Abstract
This chapter deals with three main themes: the paradoxes of criminalization, which questions the convenience of the use of criminal law and of the punitive power of the state to achieve women’s emancipation. This subject is illustrated with the presentation of two regional pressing problems: femicide and rape as torture. Secondly, the chapter deals with the problems of criminal technique inherent in the definition of the crimes of violence against women. The Chapter analyzes the use of force, the lack of consent, and the use of objective criteria to determine self-defense in cases of sexual violence. The chapter also deals with restrictions to women’s autonomy derived from the penalization of the conducts that victimize them. The chapter argues that claims of legal feminism, especially its radical version, have penetrated with great strength and have triggered greater consensus in the normative field than in other areas. Regional case law has appropriated a discourse of protection of women against the persistent violence that characterizes social and family relations in Latin America.
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- 1.
For example, see Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women “Convention of Belem do Para”.
- 2.
Some of the statutes on violence against women are: Argentina, Ley 24.417, 1994; Bolivia, Ley 1.674, 1995; Colombia, Ley 294, 1996 reformed by ley 575, 2000; Costa Rica, Ley 7.586, 1996; Chile, Ley 20.066, 2005; Ecuador, Ley 103, 1995; El Salvador, Decreto Ley 902 de 1996; Guatemala, Ley 97–96; Honduras, Decreto 132–97; México, Ley de Asistencia y Prevención de la Violencia Intrafamiliar 1996 and Ley General de Acceso de las Mujeres a una Vida Libre de Violencia de 2007; Nicaragua, Ley 230, 1996; Panamá, Ley 27, 1995; Puerto Rico, Ley 54, 1989 (the first one in Latin America); Perú, Ley 27.306, 2000 amending ley 26.260, 1993 (the first one in South America); Dominican Republic, Ley 24–97; Uruguay, Ley 16.707, 1995; and Ley 17.514, 2002; Venezuela, Ley sobre la violencia contra la mujer y la familia, September, 1998.
- 3.
See Catharine MacKinnon, Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1987; Toward a Feminist Theory of the State, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1989. See also, Mary Daly Gyn, Ecology: The Methaethics of Radical Feminism, Beacon Press, Boston, 1978; Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will Men Women and Rape, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1975.
- 4.
Catherine MacKinnon “State of Emergency: Who Will Declare War on Terrorism Against Women?” Women’s Rev. Books 19, no. 6 (2002): 7–8 y “Women’s September 11th: Rethinking the International Law of Conflict.” Harv. Int’l L. J. 47, no. 1 (2006): 1–31.
- 5.
Sally Engle Merry, Human Rights and Gender Violence: Translating International law into Local Justice, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2006; Nancy Saporta Sternbach, Marysa Navarro Aranguren, Patrucia Chuchryk y Sonia E. Alvarez, “Feminisms in Latin America from Bogota to San Bernardo” in Arturo Escobar and Sonia E. Alvarez, The Making of Social Movements in Latin America, Westview Press, Boulder and Oxford, 1992; Nelly P. Stromquist, Feminist Organizations and Social Transformation in Latin America, Paradigm Publishers, Boulder, 2007; Norma Stoltz Chinchilla, “Marxism, Feminism and the Struggle for Democracy in Latin America” in Escobar and Alvarez, op.cit.; pp. 37–51; Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics, Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 1998; Francesca Gargallo, “El feminismo múltiple: prácticas e ideas feministas en América Latina,” in María Luisa Femenías (comp), Perfiles del Feminismo Iberoamericano, Catálogos, Buenos Aires, 2002.
- 6.
S.E. Merry, op.cit. p. 24.
- 7.
F. Gargallo, op.cit. p. 117; K. Sikkink y M. E. Keck, op.cit. p. 176.
- 8.
F. Gargallo, Ibid. p. 118; S.E. Alvarez, op.cit. p. 210; K. Sikkink and M.E. Keck, Id. p. 175.
- 9.
M.E. Keck y K. Sikkink, Ibid. p. 178; S.E. Alvarez, op.cit. p. 218.
- 10.
M.E. Keck y K. Sikkink, Ibid. p. 165. Charlotte Bunch, “Women’s Rights as Human Rights: Toward a Revision of Human Rights” in, Human Rights Quarterly 12 (1990): 486–498.
- 11.
See Elena Larrauri, La Herencia de la Criminología Crítica, Siglo XXI, Madrid, 1991; Regina Pereira de Andrade, A Ilusao de Seguranca Juridica do controle da violencia a violencia do controle penal, Livraria do Adrogado, Porto Alegre, 1997; Haydée Birgin (Comp.), Las Trampas del Poder Punitivo. El Género del Derecho Penal, Editorial Biblos, Buenos Aires, 2000.
- 12.
Eugenio Raul Zaffaroni “El discurso feminista y el poder punitivo” in Birgin, op.cit.
- 13.
See Centro de la Mujer Peruana Flora Tristan, La Violencia Contra la Mujer: Feminicidio en el Perú, Lima, 2005.
- 14.
Jill Radford and Diane Russell, Femicide: The Politics of Woman Killing, Open University Press, Buckingham, 1992.
- 15.
IACHR, The Situation of the Rights of Women in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico: The Right to Be Free from Violence and Discrimination, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.117, Doc. 44, Mar. 7, 2003.
- 16.
