Case IND 200308.VAW
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
Inhuman and degrading treatment / Risk of impunity
Geneva, 20 March 2008.
The International Secretariat of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) has received information and requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in West Bengal, India.
The International Secretariat of OMCT has received information from the Centre for Organisation Research and Education (CORE), a member of the SOS-Torture Network, regarding the case of women patients who were kept in a state of total nakedness by the staff members of the State-run Calcutta Pavlov Mental Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal, on 8 March 2008.
According to the information received, while one of the female patients’ daughter was visiting her mother with Doctor Ashish Acharya, they found that all the female patients were made to stay naked in the ward. The staff alleged that the clothes were gone for washing.
Subsequently the Hospital staff allegedly diminished the seriousness of their acts and the Health Department of the West Bengal Government has not taken any action with respect to these allegations. The daughter of a patient that was visiting her mother day came under shock in the sight of her mother in this state.
OMCT fears that this incident may be one in a series of abuses that may amount to torture of ill-treatment of extremely vulnerable persons and calls for a thorough investigation into these and other events that may have taken place at the same hospital.
OMCT recalls that the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women states in its article 4(b) that States should itself “refrain from engaging in violence against women”. The Calcutta Pavlov Mental Hospital being a governmental hospital, the staff members are considered as State agents and their behaviours engage directly the State’s responsibility.
Moreover, OMCT reminds that according to article 4(c) of this Declaration States should "exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and, in accordance with national legislation, punish acts of violence against women, whether those acts are perpetrated by the State or by private persons."
Please write to the authorities in India urging them to:
Regional and local addresses:
Ambassadors:
Please also write to the embassies of India in your respective country.
Geneva, 20 March 2008.
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.
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