Dear Commissioner Pillay:

Women in Pakistan, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, Afghanistan, and all around the world live their daily lives in fear of a violent, torturous death at the hands of their own family members, all in the name of honor. The twisted notion that a woman is a legitimate lightening rod for a clan's moral liability has resulted in an estimated 5,000 deaths annually via shooting, burning, decapitation, stoning, or gruesome acid attacks.

“Dishonorable” acts can be simple exercises of free will: marrying the man of their choice, divorcing abusive husbands, or simply dressing in a manner deemed unacceptable. They are even murdered by their kin for actions entirely out of their control, including sexual assault and incest, as these are also often interpreted as bringing shame. The justifications for these brutal murders are as morally repugnant as the manner in which they are carried out.

While the two main factors contributing to the origins of this lethal violence against women are the commodification of women as property and misguided conceptions of honor, it is a lack of legal culpability that allows these homicidal acts to continue. Until statutes are in place to punish the perpetrators, the practice of honor killings will no doubt continue to proliferate. Agents of “honor” killings often receive light sentences or are exonerated entirely by the courts because defense of the family's honor is treated as a mitigating circumstance (in Jordan, the murder of women for the sake of restoring family honor is legally sanctioned).

We thank you for opening an international dialogue around this issue and urge you to continue diligent advocacy work towards legal reforms resulting in full prosecution of family members who murder their own daughters, sisters, mothers, and wives.