- Conference
- 2015 National Black Members' Conference
- Date
- 12 September 2014
- Decision
- Carried
Conference condemns the violence perpetrated against innocent Black women and men in the name of so called Honour killing.
According to the United Nations, 5,000 women are murdered by family members in honour killings every year, 1000 in India, 1000 in Pakistan and 12 in the UK.
On 27th May 2014, 25 year old Farzana Parveen, a pregnant Pakistani woman was beaten to death by about 20 people, including her brothers, father and cousin outside a high court building in the eastern City of Lahore. Several weeks after Farzana’s death, 18 year old Saba Maqsood had survived being shot and thrown into a canal by her family because she married for love.
Disproportionately this type of crime mainly affects women; however men are also killed as a consequence of honour killing. This is apparent in the case of Sajjad Ahmed a newlywed young man who on 18th June 2014 was brutally murdered alongside his young wife because his family members were against the marriage.
On 9th September 2014 Raghunath Rai a 21 year old was executed on the directive of a local village court in Bihar for falling in love with and marrying a local girl. This is just an example of some of the heinous crimes against humanity.
The so-called honour killings often originate from tribal traditions and are common to rural areas. Honour killing is the murder of a person accused of bringing shame upon his or her family. It happens worldwide, from South America to Asia.
Conference agrees that there can be no honour in the brutalization and murder of innocent people who have a fundamental right to freedom of choice without having their Human Rights violated. We cannot sit back and allow these killings to continue unchallenged.
Conference calls upon the National Black Members Committee (NBMC) to:
1)Liaise with the National Executive Committee (NEC), and the TUC to raise awareness of the continuous use of Honour Killings;
2)Work with the International Committee to campaign for robust enforcement laws to prosecute those inciting violence, in particular those calling for and, in some cases offering rewards for the honour deaths of individuals;
3)Liaise with all relevant bodies, including Amnesty International and Honour Based Violence Awareness Network (HBVA) in order to establish a strategy to tackle the growing problem of honour killings.