Amnesty International, Guatemala: No Protection, no Justice: Killings of Women in Guatemala, 9 June 2005, AMR 34/017/2005, available at http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/45bf6e4d2.html
- 17.
Testimony of the mother of Maria Isabel Veliz Franco, aged 15, who was abducted and murdered in December 2001.
- 18.
Participant organizations: Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos, A.C. (CMDPDH); Comité de América Latina y el Caribe para la Defensa de los Derechos de la Mujer (CLADEM); Federación Internacional de Derechos Humanos (FIDH); Centro por la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional (CEJIL); Fundación Kuña Aty, Paraguay; Estudio para la Defensa y los derechos de la Mujer (DEMUS), Peru; Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir, Mexico; Grupo de Mujeres de San Cristóbal de las Casas, A.C. (COLEM), Mexico; Centro de Promoción de la Mujer Gregoria Apaza, Bolivia; Red Nacional de Trabajadoras/es de la Información y Comunicación (RED ADA), Bolivia; Centro para la Acción Legal en Derechos Humanos (CALDH), Guatemala; Sisma Mujer, Colombia; Red de la No violencia contra las Mujeres de Guatemala and Washington, Office on Latin America (WOLA).
- 19.
Raquel Martí de Mejía v. Perú, Case 10.970, Inter-Am. Comm’n. H.R., Report No. 5/96, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.91 Doc. 7 at 157 (1996).
- 20.
International Criminal Court, Rules of Procedure and Evidence, U.N. Doc. PCNICC/2000/1/Add.1 (2000).
- 21.
Peru, Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, available at www.cverdad.org.pe. This case is included to highlight the obstacles that victims face when reporting State agents for rapes.
- 22.
Velásquez Rodríguez v. Honduras, Judgment, Inter-Am Ct. HR (ser.C) No.4 (July 29, 1988).
- 23.
- 24.
Loayza Tamayo v. Peru, Merits, Inter-Am. Ct. H.R. (ser. C) No. 33 (Sept. 17, 1997).
- 25.
Id.
- 26.
Id.
- 27.
Colombia, Constitutional Court Ruling C-285/97.
- 28.
This section was written by Julieta Di Corleto, Professor at the University of Buenos Aires Law School.
- 29.
See Carlos Santiago Nino, Consideraciones sobre la dogmática jurídica (con referencia particular a la dogmática penal), Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas de la UNAM, México, 1989, p. 85, 103.
- 30.
Claus Roxin, Derecho Penal, Parte General, Civitas, Madrid, 1997, p. 631.
- 31.
Jorge Corsi, “Una mirada abarcativa sobre el problema de la violencia familiar” in Jorge Corsi (comp.), Violencia familiar. Una mirada interdisciplinaria sobre un grave problema social, Editorial Paidós, Buenos Aires, 2004, p. 37.
- 32.
Julieta Di Corleto, “Mujeres que matan. Legítima defensa en el caso de las mujeres golpeadas”, in Revista de Derecho Penal y Procesal Penal, N 5, Lexis Nexis, Buenos Aires, 2006, pp. 853–870.
- 33.
Leonore Walker, “Battered Women Syndrome and Self Defense”, Notre Dame J.L. Ethics & Pub. Pol., no. 6, 1992 and Elizabeth Schneider, Battered Women & Feminist Lawmaking, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2000.
- 34.
Enrique Bacigalupo, Derecho penal. Parte General, Editorial Hammurabi, Buenos Aires, 1987, p. 230.
- 35.
Id. p. 230.
- 36.
Günther Jakobs, Derecho Penal. Parte General. Fundamentos y teoría de la imputación, traducción de Joaquín Cuello Contreras and José Luis Serrano González de Murillo, Editorial Marcial Pons, Madrid, 1997, pp. 488–489.
- 37.
Claus Roxin, op.cit. p. 652.
- 38.
Günter Stratenwerth, Derecho Penal. Parte General I. El hecho punible, Editorial Hammurabi, Buenos Aires, 2005, pp. 230–231.
- 39.
L. Walker, op.cit. pp. 327–328.
- 40.
Id.
- 41.
Id.
- 42.
Id.
- 43.
Judith Lewis Hermann M.D., Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror, Basic Books, New York (new ed.) 1997 and L. Walker, op.cit.
- 44.
See Julieta Lemaitre “Justicia Injusta: una crítica feminista a la conciliación en violencia conyugal” in Revista de Derecho Privado, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, January 2002.
- 45.
Maria da Penha v. Brazil, Case 12.051, Inter-Am. Comm’n H.R., Report No. 54/01, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.111 Doc. 20 rev. ¶ 704 (2000).
- 46.
Special Rapporteur on the Violence Against Women, Its Causes and Consequences, Rep. on Trafficking in Women, Women’s Migration and Violence Against Women, Comm’n Hum. Rts, E/CN.4/2000/68, (Feb. 29, 2000) (by Radhika Coomaraswamy).
- 47.
- 48.
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, G.A. Res. 25, annex II, U.N. GAOR, 55th Sess., Supp. No. 49, at 60, U.N. Doc. A/55/49 (Vol. I) (2001), entered into force Dec. 25, 2003.
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Lemaitre, J. (2013). Violence. In: Motta, C., Saez, M. (eds) Gender and Sexuality in Latin America - Cases and Decisions. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 24. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6199-5_6
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