A/HRC/46/36
practice for addressing the specific needs of women and girls as victims. Better understanding
from studies conducted in conflict and trauma settings confirms that women who are victims
of terrorism experience and manifest trauma differently from men and have different social,
psychological and material needs.106 Reparations for women who are victims of terrorism
must address the underlying gender inequities that frequently place women in a less
advantageous position to recover from harm or to be fairly treated in the context of law and
administrative processes. In many societies, gender stereotypes lead to assumptions about the
capacity and responsibility of women and there is a failure to acknowledge the gender
burdens of care carried by women who are terrorism victims. Moreover, women may not
have the legal right in some countries to acquire access to funds and/or care independently
from the men with whom they are connected, undermining their individual rights to remedy
and to be treated without discrimination. Women who are victims of terrorism have specific
reproductive and maternal needs that can only be addressed by including a comprehensive
approach to reproductive rights and sexual health for women who are victims of terrorism in
legal provisions and social entitlements.
IV. Effect of terrorism on the promotion and protection of
human rights
32.
The Special Rapporteur was invited by the Human Rights Council, in its resolution
42/18, to reflect on the negative effects of terrorism.107 Her preliminary reflections address
questions of legal precision, the nature of the legal obligations engaged by addressing the
actions of non-State actors that might be implied from discourse on the effects of terrorism
and the legal obligations of States with respect to the rights of victims of terrorism.
33.
The Special Rapporteur is of the view that overall reflection on the enjoyment of
economic, social and cultural rights in the terrorism and counter-terrorism arenas has been
understated. She recalls the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, including its
recognition of the indivisibility of all human rights, the important work that has been
undertaken by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in underscoring the
nature of the positive obligations owed by States to ensure the enjoyment of economic, social
and cultural rights to individual rights holders108 and the variety of tools now available to
effectively measure the implementation of State obligations in that context.
34.
The Special Rapporteur views the departure point of addressing the regulation of
terrorism as the multiple terrorism suppression conventions, agreed by States, providing
solid, agreed and irrefutable definitions of acts of terrorism.109 They are supplemented by
Security Council resolution 1566 (2004), which provides an overarching definition of
terrorism shaping the Security Council’s regulation in that arena. 110 She notes that those
obligations are directed at States, and precisely not at non-State actors, a matter on which she
believes there is strong State consensus. In that regard, she encourages States to maintain that
consensus in the context of addressing the effects of terrorism, placing a sustained focus on
their clear and precise obligations. She exhorts States to avoid the pitfalls of undermining
human rights standards and practice by indeterminacy in defining who may be the subject of
legal obligation in this arena. She also strongly advises States to avoid blurring the lines
between terrorism-related regulation and international humanitarian law.
35.
The Special Rapporteur is particularly aware that, as a descriptive matter, the effects
of terrorism speak to a wide range of harms that are experienced in society as a result of acts
of terrorism. While recognizing the pull to rhetorical and emotive language on the challenges
of terrorism, she encourages the Human Rights Council to remain firmly focused on the
specific legal obligations that follow for States from the International Bill of Human Rights,
Herbert E. Ainamani and others, “Gender differences in response to war-related trauma and
posttraumatic stress disorder – a study among the Congolese refugees in Uganda”, BMC Psychiatry.
107 A/HRC/40/52, para. 29.
108 See E/1991/23, annex III.
109 See, e.g., the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft.
110 A/HRC/16/51, paras. 26–28.
106
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