CUSTOMS, TRADITIONS AND PRACTICES OF BODILY INJURY TO WOMEN AND GIRLS

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to research certain aspects of customs, traditions and practices of inflicting bodily harm on women and girls on the basis of ethnic, religious and cultural norms. In order to achieve the declared goal and obtain appropriate results, the following set of methods was used: historical-legal, comparativist, and formal logic methods. The results of such activities are: 1) the study of customs, traditions and practices of inflicting bodily harm on women and girls on the basis of ethnic, religious and cultural norms, namely, their causes, order and negative consequences; 2) the thesis that such customs, traditions and practices of inflicting physical injuries on women and girls violate a number of victims’ rights, is a form of gender-based violence and violence against children is substantiated. Conclusions. Among the ethnic, religious and cultural customs and traditions of different countries and individual ethnic groups, which entail physical injuries of varying degrees of severity in women and girls, the following should be highlighted: wearing ‘bitter hoops’ on the neck by women of the Kayan ethnic tribe; female circumcision; ‘ironing’ (‘flattening’) of the chest; teeth grinding; foot bandage (‘lotus foot’); wearing clay plates in the ears and lower lip of women of the Mursi tribe, scarring, etc. These practices are a form of gender-based violence and violence against children, as they are applied to transgender women and girls before they reach adulthood, and entail a number of negative social, physical, psychological, and legal consequences.In particular, such rights as: the right to physical integrity are violated; the right to health; the right to security; the right to freedom from torture and inhuman treatment; the right to dignity; right to life; reproductive rights; the right to have the highest attainable level of physical and mental health; the right to freely choose a place of residence and free movement; the right to freedom of employment; the right to education and development; the right to access modern technologies; the right to proper medical care and health care, etc.