The visit of Ms. Rashida Manjoo, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences (or UNSRVAW for short) to the state of Manipur marks a historic occasion for earlier, two other Special Rapporteurs had been denied the chance to interact with people and listen to their experiences of rights violations. Her meeting with representatives of different civil society organizations, women human rights defenders, victims and other advocates working on violence against women not only from the state but also the region and West Bengal will surely go a step forward in putting in focus, the perils that women in the state face in the context of growing militarization following the presence of various armed state and non state forces, the impunity of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, the discriminations brought upon by a patriarchal society not to mention violence in the domestic sphere. For the many who deposed before the UNSRVAW, it meant not just enduring a cycle of remembered trauma while recollecting their past experience of the act of violence but contradictorily enough, feel a sense of peace that they are being listened to. The women who spoke representing others in their family who have been brutalized to death or raped or about being displaced from all things familiar speaking with pent up emotions are but a mere small representation of what people live with in the state given its fragile nature and its poor governance. For them, all it mattered was that some one from the UN would listen to them and submit their stories at a wider audience. Painful stories which people have lived with but off the national media radar save for a few that triggered major public outbursts.
Having said that, there are specific mandates for the UNSRVAW that we mist understand. His or her madate is to seek and receive information on violence against women, its causes and consequences from Governments, treaty bodies, specialized agencies and other special rapporteurs responsible for various human rights questions and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, including women`s organizations, and to respond effectively to such information, measures, ways and means at the local, national, regional and international levels to eliminate all forms of violence against women and its causes, and to remedy its consequences; work closely with all special procedures and other human rights mechanisms of the Human Rights Council and with the treaty bodies; Continue to adopt a comprehensive and universal approach to the elimination of violence against women, its causes and consequences, including causes of violence against women relating to the civil, cultural, economic, political and social spheres.
In order to fulfill the mandates, the Special Rapporteur can submit and urge for urgent appeals and communications to nation States regarding alleged cases of violence against women. Interestingly, these submissions can take place on an individual level through written communication or through depositions during country visits undertaken to the Special Rapporteurs, which can happen only if the host country send an invitation.
Such visits are kept at such a level of being neutral and objective that all gifts handed during the course of the visits are accounted for displayed as the property of the office and not the person per se. Incidentally, the introduction of a code of conduct initially disallowed all Special Rapporteurs from addressing the media but a compromise was reached by the UN Council and a code of conduct now exists for the Special Rapporteurs where the media can be briefed at the end of a country mission. But more than the comments of the UNSRVAW, it will be interesting to follow the process of the voices of people when the findings are placed before the UN Human Rights Council and the Government of India responds.
As for the multitudes of women who have lost their lives, they will not come back to life again. Their families know that. Poignantly enough, most families of victims says that no amount of punishment will bring back their loved ones but that what matters most is that various forces and power realize that the killings and the exploitations will have to stop, that there must be safety and security of lives and dignity for people and accountability for various state and non state forces.