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Redress for Rape Redress for Rape Using international jurisprudence on rape as a form of torture or other ill-treatment October 2013 REDRESS 87 Vauxhall Walk London, SE11 5HJ United Kingdom +44 20 7793 1777 www.redress.org CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 PART I: CONTEXT & CONTROVERSIES .................................................................... 4 A. UNDERSTANDINGS OF TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT ................................... 4 1. The prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment in international law .................... 4 2. Understandings of torture and other ill-treatment .................................................... 6 2.1. Distinguishing torture and other ill-treatment ................................................ 6 2.2. Other ill-treatment under international human rights law ............................. 7 2.3. Torture under international human rights law ................................................ 8 2.4. Torture in international criminal law ............................................................... 9 2.5. Current jurisprudence on the distinction between torture and other ill- treatment in international human rights law ................................................ 11 B. ADDRESSING THE BLIND SPOT: RECOGNISING RAPE AS TORTURE OR OTHER ILL- TREATMENT ........................................................................................................... 16 1. Rape in the international legal sphere ..................................................................... 16 2. Making the link to torture and other ill-treatment .................................................. 18 3. Key developments in international criminal law jurisprudence on rape and torture and other ill-treatment ............................................................................................ 20 4. Key developments in international human rights law jurisprudence on rape and torture and other ill-treatment ................................................................................ 22 4.1. Rapes by state officials amounting to “torture” ............................................ 22 4.2. Rapes by non-state actors engaging State responsibility for torture and other ill-treatment ................................................................................................... 23 5. Legal consequences .................................................................................................. 25 C. CRITIQUES AND POTENTIAL LIMITATIONS OF HARNESSING THE TORTURE FRAMEWORK .......................................................................................................... 26 Should ‘everyday’ rape be called torture? ....................................................................... 28 Should the stigma of torture be reserved for acts carried out or directly acquiesced in by state officials? .......................................................................................................... 28 Where does state complicity start and end? ................................................................... 29 Public official requirement: international practice .......................................................... 29 Public official requirement: National practice ................................................................. 30 Conclusions ...................................................................................................................... 32 D. CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................... 33 PART II. FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE: CASE EXAMPLES....................................... 34 Rape in immigration detention ........................................................................................ 34 Prosecution of rape by soldiers barred by statute of limitations ..................................... 36 Complaint about response of consular officials to rape by soldier .................................. 39 Public law challenge for failure to protect from rape ...................................................... 41 PART III. FRAMING AN INDIVIDUAL CASE USING HUMAN RIGHTS LAW ............... 44 A. ESTABLISHING THAT RAPE ENGAGES THE PROHIBITION ........................................... 45 1. Show that rape amounts to prohibited ill-treatment ............................................... 45 1.1. Consider whether the rape should be termed “torture” .............................. 45 The elements of torture................................................................................. 46 1.2. Intentional infliction of severe pain or suffering ........................................... 46 1.2.1. Jurisprudence seeing rape as automatically reaching the threshold ............ 47 1.2.2. Jurisprudence examining specific factors in relation to severity .................. 48 1.2.3. Arguments for and against an automatic severity finding ............................ 50 1.3. For a prohibited purpose ............................................................................... 51 1.3.1. Examination of the purpose element where rape by a public official .......... 52 1.3.2. Prohibited purposes and rape by private actors ........................................... 53 1.4. Consider the public official aspect ................................................................. 55 1.4.1. Where the rape is committed by a public official ......................................... 56 1.4.2. Cases of non-state actor rape under the Convention against Torture and American Torture Convention ....................................................................... 57 1.4.3. Cases of non-state actor rape under other Conventions .............................. 59 B. DEMONSTRATING STATE RESPONSIBILITY ............................................................... 60 The standard of liability – strict liability and “due diligence” .......................................... 61 1. State responsibility for the act itself ........................................................................ 62 1.1. Rape by a public official ................................................................................. 62 1.2. Rape by private actors: obligations to prevent ............................................ 62 1.2.1. Failure to respond to an immediate, and known risk to the individual ........ 64 1.2.2. Responsibility for torture or other ill-treatment because of a failure to exercise due diligence at the systemic level? ................................................ 70 2. Violations arising from failures in response ............................................................. 75 2.1. Obligation to investigate ............................................................................... 76 2.1.1. General issues ................................................................................................ 76 2.1.2. Requirements of an effective investigation ................................................... 77 2.1.3. Providing equal access to justice, medical care and avoiding further traumatisation ............................................................................................... 81 2.1.4. Obligations flowing from failure to investigate ............................................. 82 2.2. Appropriate criminalisation of rape .............................................................. 84 2.2.1. Criminal law must effectively punish rape .................................................... 84 2.2.2. How should rape be criminalised? ................................................................ 84 2.2.3. Criminalisation and prosecution as torture? ................................................. 86 2.3. Prosecution and participation in legal proceedings ...................................... 87 2.3.1. Avoiding discriminatory “rape myths” .......................................................... 88 2.3.2. Victims must have information about the proceedings and possibility of being heard in them ...................................................................................... 90 2.3.3. Specific measures are likely to be required to avoid further traumatisation 90 3. Reparation ................................................................................................................ 91 3.1. Where a private individual is responsible ..................................................... 91 3.2. Where the state is responsible for a violation............................................... 92 3.3. Types of reparation ........................................................................................ 92 C. CONSIDER OTHER VIOLATIONS ................................................................................ 96 1. Violations of other rights.......................................................................................... 96 2. Violations affecting family members ....................................................................... 96 D. REQUEST APPROPRIATE REPARATION ..................................................................... 97 ANNEX ONE: PROHIBITIONS ............................................................................... 100 ANNEX TWO: FRAMING A HUMAN RIGHTS CASE ................................................ 102 ANNEX THREE: REPARATION ORDER EXTRACTS .................................................. 103 ANNEX FOUR: LIST OF KEY CASES ......................................................................
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