The draft report calls for immediate action to deal with what it describes as the growing problem of honor killings. British member of parliament John Austin, prepared the report.

“Here in Turkey the figures for 2007 show that over 200 women were killed here in the name of family or community honor, and that is frankly unacceptable in a modern Europe,” Austin said. “And it’s just the tip of the iceberg: In the United Kingdom; in Germany; in Belgium; in France; in Norway, there is evidence of honor crimes and honor killings.”

A Turkish cabinet minister claims the country is taking action against honour killings.

Because justifying honour killing is a key element of his defence, the court is hearing testimony on the nature and purpose of honour crime.

Honour killings involve a cleansing of dishonour aimed at restoring a family’s respect after the “misbehaviour” of female relatives, an expert has told the Ottawa murder trial of Hasibullah Sadiqi.

The “act of purifying through blood” involves control of women by male family members, said Shahrzad Mojab, a University of Toronto professor who has researched the topic extensively.
[…]
In many cases, a father or brother will claim the killing happened out of passion or love for the woman, but it’s argued that the woman had to be sacrificed for the larger love of the family and restoring respect, Mojab said. At the heart of the issue is the power of male family members over female relatives.

An Ottawa Citizen editorial condemns Sidiqi’s alleged code of honour as an instrument of oppression.

But the adherence of an accused to a misogynistic code of honour, on its own, should never be enough for a Canadian court to mete out a lighter sentence. Is an honour killing any less criminal than, say, a random shooting? If Canada ever answers “yes” to that question, that will signal an abandonment of the principle that all people, regardless of sex or race or sexual orientation, are equal under the law.

To accept Sidiqi’s claim of provocation would be to accept misogyny as a mitigating factor in a murder charge.

The Crown contends there will be evidence that the slaying was an honour killing rooted in anger over their engagement, while Sadiqi’s defence lawyers do not deny that Sadiqi is responsible for the deaths, but are expected to advance the argument of provocation, which could reduce a murder charge to manslaughter if certain conditions are met.

In effect, prosecution and defence agree that it was an honour killing. They disagree over the legal ramifications of his allegedly offended “honour”.

Sadiqi, a Canadian of Afghan descent, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder. The court is expected to hear he was upset because his sister got engaged without the permission of their father and had moved in with Mangal’s family, [assistant Crown attorney Mark ] Moors told the five-woman, seven-man jury.
[…]
The defence will not dispute the fact that Sadiqi was responsible for the killings. Natasha Calvinho, one of Sadiqi’s lawyers, told the jury that the case centres on the classification of the homicides.

“It’s not a whodunnit so much as a ‘why did he do it?’ ” she said.

The killer has managed to hire a woman to defend him. She’s a useful idiot. Doesn’t she realise that, if her argument is successful, women gunned down by “offended” men would be viewed as blameworthy for their own deaths? So much for women’s liberation.

The defendant’s notion of “honour” is foreign to civilised society and, if sanity prevails, will be repudiated by Canadian courts.

h/t: Vlad Tepes

Peel police said yesterday a 19-year-old Brampton man coerced the girl, a 15-year-old runaway from Georgina, with death threats, ordering her to remain in the hotel while he arranged for “clients” to come and go from the room.

Police also discovered a 16-year-old prostitute at the same hotel, who they said was “kind of a willing participant” and faces prostitution charges after eight months of coercion by the man they described as “a serial pimp.”

“One girl was threatened – if she went to the cops, she’d be killed,” said Det. David Van Allen, noting that the younger teen had only met the accused pimp five days prior to her discovery by police. “I think the one girl would have stayed in any event, but the 15-year-old certainly didn’t feel that she could just walk out.”

The 15-year-old ran away from a group home in Keswick, Ontario, last month.

Joshua Owusu-Ansah, 19, of Brampton faces nine charges related to prostitution and human trafficking, including two charges of living off the avails of someone who is under the age of 18, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years.

The Criminal Code statute against human trafficking doesn’t specify any minimum sentence. If Conservative MP Joy Smith had her druthers, Mr Owusu-Ansah would be facing a minimum term of five years. Ms Smith’s private member’s Bill C-268 is due to come to a vote in the House of Commons next week. If successful, it will then be considered by the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

In a report out today, the council says hundreds of women are working in prostitution in Ireland and the industry is worth at least €180m every year.

It says around 90% of prostitutes are immigrants, most of whom are being held against their will.

Speaking at the launch of the report, Labour Party justice spokesperson Pat Rabbitte said the figures flew in the face of official claims that sex trafficking was not a major problem in Ireland.

Irish organisations report that, in the past two years, they have assisted 102 victims of human trafficking.

