Honour Killing- An Overview

Introduction

Honour Killing means Killing a family member in the name of family pride on protecting one's honour.

Human Rights Watch defines "honour killings" as the acts of violence, usually murder, committed by male family members against female family members, who are held to have brought dishonour upon the family. A woman can be targeted by (individuals within) her family for a variety of reasons, including: refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, being the victim of a sexual assault, seeking a divorce—even from an abusive husband—or (allegedly) committing adultery. The mere perception that a woman has behaved in a way that "dishonours" her family is sufficient to trigger an attack on her life.

Thus an honour killing (also called a customary killing), can be said as the murder of a member of a family or social group by other members, due to the belief of the perpetrators (and potentially the wider community) that the victim has brought dishonour upon the family or community.  Hence a murder committed in order to save what is considered in a specific culture the “honour” of one’s family against the shame caused by another member of the family could be termed as the honour killing.

Also the most obvious reason for this practice to continue in India is because of the fact that the caste system continues to be at its rigid best and also because people from the rural areas refuse to change their attitude to marriage. Also in our country the society is mainly the patriarchal. Men are expected to enforce such norms and traditions and protect family and male honour from shame. Women are expected to conduct themselves honourably. This understanding of the notion gives legitimacy to all forms of social regulation of women’s behaviour and to violence committed against them.

 Laws presently on the ‘Honour Killing’

So far, there is no specific law to deal with honour killings. The murders come under the general categories of homicide or manslaughter. Sometimes the honour killings are also done by a mob and so when a mob has carried out such attacks, it becomes difficult to pinpoint a culprit. The collection of evidence becomes tricky and eyewitnesses are never forthcoming. But ‘Honour Killings’ are against International Law on Human Rights and against United Nation agendas. But still even though we don’t have any law to deal with it specifically in India but we have judicial precedence over it. There are also some bills which are in the latent stage against the honour killings, which are planned to be introduced in the parliament sooner. Let us discuss them under the following heads.

International Laws Related to Honour Killing

"Honour killings" are a recognized form of violence against women in international human rights law because they violate women's rights to life and security of the person. International law obligates states to protect women from gender-based violence, including by family members, and to disqualify "honour" as a legal defence for acts of violence against women. . ‘Honour killings’ are an extreme and brutal abuse of human rights, violating the most basic of human rights—the right to life—as well as every other article in the International Convention on Human Rights (1948). The presence of laws that treat ‘honour killings’ leniently is also a brazen disregard of the International Convention of Civil and Political Rights (1966), protecting individuals against the use of the death penalty except for the most serious of crimes. ‘Honour killings’ also violate the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979).

Article 1 of the Convention states that

“For the present Convention, the term ‘discrimination against women’ shall mean any distinction, exclusion, or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on the basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.”

Article 2 states that “States Parties condemn discrimination against women in all its forms, agree to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating discrimination against women and, to this end, undertake:

(c) To establish legal protection of the rights of women on an equal basis with men and to ensure through competent national tribunals and other public institutions the effective protection of women against any act of discrimination;

(f) To take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to modify or abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices which constitute discrimination against women;

(g) To repeal all national penal provisions which constitute discrimination against women.”

This UN charter has been signed by 185 countries world wide - over ninety percent of the members of the United Nations – including most countries where ‘honour killing’ occurs. ‘Honour killings’ violate both the wording and the spirit of this law. India is also a part of it.

Also the General Assembly resolution of United Nation that established the Human Rights Council back in 2006 decided “that the Council shall be responsible for promoting universal respect for the protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction of any kind and in a fair and equal manner”. Thus we can see that International Law on Human Rights are against the Honour killings and are in no mood to save it in the name of “cultural or traditional rights”.

Judicial Precedence

In a landmark judgment, in March 2010, the Karnal District Court ordered the execution of the five perpetrators in an ‘honour killing’ case of Manoj & Babli, while giving a life sentence to the khap (local caste-based council) head who ordered the killings of Manoj Banwala (23) and Babli (19), two members of the same clan who eloped and married in June 2007 and later their mutilated bodies were found a week later from an irrigation canal. In her verdict, district judge Vani Gopal Sharma stated, "This court has gone through sleepless nights and tried to put itself in the shoes of the offenders .Khap panchayats have functioned contrary to the constitution, ridiculed it and have become a law unto themselves”. The case was both the first court judgement convicting khap panchayats and the first capital punishment verdict in an honour killing case in India. The Indian media and legal experts hailed it as a "landmark judgement". Also, few honour killing cases go to court, and this is the first case in which the groom's family in an honour killing filed the case. Also on August, 2010 the Supreme Court in a case of State of U.P. v. Krishna master & Ors  awarded life sentence to three persons who caused the death of six persons of a family in a case of ‘honour’ killing at a village in Uttar Pradesh in 1991. A Bench of Justices H.S. Bedi and J.M. Panchal reversed the order of acquittal passed by the Allahabad High Court after the trial court handed them the death sentence. The Bench said: “There is no manner of doubt that killing six persons and wiping out almost the whole family on the flimsy ground of saving the honour of the family would fall within the rarest of rare cases and, therefore, the trial court was perfectly justified in imposing the capital punishment on the respondents.”

Also a bench of Supreme Court headed by Justice Markandey Katju in the case of Lata Singh Vs State of Uttar Pradesh and others had said, ''Honour killings are nothing but barbaric cold blooded murder and no honour is involved in such killings.'' The Supreme Court while dropping all criminal proceedings against Singh's husband and her in-laws had gone to the extent of observing that ''inter-caste and inter-religious marriages should be encouraged to strengthen the social fabric of society.''

Recently on June 22, 2010 the Supreme Court had issued notice to the Central Government and nine states in the face of rising ‘Honour Killings’ across the country on the Public Interest Litigation filed by Shakti Vahini. The court wants to know what steps are being taken to curb such violence.

Thus we can see that in lack of any specific law on ‘Honour killing’ the judgements of the cases are normally conflicting. But now after the landmark judgements of Supreme Court cited above we can normally presume that where there is ‘rule of law’, law does not rescue any person to kill anyone in the name of honour of his family