Dowry Death: a Violation of the Right to Life Under Article Six of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

• Publication year: 1994
• Citation: Vol. 17 No. 03

UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND LAW REVIEWVolume 17, No. 3SPRING 1994

COMMENTS

Dowry Death: A Violation of the Right to Life Under Article Six of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

Angela K. Carlson-Whitley(fn*)

"There can be no issue of more pressing concern to international law than to protect the life of every human being . . . . If international law is unable to fulfil[l] this basic task then for what does it exist?"(fn1)

I. Introduction

Every day in India fifteen women are murdered by their new husbands and/or in-laws for failing to bring a sufficient dowry to the marriage.(fn2) Although India has many positive laws in place to prohibit and punish these "dowry deaths," or "bride-burnings,"(fn3) they continue to occur in increasing numbers because of vague statutory language, faulty enforcement, cultural attitudes, and economic discrimination against women.

By failing to effectively prevent dowry deaths, India, as a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),(fn4) violates the "right to life" as expressed in Article 6(1) and protected by Article 2.

Part II of this Comment describes the phenomenon of dowry death generally and explains the origins of dowry and its relatively recent transformation into a means of extortion by the groom and his family. In addition, this Part examines the laws enacted by India in response to the growing incidence of dowry deaths. Finally, Part II explains why these positive laws fail to solve the problem of dowry deaths.

Part III explains that the practice of dowry death not only violates India's existing domestic laws, but also violates international human rights law as embodied in the ICCPR. This Part briefly describes the ICCPR and examines India's obligations under the covenant with respect to the right to life. Part III takes the position that the practice of dowry death violates the ICCPR provisions protecting the right to life.

Part IV concludes that India violates its Article 2 obligations with respect to the right to life and suggests some measures that India should pursue to meet its obligations under the ICCPR. This Part also addresses the obligations of the international community, particularly the other states party to the ICCPR, to exert pressure on India to fulfill its obligations to protect the right to life and prevent dowry deaths.

II. Dowry Deaths: The Problem, Its Responses, and the Failure of Existing Legal Responses

India's practice of arranged marriages, which involves the giving and receiving of dowry, is at the root of dowry deaths. Section A of this Part explains the concept of dowry and its importance in Indian culture. Section B describes the phenomenon of dowry deaths and attempts to discern its causes. Section C examines India's positive laws regarding dowry and dowry deaths. Finally, Section D addresses the failure of India's positive laws to prevent dowry deaths.

A. Dowry Defined

At one time, dowry was a means for parents to endow a daughter with material goods because she could not inherit property.(fn5) Traditionally, dowry consisted of gifts, usually jewelry,(fn6) given to the bride at the time of her marriage.(fn7) The dowry provided the new bride with financial security in her marriage into a new family.(fn8)

Today, dowry is negotiated and refers to the wealth that the bride's parents must pay the groom and his family as part of the marriage arrangement.(fn9) The groom and his family demand dowry not only in the form of money, but also in the more modern forms of televisions, video cassette recorders, refrigerators, motorcycles, and automobiles.(fn10) The amount demanded is often exorbitant; a family may be required to raise a dowry many times the annual earnings of the household to marry off a daughter.(fn11) Furthermore, such demands continue for months or even years after the wedding, as the husband and his family extort more money from the bride's family.(fn12) Increasingly, dowry has degenerated into merely a means for the groom and his family to increase their material wealth and raise their standard of living.(fn13)

In addition to being a real financial burden to the parents of the bride, demands for more dowry that cannot be met often result in severe abuse and harassment of the young bride, frequently culminating in her murder or suicide.(fn14) It is common for the groom and/or his mother to murder the new bride in the first year of an arranged marriage because they consider her dowry insufficient.(fn15) It is also common for the bride to kill herself to spare her family further hardship.(fn16) In either case, the man is then free to seek a new bride who presumably will fulfill the dowry demands.(fn17)

