November 25th, a special day for the Human Rights debate:
The United Nations General Assembly has designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (Resolution 54/134). The ongoing importance of this day must be highlighted at least in this brief note.
In addition to the general relevance one area that requires special attention is the multiple discrimination of women with disabilities.
In 2017, around 6.5 million women and girls with disabilities lived in Germany. This corresponds to approximately 15 per cent of the female population. Of these, approximately 80,000 lived in residential facilities for people with disabilities. These women are often subjected to multiple discrimination: they are disadvantaged not only because of their disability, but also because of their gender. If other characteristics are added to the mix – such as having fled their home country or being severely affected by poverty – the risk of experiencing discrimination in various areas of life increases.
This information is taken from the website of the German Institute for Human Rights
Only one topic will be highlighted here: even if the “justice system” is moire our less well equipped — the Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities (CRPD) (https://social.desa.un.org/issues/disability/crpd/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities-crpd); the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (https://rm.coe.int/168008482e) and the various legal provisions on the national levels do not guarantee a smooth implementation. On the contrary, there are many additional hurdles, as the justice system — better: the law system — is often not equipped with the relevant means and provisions: accessibility in physical terms, lack of psychological support and even complete lack of understanding.
One example that is especially appalling: There are various Internet-sites that distribute scenes of rape: women are secretly narcotised, sexually abused and filmed, then the rape videos of shared on websites. These are no rare cases; and often the abuse happens over long periods of time. And the German law?
According to Section 184a No. 1 of the German Criminal Code (StGB), anyone who distributes violent pornographic content or makes it available to the public is punishable by imprisonment of up to three years or a fine. However, according to the case law of the Federal Court of Justice, the term ‘distribution’ presupposes that the content is made available to a larger group of people, the number and individuality of whom are indeterminate. The transfer of a rape video to one or more specific persons is not sufficient to constitute a criminal offence. Furthermore, making content publicly accessible requires that it be made available to a fundamentally unlimited group of persons that cannot be identified in detail.
And
Furthermore, lawyers in Lower Saxony have concluded that in many cases, the distribution and possession of rape videos and images cannot be prosecuted under Section 201a of the German Criminal Code (violation of the highly personal sphere of life and of personal rights through image recordings). The prerequisite for Section 201a StGB is that the person seen in the image recording is recognisable. Individual parts of the body depicted – such as the lower body recorded during sexual intercourse – only fall under the offence if the image recordings can be clearly attributed to the person, for example through further explanations. However, this is often not the case.
For the same reason, criminal liability under Section 33 of the Art Copyright Act also fails. Criminal liability under this provision is also out of the question if the injured party is not recognisable in the image or video recording in question.
There seems to be some movement now, eliminating such issues where law turns into an instrument of injustice — some movement … and it shows that huge steps are still needed, surely not only in Germany