CEDAW/C/64/D/67/2014
Furthermore, forced nudity constituted a violation of privacy in her case. 16 Forced
nudity is also an international crime (article 7 of the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court). It was first defined in 1998 in the context of war
crimes. 17 There were also national-level decisions in which the State party accepted
that forced nudity was degrading treatment. 18 Furthermore, forced nudity inflicted
by the police constitutes police misconduct, prohibited under section 302 of the
Criminal Code.
3.5 The author further stressed that her core complaint is the discrimination
against women caused by the very existence of the prostitution laws. She
maintained that, under normal circumstances (were the author not targeted by an
unlawful police operation), there would not exist a domestic remedy with any
prospect of success. The only available remedy would be a complaint, asking the
Constitutional Court to declare prostitution laws as unconstitutional. However, in
1976 the Constitutional Court had already declared the obligation of women to
register as prostitutes and to undergo gynaecological examinations as
constitutional. 19 It followed, with respect to article 4 (1) of the Optional Protocol,
that an appeal to the Constitutional Court would be unlikely to bring effective relief.
3.6 Furthermore, the author submitted that the State party’s courts may interpret
the obligation of non-discrimination differently from the Convention, as they are not
bound by the provisions of the Convention, since the Constitutional Court ruled in
1975 that international law does not establish individual rights at the national
level. 20 Thus, under usual circumstances, women have no remedy against
discrimination caused by prostitution laws.
3.7 The author maintained that, in her case, the discrimination as a result of the
prostitution laws was aggravated by an unlawful police operation to enforce those
laws. This opened up the option of a remedy through administrative complaint
proceedings against police misconduct, which the author took. However, the remedy
was ineffective in two ways: its application was unreasonably prolonged, since th e
duration of the proceedings was excessive and interrupted by a long period of
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18
19
20
16-13831
European Court of Human Rights, in the context of searches: Wainwright v. United Kingdom
(application No. 12350/04) of 26 September 2006; and of medical inspections: Juhnke v. Turkey
(application No. 52515/99) of 13 May 2008, and Y.F. v. Turkey (application No. 24209/94) of
22 July 2003.
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Prosecutor v. Akayesu (case No. ICTR-96-4-T),
2 September 1998, confirmed on 1 June 2001; compared with Diane Marie Amann, “Prosecutor
v. Akayesu”, American Journal of International Law, vol. 93 (1999), pp. 195 ff; Rebecca L.
Haffajee, “Prosecuting crimes of rape and sexual violence at the ICTR: the application of joint
criminal enterprise theory”, Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, vol. 29 (2006), pp. 201 ff;
Catherine A. MacKinnon, “The ICTR’s legacy on sexual violence”, New England Journal of
International and Comparative Law, vol. 14, No. 2 (2008), pp. 211 ff; and Pillay, “Keynote
address: Protection of the Health of Women through International Criminal Law: How Can
International Criminal Law Contribute to Efforts to Improve the Health of Women? ”, Emory
International Law Review, vol. 22 (2008), pp. 15 ff.
Independent Administrative Panel of Vienna, case Nos. 02/13/9595/2001/85 and 02/13/
9635/2001 of 17 October 2002.
Constitutional Court Judgments VfSlg 7945/1976, 7994/1977, 7997/1977 and 8080/1977 relating
to article 7 of the Federal Constitutional Law and article 2 of the Constitution of 1867, which
declare the equality of men and women.
VfSlg 7608/1975, which the Constitutional Court has repeatedly confirmed, according to the
author.
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