In the framework of permanent cooperation with United Nations’ bodies and agencies our Association sent submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem for her Report “Violence against mothers”.
The ARC’s submission, prepared by Anna Prikhodko and other experts and published on the UN official web-sources now, together with mentioned Report A/HRC/62/49, described systematic ongoing violence against Ukrainian women and girls in the Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine, including Crimea.
Our submission stressed that situations of hostilities and interstate conflict, as well as relevant demands of Rome Statute, Geneva Convention, and Additional Protocols, must be taken into account regarding violence committed against women and children, who are victims of trafficking, deportation, indoctrination, and sexual violence in the conflict and “grey” zones or who reside in foreign occupied territory.
Also the victims’ rights to access to justice and effective remedies must be researched in the context of executing the decisions of international courts and of foreign national courts connected with interstate conflicts, with the foreign effective control and international crimes, including the duty to counteract violence against women, the ARC submission added.
Report A/HRC/62/49 stressed regarding that issue that mothers in the Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine are also bereaved when their children are starved, subjected to sexual violence, arbitrary detention, imprisonment, torture, abduction, enforced disappearance, forced adoption, trafficking, and forceful transfer.
Report A/HRC/62/49 stressed on such issues that in conflict and humanitarian settings, States, de facto authorities and non-State actors may directly perpetrate multiple forms of violence against mothers, including through the abrupt and large-scale reduction of humanitarian and development aid, the blocking of humanitarian aid and access, and the adoption of harsh migratory policies that separate mothers from their children.
Report A/HRC/62/49 agreed with us that protecting mothers in armed conflict is a core requirement of international humanitarian law and that while mothers are often exposed to the same forms of violence experienced by other females in times of conflict, they are also increasingly targeted because they embody the continuity of life within a group.
Report A/HRC/62/49 demanded states to ensure recognition, investigation, and accountability for the specific and emerging forms of violence and atrocities experienced by mothers during conflicts, such as reproductive violence.
Report A/HRC/62/49 reflected our proposal and demanded states to guarantee that mothers subjected to human rights violations have access to effective remedies, reparations, including guarantees of non-repetition, and the right to truth, apology and memorialization.
Report A/HRC/62/49 also stressed duty to strengthen protection for mothers defending their rights and those of their children, including children who are missing or forcibly disappeared, recognizing them as human rights defenders and enhancing their access to community-based, State and self-protection mechanisms.
Our cooperation with the UN structures on those issues will be continued.
