‘Honour’: Crimes, Paradigms, and Violence Against Women

This book is the result of a collaborative effort between international and locally-based human rights organisations, individuals, and experts whose work has focussed on so-called ‘honour crimes’ in a variety of geographical and social contexts.  It is an action-oriented work that seeks to aid activists, policy makers, and lawyers by clarifying what such crimes entail, how they vary depending on location and context, and possible strategies for combating them. It focuses largely on ‘honour killings’ and interference with the right to choice in marriage, decisively places these ‘honour crimes’ within the violence against women and human rights framework as an alternative to the culturally relativist approach, and urges the reform of laws and legal systems which enable perpetrators of ‘honour crimes’ to not be held fully accountable for their actions. The articles in this volume address South Asia, the Middle East, Western Europe, Latin America, and the Nordic countries. It is intended to serve as a resource for addressing ‘honour crimes’ specifically, and violence against women in general.