Ramjattan Family Appeal" can send checks or money orders made out to "The Ramjattan Family Appeal," c/o Joanne Cross, Herbert Smith Solicitors, Exchange House, Primrose Street, London EC2A 2HS, United Kingdom. All funds raised will go towards a house for Pamela and her children as well as clothes, furniture, school books.