Rights defenders call for tougher sentences for "honour killings" in Northern Caucasus

Courts in Dagestan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia are used to justify the so-called "honour killings" by the immoral behaviour of the victims themselves, the authors of the report, "Killed by gossips-2", assert.

The report analyzed 43 court sentences passed under the cases of so-called "honour killings" committed in Chechnya (19 sentences), Dagestan (16 sentences) and Ingushetia (6 sentences). The authors of the report are Yu. Antonova, a senior lawyer of the "Legal Initiative" Project, and S. Sirazhudinova, the president of the "Kavkaz. World. Development" Centre for Studying Contemporary Global Issues and Regional Problems.

"Honour killings of women in Northern Caucasus are not some isolated phenomenon that happens suddenly and unexpectedly, but they are the final stage of violence after a long and disregarded continuous chain of coercion, pressure and bullying against women and girls," the authors of the report assert.

They have noted the positive trends evidenced by the 43 studied sentences: cases of "honour killings" reach not only the court, but also the conviction. At the same time, the report especially emphasized those sentences that the researchers treat as too lenient.

In 16 sentences, the punishment of the defendants was reduced on the basis of "immorality of the victims' behaviour, which was the reason for committing crimes."

The authors of the report have called on the courts to ignore references to the violation by victims of "honour killings" of certain norms of behaviour. "The rules of evidence should not discriminate against the casualties (those killed) and victims (their relatives); the courts should exclude the use of any reference to "affected honour" or "provocative and immoral behaviour" as mitigating circumstances and grounds for defendants' escaping from proper criminal liability," the authors of the report state among their proposals.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 29, 2020 at 09:28 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.