8 March, 2007
For immediate release

The Conservative Party Human Rights Commission today added its support to calls to remember the women victims of violence and abuse around the world on International Women’s Day.

In many countries throughout the world, women are often the first to suffer at the hands of abusive regimes and other perpetrators of human rights violations. Rape as a weapon of war is used on a widespread and systematic level in countries such as Sudan and Burma. Women in conflict situations lose their husbands and sons. Throughout all continents women have been subjected to modern-day slavery in the form of human trafficking. Women have been forced into prostitution and bonded labour, where they face horrific abuse.

Women are denied equal rights in too many countries around the world. In Pakistan, for example, a woman’s evidence in court is regarded as worth half the evidence of a man – and a non-Muslim woman’s evidence is worth half that of a Muslim woman. A non-Muslim victim of rape, for example, is required to produce four male Muslim witnesses – and if she cannot, she is prosecuted for adultery.

Gary Streeter MP, Chairman of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, said today: “The abuse and inequality faced by women in too many parts of the world today is a scar on humanity. On International Women’s Day, we should remember the millions of women around the world who are facing rape, forced labour, torture and other forms of abuse, who are denied access to education, healthcare or voting rights, and who are unable to find justice in the courts. Those who violate the rights of women should no longer be treated with impunity.”