Honor killings are, however, a combination of various human rights violations and the most serious, complicated caste and gender based violent practices recognised under international law. This research posits honour killings as transgressions of the basic rights of men and women alike, preserved in place due to patriarchal social structures, community watching and the complicity of institutions. The fact that it has mostly been conceived of as crime against women alone needs to be addressed, and the idea reconceptualised. The paper comprehensively traces the scope of violations against all range of rights under study and systematically addresses right to life and dignity and right to equality as well as right to personal liberty and liberty to marry freely and demonstrates rights being undermined by referencing a wide array of human rights instrument: The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (DEVAW). It further analyses the jurisprudence of Indian courts on the issue and examine some prominent judgements of the Supreme Court of India where the courts slowly declared honour killings unconstitutional and asked the governments to take punitive and preventive steps. It analyses the adequacy of present penal provisions available under the Indian Penal Code and proposed Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and other legislative developments like the Prevention of Crimes in the Name of Honour and Tradition Bill. Finally, the paper comes to conclusion that although the present laws are directionally appropriate, without a strong implementing framework and targeted legislations, in the context of the gender-sensitive interpretation by the judiciary conforming with human rights standards they are unable to address the issue properly.

Keywords

Honour killings; international human rights law; CEDAW; Indian jurisprudence; gender-based violence; constitutional rights