COMMITTEE: UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

TOPIC A: THE PREVENTION OF HONOR KILLING

AND HUMAN SACRIFICE
COUNTRY: ITALIAN REPUBLIC
DELEGATES: MAGDALENA CAVADA, JOSEFA
CISTERNAS
SCHOOL: COLEGIO CUMBRES
SESIÓN II- MARCH 23-26,2022

I. Topic Background

Honor killing and human sacrifice have been seen in cultures and religions since the

beginnings of civilization. Even though these practices may seem extinct, they are still

occuring in some societies. The “honor” based agressions come from direct family members

and are motivated by the goal of restoring a family’s collective reputation after it has been

damaged by the victim’s violation.1 Human sacrifice is categorized as a specific form of

honor killing, offering the life of the victim with religious purposes. 2 The statistics of these

two Humans Rights violations can not be established with certainty, due to the lack of

confirmed data. In turn, the absence of clear numbres is mainly caused by the vagueness of

the issue’s definition, considering that it is extremely complex to categorize if a murder

motivation was “honor”. These offences comprehend matters such as honor suicide,

infanticide, filicide, femicide, matricide and neonaticide.3

1 “Forms of 'honour' based violence and oppression.” Honour Based Violence Awareness Network. Accessed
December 7, 2021. http://hbv-awareness.com/forms-of-hbv/.
2 Oxford Handbooks Online. Accessed December 7, 2021.
https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199838707.001.0001/oxfordhb-
9780199838707-e-033.
3 “honor killing | sociology.” n.d. Britannica. Accessed December 7, 2021.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/honor-killing.
 The root of the issue is in some conducts of tribal beliefs and patriarchal societies. 4

Lots of cultural and religious ideologies have the conception that women are inferior to men,

which has gotten to a high difference between male and female honor murders. The United

Nations Population Fund estimated that 5,000 women are killed in the name of ‘honor’ each

year, mainly in the Middle East and Asia.5 This numbers are probably underestimated and

exclude human sacrifices and male murders (both areas that are repeatedly neglected

surrounding these subjects).

But the persistence of this is crimes does not only lie on the execution of them. High

Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay states that:

The reality for most victims, including victims of honor killings, is that State

institutions fail them and that most perpetrators of domestic violence can rely on a

culture of impunity for the acts they commit – acts which would often be considered

as crimes, and be punished as such, if they were committed against strangers. (Pillay,

2010)6

There are some specific countries affected by this matter, one of the most impacted by

it is Pakistan. It is a really religious and conservative country; where the most practiced

religion is Islam. It has a history of honor killings and human sacrifice. In July 2016,

Qandeel Baloch was murdered by her brother, who was motivated by the belief that the

4 Mayo, Trish. n.d. “human sacrifice.” Britannica. Accessed December 7, 2021.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/human-sacrifice.
5 “United Nations Nations Unies.” 2009. United Nations Nations Unies.
https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/vaw_legislation_2009/Expert%20Paper%20EGMGPLHP
%20_Aisha%20Gill%20revised_.pdf.
6 “Honor killings in Pakistan: What came after the headlines.” 2016. CNN.
https://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/22/asia/pakistan-honor-killings-what-happened-next/.
things she posted on the internet were dishonorable for the family. 7 After this tragedy, in

October 2016 Pakistan established a law that the nation would no longer tolerate that the

perpetrators ended without punishment. This wasn't enough. In 2019, The Human Rights

Council of Pakistan reported at least 1,100 cases of honor killings in spite of the new rule.

Multiple treaties and resolutions have been done by the United Nations in relation to

this matter, but not directly referring to the issue. Among these we can find the Sustainable

Development Goals, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination

Against Women and evidently the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Because

of the extension of the topic, most of the mentioned resolutions do not cover all the crucial

factors that keep honor killing and human sacrifice in society. Even the UDHR generates a

conflict by guaranteeing religious freedom and freedom of opinion, since lots of honor-based

crimes are defended with religious beliefs.

The same broadness problem can be seen with NGOs. There are no relevant honor-

based violence NGOs, but there do exist some useful organizations that work with more

specific aspects of honor killing (such as women abuse) or supply general aid. An

organization that has helped in this matter is Global Citizen, who provides tools to connect

and raise the voice of people in different social subjects. 8 Another really helpful organization

is the Honour Based Violence Awareness Network, which spreads awareness, trains

7 Evans, Hugh, Simon Moss, and Wei Soo. n.d. “Who We Are.” Global Citizen. Accessed December 8, 2021.
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/about/who-we-are/.
8 “ABOUT US.” n.d. Honour Based Violence Awareness Network. Accessed December 8, 2021. http://hbv-
awareness.com/about/.
professionals and connects experts via the internet with the goal of ending these

trangressions.9

II. Country Policy

Honor killing has existed in Italy for a long time and probably still exists. In Roman

civilization and culture, honor killings and human sacrifices were something that was

performed. Still in the 20th century, honor-based crimes were perceived differently by the

law. In 2006 a Pakistani woman named Hina Saleem was murdered in the name of honor by

her own father.10 She moved from her native land to Italy living independently, which her

parents did not agree with. Her father threatened her and murdered her after she refused to

follow his orders. This was described as a National Emergency, in every social media,

including TV.

In 1981 the government decreed a special status of honor killing, in which they

would mandate extreme leniency in judging the killing of “spouses, daughters, and sisters

caught in illicit sex.” . But in the year 2007 the Supreme Court decreed that honor was an

outdated concept.11 During the past decades, Italy has shifted, denying honor as a form of

justifying the killing of a person. And with time, has made modifications so the punishments

are more harsh.