Last month, the Northern Ireland government launched a new programme to rescue and support human trafficking victims.

In her memory, the International Campaign Against Honour Killing has nominated 7 April as the international day against honour killings. Several news stories about her are linked here.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeoOV-IyAzI[/youtube]

The impact of trafficking on Canada is estimated at between $120 million to $400 million per year and accounts for approximately 8,000 to 16,000 people arriving in Canada per year illegally. (“Organized Crime Impact Study,” Solicitor General of Canada) In Canada a girl can be sold for $15,000 and earn her owner over $40,000 a year.

The site also has a statement from Conservative MP Joy Smith, whose private members’ Bill C-268 would impose a mandatory minimum sentence of five years on those convicted of trafficking persons under 18.

Canada presently has no minimum sentence for trafficking in minors. The United States imposes a minimum sentence of 10 years (or 15 years if the victim is under 14).

Bill C-268 was debated yesterday in the House of Commons and is expected to come to a vote on 22 April. If successful, it will then be considered by the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

Human trafficking has become Smith’s raison d’être. She was exposed to the issue through her son, a police officer: “To me, it’s clear, if someone rapes a child, five years in prison is not too harsh,” Smith said.

The Conservative caucus supports Bill C-268, as do many Liberal and NDP MPs.

h/t: Reflection and Prayer

According to the United Nations, more than 5,000 women and girls each year are victims of “honor crimes”. Committed by relatives, these crimes – the most extreme form is death – intend to punish behavior deemed immoral, a relationship regarded as illegal, such as simply talking with a neighbor. For the UN, honor crimes are a gross violation of human rights. To educate the people of Geneva and professionals involved in the subject to the reality of honor crimes, the Office of Human Rights, in partnership with the Association Araignées Artisanes de Paix, is organizing a symposium on violence against women in the name of honor.

At this symposium, the documentary “Killed for honor” relating the story of Doaa, 17 years old, stoned to death for talking to a young man of another faith, will be screened in the presence director, Mr. Giawdat Sofi.

In the afternoon will also be an opportunity to discuss the role of government in the fight against honor crimes, the health of victims, the serious violation of human rights of women that these crimes constitute, and finally the situation in Iraqi Kurdistan.

h/t: International Campaign Against Honour Killings

Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris detailed the extent of the illegal sex trade at the launch of a new support service to help victims.

The officer said the brothels effectively doubled as prisons.

“They are being held in captivity,” he said.

“They live in fear of awful violence as well. We know an awful lot of violence is inflicted on them by those holding them and there’s the threat of violence either to them or even to their families back home.”

The sex-slave traffic is organised by international gangs and run with the assistance of local criminals.

The Northern Ireland government has instituted a new programme for victims of human trafficking, which will provide accommodation, health care, and counselling services.

Unreported World travels to Turkey to investigate honour killings, which have now reached record levels, with more than 200 girls and women killed in the past year alone. And in a chilling new development, the programme highlights how a new law outlawing honour killings, passed as part of the Government’s attempts to join the EU, may have led to a huge increase in girls being forced to commit suicide instead.

The news team travels to villages in eastern and south-eastern Turkey where honour killing is an accepted part of local culture. One might think that such crimes are rare in cosmopolitan Istanbul. One would be wrong.

Ending up in Istanbul, the team finds that even the most modernised city in Turkey hasn’t escaped the tradition. According to a government report, it now has one of the highest levels of honour killings in the country, with one happening every week. The Government has condemned honour killings and launched a commission with the aim of reducing them. Yet, in the three weeks the Unreported World team is in the country, they see twelve cases reported in the press as the murders continue unabated.

h/t: International Campaign Against Honour Killings

Chastnyi Korrespondent has an interview with Sveta Rudneva, head of the “Family and Childhood” foundation of Russia. Like many Russians, she’s worried about the demographic decline of Russia. As she rightly points out, abortion is perhaps the biggest factor driving Russia into the demographic ashbin of history.

Asked if she’s seen a spike in abortions since the economic crisis began, Rudneva answered yes, but said that the downturn only exacerbated an existing problem. In her opinion, the high abortion rate is not the result of economics or a lack of benefits, but rather a cultural problem. The current stereotype is that women marry at 22, divorce six years later, and then are left to raise the child without alimony. In such a climate, women are understandably reluctant to have multiple children. Rudneva hopes to see special pro-family television programming which will help “form a correct worldview” in young people of reproductive age.

Perhaps most interesting, she says that “often it is not the woman herself who takes the initiative, but those around her. Often her relatives bring her in almost as if ‘in convoy.’” Domestic violence is even a factor, with blackmail and forced abortions taking place.

