CEDAW/C/62/D/53/2013
conformity with that obligation. That positive duty encompasses the obligation of
States parties to protect women from being exposed to a real, personal and
foreseeable risk of serious forms of gender-based violence, irrespective of whether
such consequences take place outside the territorial boundaries of the State party: if
a State party takes a decision relating to a person within its jurisdiction, and the
necessary and foreseeable consequence is a violation of that person’s rights under
the Convention in another jurisdiction, the State party itself may be in violation of
the Convention. A State party would therefore violate the Convention if it returned a
person to another State where it was foreseeable that serious gender -based violence
would occur. 16 Such violation also occurs when no protection against the identified
gender-based violence can be expected from the authorities of the State to which the
person is returned. What amounts to serious forms of gender -based violence will
depend upon the circumstances of each case and needs to be determined by the
Committee on a case-by-case basis at the merits stage, provided that the author has
made a prima facie case by sufficiently substantiating her allegations. 18
8.7 In the present case, the Committee notes the State party’s argument that the
author did not substantiate that the attacks to which she was subjected in Pakistan
were of such nature that, if returned there, she would face a real, personal and
foreseeable risk of serious forms of gender-based violence. The Committee also
notes the author’s claim that she established prima facie evidence that she had been
subjected to attacks of gender-based violence in Pakistan and that she feared being
subjected to similar acts if returned there. Lastly, it notes that none of the violent
acts described by the author have been contested by the State party. In view of the
information provided, the Committee considers that the author has sufficiently
substantiated her claims for the purpose of admissibility. Accordingly, it procee ds to
their examination on the merits.
Consideration of the merits
9.1 The Committee has considered the present communication in the light of all
the information made available to it by the author and by the State party, as
provided in article 7 (1) of the Optional Protocol.
9.2 The Committee observes that, while the State party does not challenge the
truth of the three attacks perpetrated at the beauty salon where the author worked, at
her house and while she was in a taxi with her son, it considers th at the author did
not provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the attacks were targeted directly
against her. The Committee also observes that the State party has also not
challenged the truth of the insults uttered against the author by the two gr oups of
men who vandalized the beauty salon and attacked her at her house and set fire to
her clothes, namely that the beauty salon was a “sex clinic”, that she was
performing “dirty work” and that she was a prostitute. The Committee notes that,
while the author provided all relevant information about the tension between her
and her parents as well as her husband’s parents, who were all against their
marriage, and stated that she had “assumed” that the attacks had been instigated by
her in-laws, her application was denied simply because the Danish Immigration
Service was of the opinion that her claim that the attacks had been instigated by her
husband’s family was not substantiated because she had never been threatened by
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18
12/16
See also communication No. 35/2011, M.E.N. v. Denmark, para. 8.8 (see footnote 13 above).
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