9 Frazier, Lewis. 2017. “Details About The Honor Killing Of Hina Saleem – Stop Honour Killings.” Stop
Honour Killings. http://www.stophonourkillings.com/details-honor-killing-hina-saleem/.
10 Momigliano, Anna. 2016. “Italy's views on violence against women are finally changing.” The Washington
Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/how-italy-has-changed-its-view-on-murdering-women/
2016/11/02/8f22d42a-930b-11e6-bc00-1a9756d4111b_story.html.
11 Senate of the Italian Republic. n.d. “Femicide.” Senato. Accessed December 8, 2021.
https://www.senato.it/application/xmanager/projects/leg18/English_Focus_Femicide_1.pdf.
 Within the last four years the Italian Republic has made considerable efforts to stop

gender-based violence, toughening the punishments for abusers. In 2018 the Senate published

a report regarding femicide, which announced that approximately 75% of the femicides in the

country were committed by family members of the victim. The report stated that “according

to the investigation committee, the Italian laws against gender violence are satisfactory, on

the whole”, with hefty sentences for perpetrators. 12 The same year it was held the first

meeting of the technical Committee on Violence Against Women, and a year before that, a

three year-term Strategic Plan on Male Violence Against Women was adopted by the

government13

The Italian Republic would like the UN to guide countries, giving advice to modify

legal guidelines. It has been reflected inside our nation that with corresponding sentences and

the strict following of these, the abuses and even the mindset of a population can change.

The Italian Supreme Court ruled that “honor” is an obsolete concept, removing any chance of

defending a crime with it.14

III. Proposed Solutions

A controlled and slow transition would be the ideal thing to make an effective

solution with worthwhile results, but having in consideration that there are people in need of

immediate help and can not wait any longer, we have short and long-term solutions. The first

12 Inter-ministerial Committee for Human Rights. 2018. “ITALY Inter-ministerial Committee for Human
Rights ITALY'S CONTRIBUTION ON THE ISSUE OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN/FEMICIDE,
FOLLO.” OHCHR. https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Women/SR/Femicide/Italy.pdf.
13 Momigliano, Anna. 2016. “Italy's views on violence against women are finally changing.” The Washington
Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/how-italy-has-changed-its-view-on-murdering-women/
2016/11/02/8f22d42a-930b-11e6-bc00-1a9756d4111b_story.html.
14 “Impunity for domestic violence, 'honour killings' cannot continue – UN official.” 2010. UN News.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2010/03/331422.
mentioned will be a program proposed to the OXFAM, called HBV-Aid (Honor Based

Violence Aid), which would include;

● legal aid to abused people in immediate need. As it was mentioned, this type of abuse

comes from direct family members, making it a lot more difficult for the victim to

reach out for help. This is why it is necessary to give endangered people judicial

resources, preventing a possible murder and aiming to end with abuse cicles.

● training for health, education, and police workers, for them to be capable of

distinguishing people at risk. Another important thing to do is to identify endangered

people in their daily environments to address these maltreatments. Concise courses

would be given to these functionaries on how to distinguish signs of violence and how

to act in front of the signals.

Along with HBV-Aid, the Italian Republic wants to propose a 10 year long-term

solution, called the X-Plan. The X stands for the number 10 in the Roman numeration system,

alluding to the ten years that the plan would last. Italy has experienced and knows that

people's beliefs can not be changed in a brief period of time, and that it is important to make

legal changes in addition to social ones.

The X-Plan is a plan of action that would be offered to any country who would like to

take it, and it would be specially suggested to those who tend to show signals of unregulated

honor based violence. The first step includes the revision of laws, statistics, and information

that we already have and that could be contributing to the occurrence of honor-based

violence. The subsequent would be sending qualified people to analyze these cultural, social

and religious factors and behaviours so they know how the dynamic of these perpetrations is

carried through in that specific place. Once all the research is done, a personalized list of
suggestions will be delivered to the country, among which could be changing laws or

policies, targeting specific localizations within the country, and actions the government can

take in order to solve the root of the issue. Alongside this previous list, a more specific

training program would be given for teachers, healthcare staff, and the police, so they would

be able to react to situations of possible abuse and save a life.

Due to the dispersion of organazations, treaties and movements worldwide, the

overseeing of this project would be proposed to the Honour Based Violence Awareness

Network (HBVA). Despite this international organization is not an NGO, it focus specifically

in the matter, has expirience in training, has data and holds connection with lots of NGOs,

which can help with funding or provide aid in their specific country. 15 Apart from that, the

ideal would be to extract acurate worldwide statistics from the X-Plan, and this is information

that the HBVA is already working on.

IV. Conclusion

Human sacrifice and honor killing go unnoticed because it is believed to be an ancient

custom, but actually it is estimated to affect around 5000 people worldwide per year or more.

The main victims of these practices are women, because of sexist cultures and religions

around the world. Some of the most affected countries on this matter are Pakistan, India and

other nations located in the Middle East and Asia. There are some difficulties when

addressing these abuses due to the shielding of these crimes behind religion and the

vagueness of the concept of honor-based violence. The Italian Republic has transitioned,

15 “ABOUT US.” n.d. Honour Based Violence Awareness Network. Accessed January 5, 2022. http://hbv-
awareness.com/about/.
modifying the law over the years to achieve more safety for women and less impunity to

those who commit this kind of perpetrations. In order to solve this issue in the countries that

most deal with honor-based violence.

Italy proposes to give immediate aid to those who need it, which would be contained

in HBV-Aid, giving legal resources to endangered people and training for health, education

and police workers for them to be capable of distinguishing people at risk of honor based

violence. All of this along with a long-term solution called the X-Plan, based on the analysis

of cultural factors, and the delivery of personalized legal solutions to the countries that decide

to join this plan.