NEW DELHI: Honor killings, witch burnings and dowry deaths make up the dark shades of the grim picture UN special rapporteur on summary or arbitrary executions Christof Heyns will take back after a 12-day visit to India to investigate human rights violations. Heyns was on a special mission to report on violations to the most important to human rights – the right to life. “This is a difficult area for any state to address,” Heyns said referring to honor killings, dowry deaths and witch burnings. Honor killings are not unheard of in parts of North India, in which a person, generally a woman is killed sometimes by her own family or members of her village in order to avenge the shame the people believe the woman has brought upon them. On the other hand, dowry deaths, in which the woman is either killed or harassed to a point where she commits suicide because her family failed to pay the groom's family a demanded amount at the time of marriage is a pan India problem. Public murders of women branded as witches, often to help grab her land are also prevalent. Heyns stressed that certainty of convictions was more important that tougher punishments. “This is often difficult for a host of reasons, including the fact that there is a general social sanction for the crime, and the police often do not address these killings as crimes,” he said. Heyns, visited five volatile regions of the country including politically sensitive Kashmir and was especially critical of the much condemned Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). “During my visit to Kashmir, AFSPA was described to me as ‘hated' and ‘draconian'. It clearly violates International Law. A number of UN treaty bodies have pronounced it to be in violation of International Law as well,” Heyns said that the Act has come to be a ‘symbol of excessive state power” and ‘has no role to play in a democracy”. Heyns will submit his report to the U.N. Human Rights Council next year.
