European Conference Report Honour Related Violence within a Global Perspective: Mitigation and Prevention in Europe Stockholm 7-8 October, 2004 1 Preface Honour related violence (HRV) has come to manifest itself more clearly in Europe during the last decade. It includes honour killings, forced marriages, early marriages, and honour based violence of predominantly males against females. The European Union (EU) has set gender equality as one of its primary goals. Many girls and women today all over Europe are subjected to discrimination and violence within their families and community settings. However, the recognition and the level of awareness about honour related violence vary between the countries. The key objective for holding a European conference in Stockholm was to exchange knowledge and experience between the European countries as well as gaining insight from work in different countries in the Middle East. It also aimed to place the Swedish and the European problems concerning HRV in a global context and to co-ordinate and ensure more effective national and transnational work against HRV in Europe. Concrete outputs we hoped to achieve were to adopt an action plan for the future European agenda, and to highlight examples of good practice from various parts of Europe, which succeeded. This conference is part of two initiatives to combat HRV within EU-funded projects that Kvinnoforum co-ordinates with partners from eight countries; New Scotland Yard and Change, UK, TransAct, the Netherlands, Papatya and Terre de Femmes, Germany, Mannerheim Child Foundation, Finland, Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies, Cyprus, Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation, Bulgaria, Fundacion Mujeres, Spain and Institute of Equality, Greece. Another example of this work is a conference on honour killings in June of this year held in collaboration with the Metropolitan Police Service at EUROPOL's Headquarters in the Hague. This led to the establishment of a network of senior police officers from 20 member states. The ambition with this report was partly to document as much of the knowledge and experiences exchanged during the conference as possible in order for those who were unable to attend to take part of this exchange. We also hope that it serve as a tool and inspiration for the future work in Europe and internationally against violence in the name of honour. During the conference a plan of action was produced for Europe to combat HRV. The plan of action was named the Stockholm Platform for Action. It can be found at the end of this report and constitutes an efficient tool for the future work in the member states and transnationally. Bam Björling Sherin A. Saadallah Johanna Förberg President Executive Director for Project Manager Kvinnoforum International Development Intercultural Department Kvinnoforum Kvinnoforum 2 3 Content THURSDAY 7 OCTOBER OPENING, INTRODUCTION AND PLENARY SESSION I...................... 6 WELCOME BY BAM BJÖRLING.....................................................................................................................................8 OPENING SPEECH BY HE AMBASSADOR ANITA GRADIN.......................................................................................10 EVELYNE ACCAD; HRV AND PATRIARCHY: HONOUR STRONGER THAN LIFE..................................................12 RANA HUSSEINI; HRV AND HUMAN RIGHTS, THE JORDANIAN EXPERIENCE ...................................................16 ANN CRYER; HRV AND THE EU: CRIMES OF HONOUR........................................................................................19 PLENARY SESSION II..............................................................................................................................................22 JACK BRIGGS; LIVING UNDER THE THREAT OF HRV.............................................................................................24 MEHRDAD DARVISHPOUR; HRV AND TRADITION: CROSS-CULTURAL ENCOUNTERS AND POWER CONFLICTS....................................................................................................................................................................29 DILSA DEMIRBAG-STEN; HRV AND INTEGRATION ................................................................................................32 NAZAND BEGIKHANI; HRV IN A EUROPEAN CONTEXT: THE CASE OF HESHU YONES..............................................35 SIHEM HABCHI; HRV AND EUROPEAN ADVOCACY, THE FRENCH EXPERIENCE ...............................................41 FRIDAY 8 OCTOBER PLENARY SESSION III AND PANEL DEBATE................................................48 SARA MOHAMMED; CRIES FOR HELP : LETTERS FROM THREATENED GIRLS.....................................................50 ELISABETH FRITZ; HRV THE LEGAL ASPECTS.......................................................................................................52 LEWIS BENJAMIN; HRV AND THE POLICE ..............................................................................................................55 HAIDEH DARAGAHI; WHEN THE LEGAL SYSTEM DOES NOT WORK..................................................................59 PANEL DEBATE; REDEFINING HRV IN EUROPE: FUTURE PERSPECTIVES..........................................................62 REPORTS FROM WORKSHOP BLOCK I.........................................................................................................72 WORKSHOP I: STATUS OF HRV IN EUROPE............................................................................................................74 WORKSHOP II: PARAMETERS OF PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT : BEST PRACTICE ...................................................76 WORKSHOP III: THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS: BEST PRACTICE .................78 REPORTS FROM WORKSHOP BLOCK II.......................................................................................................80 WORKSHOP I: HOW IS HRV A EUROPEAN PROBLEM ............................................................................................82 WORKSHOP II: STRATEGIES TO COMBAT HRV IN EUROPE..................................................................................84 WORKSHOP III: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL INCLUSION AND INTEGRATION IN MITIGATING HRV........................86 REPORTS FROM WORKSHOP BLOCK III.....................................................................................................90 WORKSHOP I: ISSUES ON CRIMINALIZATION AND POLICE ...................................................................................92 WORKSHOP II: A EUROPEAN PLAN OF ACTION .....................................................................................................94 WORKSHOP III: PREVENTIVE BEST PRACTICES......................................................................................................95 FUTURE STEPS IN THE EUROPEAN COLLABORATION TO MITIGATE AND PREVENT HRV...........98 MONA SAHLIN: FUTURE STEPS IN THE EUROPEAN COLLABORATION TO MITIGATE AND PREVENT HRV............................................................................................................................................................................ 100 CULTURAL EVENT OF THE CONFERENCE...............................................................................................104 INTRODUCING JEROO ROY AND HER PAINTINGS ON HONOUR RELATED VIOLENCE....................................... 106 THE PRESENTATION OF THE PROJECT "WOMEN’S LIVES, ARTISTS’ VIEWS”, BY KWAHK.......................... 107 THE STOCKHOLM PLATFORM FOR ACTION..........................................................................................108 CONFERENCE PROGRAM..................................................................................................................................110 4 5 Thursday 7 October Opening, Introduction and Plenary Session I 6 7 Welcome by Bam Björling, president of Kvinnoforum Your Majesty, honourable speakers and colleagues of this conference, Together with our European partners New Scotland Yard and Change, UK, TransAct, the Netherlands, Papatya and Terre de Femmes, Germany, Mannerheim Child Foundation, Finland, Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies, Cyprus, Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation, Bulgaria, Fundacion Mujeres, Spain and Institute of Equality, Greece, I want to say welcome to two days of intensive sharing and work to make mitigation and prevention of honour related violence in Europe more effective and transnational. The aim of our conference is to increase awareness, knowledge, actions, and strategies; interdisciplinary as well as international co-operation to reduce and prevent honour related violence. Hence we have gathered several of the world’s most knowledgeable and drivande activists, researchers and debaters on the topic honour related violence. Throughout these two days we will be guided by Anita Gradin, former EU-Commisioner, and Minister of justice, integration and labour in Sweden. The programme is based on all the conference participants’ active input and contribution in workshops and plenaries, which will be given a frame by the speakers’ short expert introductions. The work with mitigation and prevention in Europe is put in a gender perspective and a global context. We will take some important steps forward, but to be able to step forward, we have to look backwards. I once wrote a paper for a UN conference with the title ”Backwards towards the future”. And if we look at this specific issue, I want to remind you, how it was in Sweden about twelve years ago. At the time, Kvinnoforum