INTERNATIONAL PEN WOMEN'S DAY- MARCH 8, 2003 Impunity and Freedom of Expression

This March 8, International PEN observes International Women's Day by placing a spotlight on the stories of courageous women who have exercised their fundamental right to freedom of expression in the face of enormous obstacles. In particular, the organization is highlighting the cases of women writers and journalists who have been killed simply for speaking out. These crimes are deplorable, but the horror is compounded by the fact that those responsible for carrying out and ordering the murders have, for the most part, evaded prosecution and punishment.

Killing the messenger

Full respect for freedom of expression is a cornerstone of a flourishing democracy. All citizens must be able to express themselves freely on any matter and through any form of communication. In many countries around the world, this right is practiced without obstacle.

However, in other countries, violations to this fundamental right remain commonplace - a fact driven home most emphatically by the murder of journalists and writers every year because of their work. Over the past ten years, more than 400 writers, journalists and media workers have been killed. Thirty-seven of those were women. Investigations into these cases have been thwarted by threats, official corruption and lack of political will, and the families of the victims have yet to see full justice done.

This International Women's Day, PEN seeks progress toward the resolution of three such cases:

• Larissa Yudina, a political activist and editor-in-chief of the daily Sovietskaya Kalmykia, kidnapped and murdered in Elista in the Russian republic of Kalmykia in June 1998;

• Parvaneh Forouhar, Iranian poet and activist, brutally murdered, along with her husband, in their house in Tehran in 1998;

• Nine Algerian female journalists murdered during the height of the country's vicious civil war in the 1990s.

Challenging impunity

To fight for justice in the cases of murdered journalists and writers, International PEN marked International Human Rights Day last December 10 by announcing a year-long campaign to challenge impunity for violation of the right to freedom of expression throughout 2003. PEN centers around the world will be highlighting the issue and calling on governments where unpunished crimes against journalists and writers exist to identify and punish those responsible under the law. The campaign will culminate with the release of a report on the problem of impunity and a series of public programs during International PEN's 69th World Congress of Writers in Mexico City in November 2003.

The issue of impunity was the subject of Resolution no. 2002/79 passed at the 58th Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights held in Geneva in April 2002. This resolution:

• Emphasizes the importance of combating impunity in preventing further violations of international human rights and humanitarian law and urges States to give necessary attention to the question of impunity for violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including those perpetrated against women and children, and to take appropriate measures to address this important issue;

• Further emphasizes the importance of taking all necessary and possible steps to hold accountable perpetrators, including their accomplices, of violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, recognizes that amnesties should not be granted to those who commit violations of international humanitarian and human rights law that constitute serious crimes and urges States to take action in accordance with their obligations under international law.