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Bianca Venkman, Assistant to the Delegate-Ambassador: Who, you may be wondering, is Christine Williams? I will tell you who she is: the eighteen-year-old Young Tinhamptonian Activist of the Year, last year, for fighting for civil liberties, gender equality, stuff like that - for all intents and purposes, a human... sapient rights defender. When I was back home in Tinhampton recently, she came to me with an idea: the city, at least, has its own independently-run "femicide watch" by which it pretty much researches the prosecution of these sort of crimes, find out how and where the community, the judges, our legislation, and stuff like that has failed and provide advice on how to bolster our response to femicides in the future. What if - she asked - similar schemes were to be carried out by, say, an office of the World Health Authority in each member state?
I have expanded on her proposal to produce the draft you see here - which concerns itself not only with this, but also with the release of data surrounding femicides and other unlawful killings, the criminalisation thereof, and educational programs that we hope will have the effect of reducing their frequency. As I speak... now... as you can see here, live, the Tinhamptonian Assembly is being lit up in orange to commemorate all female victims of gender-based violence, everywhere. Tinhampton has taken steps towards gender equality and the reduction of domestic violence and violence against women as a result of relentless spurts of public pressure as well as decades of a moderating Free Democratic presence in coalition governments - but unfortunately, this cannot be said of the rest of the world, let alone the rest of the World Assembly.
While she cannot be here today, Ms Williams will undoubtedly be pleased to see this proposal being drafted in the General Assembly; I am hopeful that you, too, ambassadors, will take a similar liking to this proposal. In regards to concerns that this Compact does nothing except task a few committees with handling paperwork, I further believe that Articles e and f will allay these concerns.
Femicide Prevention Compact
A resolution to promote funding and the development of education and the arts.Category: Education and CreativityArea of Effect: EducationalProposed by: Tinhampton
Affirming that violence against women (fatal or otherwise) is not only treated as a hate crime in some nations, but has a sufficiently well-documented and sadly near-ubiquitous impact on sapient dignity and the achievement of comprehensive gender equality that it is a public health crisis in every nation where it is found, and
Recognising that violence against women, in particular their sex- or gender-motivated killing, can only be effectively combatted or eradicated through a multifaceted approach including the promotion of relevant legislation, the disaggregation of relevant data, and the fostering of a whole-of-society culture of accountability - rather than one of avoidance, buck-passing, and generally ignoring vital statistics...
The General Assembly hereby:
- defines "femicide" as the unlawful killing of a person solely or primarily because that person is (or identifies as) female,
- requires member governments to compile and submit to their national office of the World Health Authority (a "WHA office"), on an annual basis, an accurate count of the number of unlawful killings of all people known to have been committed within their jurisdiction; and further requires that this data be disaggregated by:
- what familial relationship, if any, the perpetrator had with their victim,
- the age, sex, gender identity, and ethnicity of both the perpetrator and (if their next of kin consent to the compilation of such) the victim,
- any reasoning provided by the perpetrator for killing their victim, and
- the length and nature of any punishments handed down to the perpetrator as a result of their unlawful killing,
- tasks each WHA office with:
- reviewing, and then publishing on an anonymised basis, the data provided by the member state they have responsibility for under Article b,
- investigating the local and judicial responses to as many reported femicides as possible in that member state, and
- publishing analyses of significant omissions in any of that member's recent responses to femicides and guidance on how it could deliver an improved response to femicide in future,
- further tasks the WHA itself with:
- providing support to those members that are able to meet, but cannot immediately fulfil, their obligations under Article b, for the sole purpose of ensuring that such obligations can be met as soon as possible, and
- assisting willing member states in implementing recommendations which their local WHA office has made to them under Article c(iii),
- requires member states to:
- declare femicide to be a specific criminal offence in law,
- ensure that those convicted of femicide are sentenced to imprisonment of a term at least as long as would be the case if they had unlawfully killed their victim for any other reason (or if they had murdered a non-female person solely or primarily because of their sex or gender identity), and
- inform their inhabitants about the nature and unacceptability of violence against women (including femicide), how it can be reported to the authorities, and the necessity of achieving comprehensive gender equality (including the rejection of gender stereotypes that have been widely adopted in the community), and
- strongly urges members and WHA offices to treat other unlawful killings of any person solely or primarily due to their possession of an arbitrary, reductive characteristic as they would treat femicides.