CEDAW/C/72/D/96/2015
Background
1.1 The author is A.R.I., a citizen of the Russian Federation, of Chechen origin,
born in 1995. She unsuccessfully sought asylum in Denmark and claims that her
deportation to the Russian Federation would violate her rights under article 2 (c) –(f)
and article 5 (a) of the Convention. The Convention and its Optional Protocol entered
into force for Denmark on 21 May 1983 and 22 December 2000, respectively. The
author is represented by counsel, Jytte Lindgård.
1.2 When registering the communication on 22 September 2015, the Committee,
acting under article 5 of the Optional Protocol and rule 63 of the Committee ’s rules
of procedure, requested that the State party refrain from deporting the author, pending
the consideration of her case by the Committee. On 24 September 2015, the Danish
Refugee Appeals Board suspended the author’s deportation.
Facts as submitted by the author
2.1 Prior to her arrival in Denmark, the author lived in a small town near Grozny,
Chechnya, Russian Federation. She had been studying medicine for almost a year
when the armed conflict broke out in Chechnya. 1 The author was not a member of any
political or religious organizations and had not sympathized with the Chechen rebel
movement. However, her cousin was a member of the movement. 2
2.2 In June 2014, the author was asked by her cousin’s mother to treat her cousin
for a bullet wound in his leg. The author was unable to provide sufficient treatment
and advised that he be taken to the hospital, but her cousin ’s father refused, because
he would be arrested given that he was a rebel. The author gave them the phone
number of her friend’s mother, who was a surgeon. The surgeon attended to the
author’s cousin on the same day and said that she would return the following morning
with her equipment. The author later returned to hom e. In the early hours of the
following morning, the authorities arrived at the author ’s house, arrested her and her
younger brother and detained her for three days.
2.3 In detention, she was interrogated, kicked and pushed. She was asked about her
own, her brother’s and her cousin’s involvement with the “gang”, i.e., the Chechen
rebel movement. She denied being a member of any “gang”. The authorities presented
her with a “declaration of cooperation” and told her to sign it if she was innocent. She
signed the document without reading its contents. 3 That night, her second night in
detention, a man entered her cell and verbally and sexually abused her, telling her that
if she informed anyone about the incident, she would not see daylight again. The
following day, her third day in detention, the authorities did not interrogate the author;
instead, they delivered food to her and promised that they would release her, because
“her family had been so kind”. That evening, the author was released near a mosque
in her town, where she was met by her mother and uncle, who had paid a ransom for
her release. The author spent the night with her grandmother and, the following day,
was taken to another uncle’s house outside her town. After spending one and a half to
two months in hiding with her uncle, she left the Russian Federation on 13 August
2014.
2.4 The author indicates that being a victim of sexual abuse is considered shameful
in her culture. The news of her sexual abuse by the authorities had circulated in her
town, and she was therefore regarded as a “touched woman”. Her older brother told
her mother that her sexual abuse was a shame on the family and that he intended to
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1
2
3
2/11
The author does not provide dates or further details.
Also referred to as “insurgents” in submissions by the author and the State party.
The author indicates that she did not read the document because she was not given an
opportunity to do so.
19-05867