About the Campaign
Campaign Launch
Monday, 26 November 2007, 10 am to 12 noon
Istanbul Bilgi University (Santral Istanbul, Silahtaraga Kampusu),
Room E 4305
| 10.00 - 10.05 | Welcome Address Vivienne Wee, Director WEMC and Associate Director, Southeast Asia Research Centre, City University, Hong Kong |
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| 10.05 - 10.15 | Keynote Address Professor Dr. Yakin Ertürk, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women |
| 10.15 - 10.20 | Farida Shaheed, Deputy Director, WEMC and Chair of the Panel Opening Remarks and Overview of the Campaign |
| 10.20 - 10.21 | One-minute silence to honour women who have been killed in the last 12 months |
| 10.21 - 10.31 | Shadi Sadr, Women's rights lawyer, journalist, co-founder of RAAHI Women's Legal Centre Women organizing: The Stop Stoning Forever Campaign in Iran |
| 10.31 - 10.36 | Video with families of victims of stoning in Iran |
| 10.36 - 10.46 | Ayesha Imam, Director BAOBAB Stopping Stoning in Nigeria: Stuck Halfway? |
| 10.46 - 10.56 | Nebahat Akkoç, Founding Director, KA-MER (Women's Centre) We can stop this" : 'Honour' Killings in Turkey |
| 10.56 - 11.06 | Sri Wiyanti Eddyono, Feminist lawyer and Director of Semarak Cerang Nusa, Indonesia Politicizing Islam: New challenges for Indonesian Women |
| 11.06 - 12.00 | Questions and discussion |
Background of the Global Campaign
The Global Campaign to Stop Stoning and Killing Women is initiated by a group of activists, lawyers, journalists, and academics, who are committed to ending the stoning and killing of women. Stoning to death is a legal form of punishment for 'adultery of married persons' (zina al-Mohsena) in Afghanistan, Iran, Nigeria (about one-third among 36 states), Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates. Recent cases of stoning by state authorities have mostly occurred in Iran, where stoning is not limited to 'adultery.' Elsewhere, such as Pakistan and Iraq, incidents of stoning have tended to be carried out by communities, rather than the state. In Nigeria and UAE, sentences to death by stoning have been overturned after strong international protests.
Women constitute nearly all those condemned to death by stoning. Why? Because discriminatory laws and customs almost always assign more guilt to women than to men in any manner of action that is seen as violating 'norms' of sexual behaviour, especially any instance of alleged sexual relations outside marriage (zina). Men are entitled to marry more than one woman and can use this justification for sex outside marriage. They are also more mobile and can more easily escape punishment.
In many other countries, women may also be killed by their own family and community, should they be accused of contravening sexual mores, including accusations of committing zina. According to the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary and Arbitrary Executions, so-called 'honour killings' (or rather, dishonourable killings of women) have occurred in countries as diverse as Bangladesh, Brazil, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Sweden, Turkey, Uganda and the United Kingdom. The increasing trend to control women's bodies is also evident in countries where women are not stoned or killed, but are whipped for the same alleged 'crime' of zina - for example, in parts of Indonesia. The Global Campaign to Stop Stoning and Killing Women urges the United Nations to investigate these serious infringements of International Human Rights Law and the international community to send a clear message that it is unacceptable for women to be tortured and killed.
For more information, see .