Dowry Death: A Violation of the Right to Life under Article Six of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
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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*
There can be no issue of more pressing concern to interna-
tional 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?'
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.2 Although India has many positive laws
in place to prohibit and punish these dowry deaths, or bride-
burnings,3 they continue to occur in increasing numbers
because of vague statutory language, faulty enforcement, cul-
tural attitudes, and economic discrimination against women.
* B.A., The Evergreen State College, 1991; J.D. Candidate, University of Puget
Sound School of Law, 1994. I would like to thank Assistant Professor Geoffrey R.
Watson for his helpful comments and encouragement and Robert Menanteaux, senior
research librarian at the University of Puget Sound School of Law, for his assistance in
obtaining sources for this Article.
1. B.G. Ramcharan, The Concept and Dimensions of the Right to Life, in THE RIGHT
To LIFE IN INTERNATIONAL LAw 1, 2 (B.G. Ramcharan ed., 1985).
2. Reena Shah, India's Invisible War Against Women, ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, Mar.
13, 1992, at 10A. The author reports that nearly 16,000 women had been killed in
dowry disputes from 1989 to 1991, about 15 a day. It is notable that more women die
each year in dowry disputes than people are killed in the Sikh secessionist conflict with
the government of the Punjab province, which kills about 5,000 people each year. Id.
A more recent report notes that every one hour and 42 minutes a newly married
woman is burned to death for bringing an insufficient dowry to the marriage. India
Report Details Abuses of Women, DE'rorr FREE PRESS., Jan. 29, 1993, at 6A.
3. ELISABETH BUMILLER, MAY You BE THE MOTHER OF A HUNDRED SONS: A
JOURNEY AMONG THE WOMEN OF INDIA 47 (1990) (noting that the terms bride burning
and dowry death came into use in India in the late 1970s when a handful of feminists
began protesting against the occasional case that became known to the public).
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Dowry Death: A Violation of the Right to Life under Article Six of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
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