On October 24, 2002, at the 57th Session of the United Nations General Assembly Third Committee, the UN resolution, "Working Towards the Elimination of Crimes Committed in the Name of Honor" was passed. The resolution was tabled by the Netherlands and has 89 co-sponsors. This resolution is the result of repeated efforts by a group of advocates/activists who spent several years advocating for it and educating UN officials.

Prior to 1998, the term "honor killings" was little known or understood within UN machinery. The passage of the resolution reflects that the issue is being addressed for the first time, and calls for government accountability at national levels.

The resolution has been translated into a total of 13 languages, including Arabic, Bahasa, Bengali, Bosnian, Dari, English, Farsi, Malay, Punjabi, Turkish, Urdu, and two dialects of Kurdish: Kurmanci and Sorani. (These translations can be downloaded below.) The resolution was translated on the initiative of human rights activist Leyla Pervizat, with the support of the Network Women's Program (NWP).

If you are associated with an NGO working in the area of advocacy, feel free to distribute these translations to interested parties through your listserves and networks. This important resolution can be a strong instrument for advocates working towards eliminating honor killings regionally and nationally.

If you would like more information on the problem of honor killings, the resolution, or are an activist working on honor killings seeking to be more connected with other regional and national experts, please contact Phoebe Schreiner, an NWP program coordinator, at pschreiner@sorosny.org.

The full text is available below in the following languages: