E/CN.4/2002/73/Add.2 page 76 219 In its general comment 28 (para. 31), the Human Rights Committee states that the perpetration of honour crimes constitutes a serious violation of articles 6, 14 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 220 Honour killings are usually the outcome of decisions by improvised tribunals consisting of men and as a general rule are carried out by an under-age male relative of the woman, who is regarded as a hero for having cleansed the family honour. They are thus in fact a substitution of the judicial authority of the State (E/CN.4/1999/39, para. 74). 221 See surah 4, verses 15 and 16, and surah 24, verse 4. 222 Bearing false witness is punishable by eighty lashes and the wrongdoer’s testimony will never again be accepted (surah 24, verse 4). 223 E/CN.4/Sub.2/2000/17, para. 70. Several women had not been discovered in an adulterous situation. Also several women were found to be virgins after they were killed. See Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice (note 113 above), p. 13. 224 Ibid. In Jordan, many women are reportedly put in prison for their protection and not for having committed any crime. 225 See the case of a Pakistani woman killed in the office of the lawyer to whom she had turned for advice following her refusal of a marriage arranged by her family (E/CN.4/Sub.2/2000/17, para. 74). 226 See report on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions (E/CN.4/1999/39, para. 74). See also Amnesty International, Pakistan: honour killing of girls and women, September 1999. 227 For example, if a man for any reason kills another man, he will then murder a woman of his own family, place the body alongside his first victim and invoke karo-kari to escape prosecution. The police and judicial authorities often treat the killing of a woman by a relative as a private matter and hardly ever intervene. See the website www.egroups.fr/message/magistrat-avocat/53. 228 This tolerance is especially reflected in the saying “Better prostitutes on the streets than rape on street corners”. See Samuel (note 14 above), p. 151. 229 See report of CEDAW (A/54/38/Rev.1, p. 60, para. 153) and report on traditional practices … (E/CN.4/Sub.2/2000/17, para. 65). 230 231 See Samuel (note 14 above), p. 137. In the traditional social order of the Hindu world, prostitutes appear not to be totally devalued. They have their place and function in the caste society. Married only to a deity, they are not subjugated to a man or ever widowed and are thus not marked by hardship or relegated to a lowly status. See André Padoux, “Le monde hindou et le sexe”, Cahiers internationaux de sociologie, 1984, vol. LXXVI, p. 40.