Regarding the overall demographics of Russia, she is pessimistic, but believes it is still possible to correct the decline.

h/t: Global Voices

As the parent of a child with special needs, I was particularly repulsed and revolted by the story of the torture of a mentally disabled young man from Hamilton by four people, including a 17-year old boy. Police said he had been burned, tortured, beaten, had broken bones and a fractured skull. Near death when police finally found and rescued him, it was reported that investigators believed that the young man knew his attackers and trusted them. The torture suspects were promptly charged with an additional assault of another mentally handicapped man that allegedly occurred late last year.
[…]
On March 11, the Toronto Star carried a very brief item from Durham, Ontario regarding a 70-year old volunteer who was arrested in connection with the sexual assault of a mentally disabled man that he had “assisted.”

A commenter named jane26 adds a pertinent insight.

The vulnerable must be protected, but society has already proclaimed that abortion is a woman’s right. When we don’t protect the unborn, society is also saying that the eldery [sic] and special-needs children are also at risk.

If the smallest and weakest human beings do not deserve legal protection, should it be surprising that other vulnerable people are also targeted?

The International Coalition on Abuse and Disability has more on the Hamilton torture case here and here.

This video was made available by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which today launched an international campaign to raise public awareness about human trafficking. Several high-tech publicity tools are being utilised to draw attention to the fight against modern slavery, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

It’s called the Blue Heart Campaign against Human Trafficking. Campaign supporters are asked to post a blue heart on their website or Facebook profile.

Human trafficking is a crime that strips people of their rights, ruins their dreams, and robs them of their dignity. It is a crime that shames us all. Human trafficking is a global problem and no country is immune. Millions of victims are entrapped, and exploited every year in this modern form of slavery. To rally world public opinion against human trafficking, UNODC is launching the Blue Heart Campaign.

By wearing the Blue Heart you raise awareness of this crime and join the campaign to fight it. The Blue Heart represents the sadness of those who are trafficked while reminding us of the cold-heartedness of those who buy and sell fellow human beings. The use of the blue UN colour also demonstrates the commitment of the United Nations to combating this crime against human dignity.

Click here to download a Blue Heart and show your support for this campaign against enslavement.

It is estimated that 800,000 people are trafficked across international boundaries every year, and millions more are bought and sold within their own countries. Last month, the UNODC released a report showing that most countries are ignoring or denying the trade in human beings.

This blogger has been very critical of the United Nations on many occasions, but the UN is to be commended for its work on this issue. Human trafficking—the modern-day slave trade—is a barbaric practice abhorrent to all civilised people.

THE alleged abduction and gang rape of a woman was dismissed as harmless fun by a female defence lawyer in a Bahrain trial yesterday.
[…]
The men, aged 19, 20 and 21, are accused at the High Criminal Court of snatching a Filpina off the street as she walked home from work at night, last September.

They allegedly drove her to an isolated area in Askar, gang raped her and then abandoned her, after stealing her mobile phone and purse.
[…]
Ms [Fatima] Al Hawaj told judges that her clients were youngsters and that “minors’ often committed crimes for fun, without ill-intent.

“It is general knowledge that youngsters commit crimes for the fun of it and not with the intention to harm others and I request the court to take that into consideration and clear my clients of the charges,” she argued.

Youngsters? All three of the accused are adults in the eyes of the law. Lock ‘em up and throw away the key!

h/t: Global Voices

She alleges that the United Nations and NATO failed adequately to investigate reports of Albanian atrocities against Serbs in Kosovo in 1999.

“Madame Prosecutor” created a sensation when it was first released in Italian last year, largely due to the passage about the alleged Albanian atrocities. She reports that her U.N. war-crimes team had received tips that some 100 to 300 Serbs who disappeared just after the Kosovo conflict of 1999 had been kidnapped, transported across an international border into Albania and killed. What’s more, she’s written that some of the younger, healthier captives may have had their organs removed as part of an international trafficking operation. Albanian prosecutors maintain that probes by local authorities and the United Nations yielded no evidence to support the charge. But the charges may have stirred anxiety within the Swiss government, which hired Del Ponte as the country’s ambassador to Argentina shortly after she completed the book. The Swiss banned Del Ponte from discussing the matter. As a result, Del Ponte’s tome is on tour—without its author.

A spokesman for the Swiss Embassy in Washington defended the decision to muzzle Ms Del Ponte, but refused to discuss the reasons for the ban. Ironically, censoring her confirms one of the memoir’s main contentions—that politics often trumps justice and fosters a culture of complacency and impunity.

