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| Sirazhudinova on the favorable attitude towards 'honor killings' in Chechnya |
| 2023-12-31 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [KavkazUzel] In Dagestan and Ingushetia, they are trying to hide data on “honor killings” by removing information about such cases from court websites. In Chechnya, citing a woman’s immoral behavior as a motive for murder helps to obtain a more lenient punishment, human rights activist Saida Sirazhudinova said, commenting on the results of a study on domestic violence in the North Caucasus. As the "Caucasian Knot" wrote, the president of the Center for the Study of Global Issues of Contemporary and Regional Problems "Caucasus. World. Development" Saida Sirazhudinova published today her report, "Domestic violence in the North Caucasus: a report on the results of monitoring the situation in the region and analyzing judicial practice." It presents the results of a study (monitoring the situation in the region and analyzing judicial practice) conducted in 2022-2023. According to the report, in Chechnya, “honor killings” are the dominant motive for the murder of women; out of 31 convictions for the murder of women, 22 murders were committed on the basis of “honor killing”. In Ingushetia, as in Chechnya, the threat to women more often comes from the family itself , and women are protected from external threats emanating from civilians. And in Dagestan, much more often than in Dagestan and Ingushetia, murders of women by strangers occur; there are many cases of murders during quarrels and during the theft of property. In the Caucasus, the victims of so-called “honor killings” are those whose behavior their relatives consider a disgrace to the family. These murders are committed by relatives themselves, most often a father or brother, says the Caucasian Knot report “Honor Killings in the North Caucasus.” The most complete data on “honor killings” is available only for Chechnya, Saida Sirazhudinova told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent, commenting on the conclusions presented in the report. “On the websites of the republic’s courts, only two cases were deleted, most of them remain. But in Ingushetia and Dagestan, the websites of the courts have been cleaned up. Probably, in Chechnya they ignore the comments of human rights activists. And in Dagestan and Ingushetia they decided not to post new sentences in such cases and erased a significant part of the previous ones sentences," she believes. Therefore, it is impossible to collect reliable statistics on “honor killings” in Dagestan and Ingushetia, the human rights activist noted. “If you make it based on the available material from the courts, it will be incorrect due to an attempt to hide some of the information. In order to understand the situation with violent crimes against women, we analyzed the situation with men, violence between men against men,” Sirazhudinova explained. She pointed out that it is in Chechnya that they most often refer to the immoral behavior of the victim. “In Dagestan, it was difficult to analyze the reasons, because in the verdicts in cases of murder of a wife or daughter, in most cases the motive is not stated. Therefore, there can only be some guesswork. In Chechnya, reasons such as immorality are voiced, because this becomes a basis for leniency", noted Sirazhudinova. But, according to her, in Chechnya, in principle, there is almost no threat of violence from strangers. “Apparently because there is blood feud, especially for a woman,” Sirazhudinova said. The tradition of blood feud, which developed during the clan system to protect the honor and property of the clan, in the North Caucasus still operates as a relevant social mechanism. According to this custom, the relatives of the murdered person must take revenge on the killer or his relatives, as noted in the “Caucasian Knot” certificate “Blood feud - how people kill in the Caucasus now.” In her opinion, the decrease in the number of kidnappings mentioned in the report is only partly due to less recording. “Fixing cases of bride kidnapping is difficult in itself. The police often play the role of a mediator, persuading the parties to come to a certain agreement without bringing the case to court. This is present in all republics. And in Chechnya, the harshness of the government regime also affects it,” Sirazhudinova emphasized. The ancient custom of bride kidnapping remains quite widespread in the Caucasus, especially in Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, says the Caucasian Knot report “ Bride kidnapping – a crime or a tradition? ” Human rights activists from the Ad Rem team indicated earlier in their report that within the framework of the problems of family violence in Dagestan, Ingushetia and Chechnya, the problem of “honor killings” remains relevant. The problem of domestic violence in these regions affects women of different ages, but mostly young girls under 30 try to escape from it. At the same time, they face threats of losing contact with children, the report says. The problem of evacuating victims of domestic violence is most acute among the regions of the North Caucasian Federal District in Dagestan, Ingushetia and Chechnya, since the authorities and security forces there take the side of family aggressors, human rights activists interviewed by the Caucasian Knot commented on the report. Let us remember that in June, the BBC released a documentary film “When I Ran Away” about girls from the North Caucasus who were able to escape from the control of their families. For victims of domestic violence, escape is often the only way to save life, human rights activists emphasized. In Russia, it is necessary to pass a special law that would prohibit relatives from approaching victims of violence or returning them to their families with the help of security forces, human rights activists previously interviewed by the Caucasian Knot noted. All known measures to combat domestic violence may be useless, especially in the Caucasus regions due to the fact that legal mechanisms do not work, the abduction of victims of violence by their relatives does not lead to criminal liability for the abductors, and the authorities prefer not to notice the problem, they noted. |
| Posted by:badanov |