ECLJ and MEPs Peter van Dalen and Bastiaan Belder Co-Sponsor Symposium on the Exploitation of Women and the International Justice System

(Strasbourg, France) -The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) in conjunction with Peter van Dalen and Bastiaan Belder, Members of the European Parliament (MEP), hosted a joint symposium at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France on February 26, 2014. The symposium entitled “The Exploitation of Women and the International Justice System: Preventing Forced Marriages, Conversions and Rape” focused on the status of sexual and gender-based violence in Pakistan, Egypt, and Syria.  A victims expert from the Office of the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court delivered the keynote address on the role of the international justice system in preventing and prosecuting sexual and gender-based crimes.

Peter van Dalen, member of the Christian Union Party in Holland, Member of European Parliament in the European Conservative Reformists Group presided over symposium, which was attended by MEPs from across the political divide, members of the diplomatic corps stationed in Strasbourg, various human rights organizations, clergy, and members of the general public.

Distinguished panelists included:

• Gloria Atiba-Davies, Victims Expert, Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court
• Neelam Hussain, Executive Director, Simorgh Women’s Resource and Publication Centre of Pakistan
• Tiffany N. Barrans, Counsel, European Centre for Law and Justice
• Jean Maher, President, Franco-Egyptian Organization for Human Rights OFEDH

Gloria Atiba-Davies, the victims expert for the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) delivered a detailed presentation on the role of the ICC to prevent and prosecute sexual and gender-based crimes. Mrs. Atiba-Davies stated, “One of the roles of the criminal justice system is to deliver justice for all, by convicting and punishing the guilty, while dispensing justice to and protecting the innocent.” As such, the ICC has committed to investigating those crimes within its jurisdiction, including crimes of “rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, gender based persecutions, trafficking and other forms of sexual violence of comparable gravity.” Mrs. Atiba-Davies noted that religious minority women are at times exploited by means of forcible conversion—a form of religious and gender-based violence, which she said in her opinion “deserves extensive research coupled with thorough investigation and prosecution.”

Neelam Hussain, Executive Director, Simorgh Women’s Resource and Publication Centre, addressed the situation in Pakistan.  She highlighted various forms of sexual and gender-based violence in Pakistan, noting that the tribal and cultural norms, which are based on a patriarchal structure, have at times encouraged various forms of gender-based violence, including forced marriage, rape, and conversion. Ms. Hussain specifically noted the difficulties the Hindu minority in Pakistan faced with forced marriages and conversions to Islam.

Tiffany N. Barrans, Counsel with the ECLJ, described the increasing threat of sexual and gender-based violence for Syrian women and girls, both in the Syrian Arab Republic and in the various countries in which millions have sought refuge.  Describing the situation as a two-front war, she explained how sexual violence—whether it be through rape, forced marriage, forced prostitution, abduction, or forced conversion—has been perpetrated against Syrian women both in Syria and against Syrian female refuges.  As the civil war marks its third anniversary, Ms. Barrans demonstrated how female abduction and rape has been used as a war tactic by both sides of the conflict to terrorize and punish women who have been perceived as being associated with the opposition.  She explained how temporary Islamic pleasure marriages have destroyed the innocence of many young Syrian girls, both inside of Syria and in neighboring host countries, damaging a generation and “the potential for peace and stability in the society’s future.”

Jean Maher, President, Franco-Egyptian Organization for Human Rights OFEDH, outlined the many difficulties the Coptic women of Egypt have faced, including kidnappings, forced marriages, conversions, and rape, at the hands of radical Islamists. Mr. Maher explained that to date hundreds of young Coptic girls have been kidnapped by Islamists and forced to convert to Islam in an attempt to destroy the Coptic population and society in Egypt. Showing the faces of many presently missing Coptic girls, Mr. Maher pled with those present to bring awareness to the situation and to bring justice for the hundreds of Coptic families touched by sexual and gender-based crimes in Egypt.

The symposium was a significant opportunity to join together with other leaders and government officials who are dedicated to protecting the dignity of women around the world and seeking justice for those affected by sexual and gender-based violence. We are grateful to Peter van Dalen, MEP, and Bastiaan Belder, MEP, for partnering with the ECLJ for this important event.

The European Centre for Law and Justice is an international, Non-Governmental Organization dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights in Europe and around the world. The ECLJ holds special Consultative Status before the United Nations/ECOSOC since 2007. The ECLJ acts within the judicial, legislative, and cultural domains. The ECLJ defends, in particular, the right to religious freedom, the life and dignity of persons before the European Court of Human Rights and the other mechanisms afforded by the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The ECLJ bases its actions on “the spiritual and moral values which are the common heritage of [European] peoples and the true source of individual freedom, political liberty and the rule of law, principles which form the basis of all genuine democracy” (Preamble of the Statute of the Council of Europe).