The English translation of Madame Prosecutor was released in January.

Standing with the Jewish people of Canada does not assume unquestioning support for Israel or the actions of the current government. Standing with the Jewish people in this country means something much more basic. It means that we respect and embrace them as Canadians, that we reject the gathering rumble of anti-Semitism, that we recognize and celebrate their presence among us and that we appreciate their contributions to Canada and the world. Jews alone cannot and should not be expected to answer for the rise of anti-Jewish feeling and anti-Israeli sentiment.

The world needs to know that, in Canada and elsewhere, there are many thousands of others who stand with the Jewish people. We must make it clear, before hostile words turn into aggressive actions, that the Jews will never again stand alone.

Amen to that. This blogger joins Dr Coates in standing with the Jews.

Ken Coates is Professor of History and Dean of Arts at Waterloo University.

MUSLIM women around the world are facing a “growing crisis” as Islamic governments fail to honour commitments to end inequality and violence against them, a senior UN official has warned.
[…]
“There is no time left to lose any more as this is a growing crisis,” she said after a speech which dealt with the issue at an international conference on “Equality and Justice in the Muslim Family.”

“Women must demand that their governments implement agreements on women’s equality, rights and an end to violence against women, which have been signed but have yet to be carried out,” she said.

“In these countries, those who speak on behalf of Islam still justify things like stoning or killing a woman for this or that reason as being part of their religion. I have heard this at the most official of levels,” Erturk said without specifying which countries were to blame.

The conference is being held in Malaysia. As if to confirm Ms Erturk’s charges, a Malaysian Muslim leader condemned the conference, saying its purpose is to challenge “many Islamic principles… which had been agreed upon and passed by qualified council of Muslim scholars”.

In related news, the first official study of domestic violence in Turkey found that 40 percent of women are beaten by their husbands, and that barely 10 percent of abused wives seek help from any organisation.

h/t: International Campaign Against Honour Killings

On the night in question, thousands of protesters converged on central Istanbul, incited by news reports that Greeks in Thessaloniki had bombed the childhood home of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. It emerged later that the reports were false.

Tension between Turkey and its historical rival Greece was high at the time over Cyprus.

Police and soldiers stood by when the protest turned violent. Cemeteries were desecrated, churches were looted and about a dozen people died, said Dilek Guven, a historian and author of a 2005 book on the subject, “The September 6-7 Events”. Hundreds of women were raped, she said.

Following a military coup in 1960, Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and two cabinet members were executed for violating the constitution. Testimony at trial exposed their role in planning and instigating the violence. (According to Wikipedia, Menderes was “a Turkish liberal statesman and the first democratically elected leader in Turkish history”.)

As with the 1915 slaughter of Armenians, public discussion of the 1955 Istanbul Pogrom has been suppressed for decades.

As recently as 2005, demonstrators stormed an Istanbul gallery and vandalised photographs on exhibit from a prosecutor’s investigation into the 1955 events.

“Until now, we’ve either used silence or shouted to block out the past,” said Murat Belge, literature professor at Bilgi University and a political columnist, who was prosecuted in 2006 for criticising Turkey’s treatment of minorities. “It’s a major shift that we’re now using art to examine it.”

Over 500,000 people have seen The Pain of Autumn since its release last month.

h/t: EuropeNews

The researchers surveyed Palestinian Muslims about their attitudes towards religion, including how often they prayed and went to mosque. The researchers found that devotion to Islam, as measured by prayer frequency, was unrelated to support for suicide attacks. However, frequency of mosque attendance did predict support for suicide attacks. In a separate survey of Palestinian Muslim university students, the researchers found again that those who attended mosque more than once a day, were more likely to believe that Islam requires suicide attacks, compared to students who attended mosque less often.

The study considered only the fact of mosque attendance and did not investigate the content of mosque rituals.  What exactly is it about attending mosque that increases support for suicide bombing?

Identified only as AT, NT, ML and AK, the young women, all from Moldova, told the High Court in London of their terrifying and abusive ordeals. Speaking from behind a black screen they described how they were fed just one meal a day, charged for the use of knives and forks and fined if they refused unprotected sex or clients’ perverted demands.

Mr Justice Treacy ordered Gavril and Tamara Dulghieru, who are already serving prison sentences for trafficking offences, to pay the four women a total of £611,000 damages.

In November 2005, Mr Dulghieru admiited conspiring to traffic in prostitution, trafficking into the UK for sexual exploitation and plotting to facilitate unlawful immigration and was sentenced to nine years imprisonment. Mrs Dulghieru was convicted of immigration, fraud, forgery and money-laundering offences and sentenced to five years.