CEDAW/C/55/D/40/2012
1.2 At the request of the author and after reviewing her case, the Working Group
on Communications, acting on behalf of the Committee, and pursuant to article 5,
(1) of the Optional Protocol and rule 63 of the Committee’s rules of procedure,
decided to grant interim measures requesting the State party to refrain from
expelling the author and her two minor children to Pakistan while her
communication was under consideration by the Committee. The State party acceded
to that request.
1.3 On 6 July 2012, the Committee, acting through its Working Group on
Communications, decided, pursuant to rule 66 of the Committee’s rules of
procedure, to consider the admissibility of the communication separately from its
merits.
Factual background
2.1 The author and her family are from Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and belong to the
Christian minority of Anglo-Indians, who speak English as their mother tongue. The
author claims that she has always been subjected to discrimination as a Christian
and that, when she became a young woman, this discrimination turned into sexual
harassment. She refers to frequent incidents of verbal assault in public, as well as
the touching of her intimate parts by unspecified individuals. She submits that, when
she was about 16 years old, a Muslim man named A. G. asked her to date him. He
said that he would have her “on the side”, that is, not for a serious relationship,
because, in his opinion, as a Christian woman she was allowed to have premarital
sexual relationships. When she refused, he threatened her with reprisals, but she did
not take his threats seriously. However, in March 2002, the police came to the
author’s house and arrested one of her brothers without any grounds. A. G. called the
next day saying that her brother had been arrested at his request, since his brother
was a high-ranking police official. The author’s brother was released after the
family had paid a bribe.
2.2 Following these events, the author’s family decided to move to another
location. In 2003, the author secured employment at a hospital. A. G. learned this
and came to the hospital to shout at and insult her, saying that they had had a
relationship but that she had cheated on him. As a result, the author was forced to
resign. She left her second job because she was sexually harassed by her boss, who
considered Christian women to be of easy virtue. At her next job, in a bank, she was
again exposed to sexual harassment by her superiors. In addition, one day A. G.
came to her office and told her boss that she had had a relationship with him and
that her family was involved in prostitution. As a result of such humiliation, she left
her job.
2.3 The author obtained an au pair visa for Denmark with the help of her sister,
who was living there. She arrived in Denmark in January 2007. A. G. reiterated his
threats by calling the telephone number of her sister in Denmark. The author
continued to receive threats on a daily basis. 1 One day, A. G. told her to contact her
family in Pakistan. When she did, she learned that her elder brother had been
arrested by the police without any grounds and had been badly beaten in detention.
The family obtained her brother’s release by paying a bribe.
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1
13-42833
The material on file does not show that the author had sought the assistance of the State party’s
police in connection with the threats received.
3/13