B. The Problem of Dowry Deaths

"Dowry deaths" is the collective name for these fatalities.(fn18) The most popular way to murder a young bride is to burn her alive, dousing her with kerosene in the kitchen and igniting her(fn19) (hence the term "bride burning").(fn20) Because Indian women cook with kerosene, it is readily available in every household.(fn21) It is also inexpensive, much cheaper than the price of a gun or a knife.(fn22) Murder by burning is also grimly expedient. The sari of combustible cloth worn by the bride ensures that she will burn quickly and easily.(fn23) Because the murder is committed behind closed doors, the murderers can later claim that the young bride died as a result of a kitchen accident or suicide.(fn24) There are generally no witnesses to refute such claims, nor does any evidence remain.(fn25)

Although there are no accurate statistics on the number of dowry deaths per year, the number of registered cases has risen steadily in the past decade.(fn26) In 1982, India registered 389 cases of dowry deaths nationwide.(fn27) By 1985, this number had more than doubled to 999 registered cases.(fn28) Finally, by 1991, the number had reached 5,157 registered cases, more than ten times the number of registered cases in 1982.(fn29)

Whether the increase is due to more accurate reporting, a higher incidence of dowry deaths, or a combination of the two is unknown.(fn30) Despite these higher figures, evidence indicates that hundreds of additional murders and attempted killings of young brides are not reported simply because the brides' families prefer to avoid publicizing what they consider to be a shameful incident.(fn31) Moreover, the husband and his relatives disguise many such deaths as suicides or accidents.(fn32) Consequently, many fear that the actual occurrence of dowry deaths far exceeds the number reported to the police.(fn33) The Ahmeda-bad Women's Action Group in Gujurat State estimates that, in Gujurat alone, 1,000 women may be burned alive annually.(fn34)

C. India's Positive Laws

The Indian government has tried to combat the growing incidence of dowry death by enacting various laws to prevent such deaths from occurring and to punish those responsible when they do occur.(fn35) The government's first effort came with the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961.(fn36) To increase its effectiveness, the government has twice amended the Act, in 1984(fn37) and 1986.(fn38) The 1986 amendments require the police and a judicial magistrate to investigate every unnatural death of a woman married less than seven years.(fn39) Currently, the Act prohibits the "giving, taking, or demanding of dowry."(fn40) The Act defines "dowry" as property that is given or agreed to be given to a newlywed by the other newlywed or either set of parents "in connection with the marriage."(fn41) Violations of the Act are "punishable with a term of imprisonment of between six months and two years, plus a fine of up to ten thousand rupees or the value of the dowry, whichever is higher."(fn42)

In addition to criminalizing dowry, the Indian Parliament has criminalized dowry-related violence against women.(fn43) The Indian Penal Code, amended in 1983, outlaws dowry-related cruelty by the husband and his relatives.(fn44) The Parliament further amended the Penal Code in 1986 to explicitly provide that dowry deaths are punishable with imprisonment between seven years and life.(fn45) Additionally, the Code of Criminal Procedure now mandates a police investigation into deaths of women under suspicious circumstances that occur within seven years of marriage.(fn46) Finally, in addition to criminal laws, the Parliament amended the Indian Evidence Act, which now creates a presumption of dowry death whenever a woman is subjected to dowry-related cruelty or harassment soon before her death.(fn47)

D. The Failure of India's Positive Laws

Despite the Indian government's efforts, India's statutory laws have been ineffective in preventing dowry deaths. The practice of demanding dowry has spread throughout India and the incidence of dowry deaths continues to increase.(fn48) Once practiced only by middle-class Hindu families in north India, dowry has now spread to different castes, provinces, and economic classes.(fn49) Even religious groups who never before observed dowry customs, such as Muslims and Christians, have begun demanding dowry.(fn50) Yet despite the increase in dowry deaths, very few convictions have been obtained for dowry-related murders.(fn51) According to one commentator, India's statutory laws are ineffective in preventing dowry deaths and punishing the perpetrators for four reasons.(fn52) Subsection 1 of...