Governments in South Asia should ignore populist rhetoric in favor of the death penalty and listen to their own experts to prevent and end sexual violence against women, Human Rights Watch recommended in a video released today. Experts on sexual violence from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are addressing the growing protest movements throughout the region caused by government mismanagement in the face of a series of high-profile sexual violence cases.

"South Asian women and girls are fed up with their governments doing nothing to deal with sexual violence," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "They have long seen their governments tolerate, or even facilitate, impunity for sexual violence, and they are taking to the streets and demanding immediate change."

In Pakistan, a police chief criticized a woman who was gang-raped in front of her children because her car had run out of fuel. In India, police and government authorities denied that a 19-year-old Dalit woman was gang-raped despite her statement on her deathbed, allegedly to protect the accused, who allegedly belonged to a dominant caste. The state prime minister accused the protesters demanding justice of being "anarchists." In Bangladesh, the government failed to take steps to contain the viral spread of a video of a group of men attacking, stripping and sexually assaulting a woman. All three cases led to protests in 2020 by women's rights activists.

Women in the Maldives have protested against endemic gender-based violence, including sexual violence, and government inaction. In Nepal, protests have been sparked by several shocking cases of rape, while the government has also failed to respond to a new wave of gender-based violence in electronic media. In Afghanistan, women caught between the government's failure to protect women from violence and the Taliban's repressive restrictions on freedom of movement and their rights to education and work are asserting their rights in protests and conversations. of peace. In Sri Lanka, activists are demanding a reform of the law on sexual violence, while a women's protest movement seeking information on missing loved ones faces intimidation from the authorities.

Activists in many countries of the region have adapted a Chilean protest song, “A rapist on your way”, translating it into local languages ​​and representing it in demonstrations. "The patriarchy is a judge who judges us for being born, and our punishment is violence that you do not see," the song says. “The rapist is you. They are the pacos (policemen), they are the judges, the State, the president. The oppressive state is a male rapist ”.

Experts interviewed by Human Rights Watch outlined the key steps governments should take to respond to sexual violence. Survivors often have difficulty accessing services. "We need more health services for survivors, we need more legal services, we need the police to be sensitized," said Ambika Satkunanathan, a former Sri Lanka human rights commissioner. "So it is not a short-term project, so to speak, but requires long-term change to address the problem."

In some countries, legal reform is urgent, but even more important are the gaps in law enforcement, which deny justice to survivors. "We have laws and we have certain procedures," said Farieha Aziz, co-founder of the Bolo Bhi organization in Pakistan. "But they need to be implemented."

When survivors seek justice, they are often faced with insurmountable obstacles in court. Conviction rates for sexual violence are extremely low throughout the region. For example, in Bangladesh it is estimated that less than 1 per cent of rape cases investigated by the police result in a conviction.

"It is not just about the police registering the case," said Dr. Lhamo Yangchen Sherpa, an expert on Nepal. “Then you have to go to court, which can take years and years. … [The defendants] have good lawyers, which means the case is either dissolved or dragged on for a long time. That is why the victims do not report or resolve the cases out of court ”.

Survivors are often re-traumatized during the legal process. "The judges still regard the victim as a criminal and ask a lot of questions that go against human dignity," said Shabnam Salehi, commissioner of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.