Reference to the Court may be by legal and natural persons resident in any of the Member States, EAC Member States and the Secretary General of the EAC. The Court’s temporary seat is in Arusha, Tanzania.123 4.6.1 Member States The Member States of the EAC are Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. 4.7 Decisions of other regional bodies of significance to women’s rights Other regional bodies such as the Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights (IACHR and IACtHR) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) have delivered important judgments and decisions on various issues that advance rights of women including justice for all forms of violence against women. While these may not specifically relate to sexual violence, the reasoning and arguments advanced in these decisions on how women’s experience of violence violate provisions of the relevant treaties may well be used for similarly advancing case law and establishing jurisprudence in the African region for accountability for various forms of violence, including sexual violence against women. The decisions are on issues such as: 4.7.1 Gravity of Domestic Violence The ECtHR in Opuz v. Turkey124 held “that the issue of domestic violence, which can take various forms ranging from physical to psychological violence or verbal abuse, cannot be confined to the circumstances of the present case. It is a general problem which concerns all Member States and which does not always surface since it often takes place within personal relationships or closed circuits and it is not only women who are affected. The Court acknowledges that men may also be the victims of domestic violence and, indeed, that children, too, are often casualties of the phenomenon, whether directly or indirectly”.125 It is significant that the Court stresses the gravity of the issue of domestic violence in these words. Underlining the gravity of domestic violence further, the Court emphasised “that in domestic violence cases perpetrators’ rights cannot supersede victims’ human rights to life and to physical and mental integrity”.126 Opuz v. Turkey concerned a petition filed by a victim of domestic violence, whose abusive ex-husband killed her mother and the State ignored her continued pleas for protection and action. The Court found in favour of the applicant and held that the State of Turkey was in breach of the right to life and the right to be free from torture. On the right to equal protection of law, the Court found that “the State’s failure to protect women against domestic violence breaches their right to equal protection of the law and that this failure does not need to be intentional”.127 4.7.2 Rape as Torture The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights made a finding that rape may amount to torture in the Fernando and Raquel Mejia v. Peru case.128 In Aydin v. Turkey, the European The highlighted text comes from: Claiming Human Rights - Guide to International Procedures Available in Cases of Human Rights Violations in Africa http://www.claiminghumanrights.org/ecowas.html) 124 Opuz v. Turkey (Application no. 33401/02) Judgment, European Court of Human Right, Strasbourg, 9 June 2009. 123 125 Ibid., ¶ 132. 126 Ibid., ¶ 147. 127 Ibid., ¶ 191. 128 Fernando and Raquel Mejia v. Peru (Decision of 1 March 1996), Report No. 5/96, case no 10.970, in Annual Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights 1995 OEA/Ser.L/V/II.91, pp. 182-188. REDRESS | REGIONAL MECHANISMS 37