Review of Arab Legislations Regarding their Position Towards Honor Crimes: "Revisiting Honor Killings and Harm in Crimes Devoid of Honor

Abstract

In this research, we dealt with the attitudes of Arab legislation regarding crimes of murder or harm that lead to the loss of a person’s life or the occurrence of aggressive bodily harm, under the background of honorable motive excuse. During the research, we review the latest amendments & modifications in some of  the Arab penal codes about of what is so-called as honor crimes in order to address any shortcomings in this regard.

The research stated that  murder or harm under a pretext of honor could be deemed as a sort of intentional violence, especially against women, because it justifies such type of offence under excuse of honor killing despite its cruelty. Through the analytical and comparative legal methods approach in examining the defects of the criminal policy of Arab legislation regarding offences of honor killing in Arab societies, we reached a number of conclusions that proved the research hypotheses, the most important of which are that recent steps undertaken by the Arab legislations in dealing with honor crimes could be considered as a right direction towards respect international standards of human rights and it is possible to counting them as a step towards rights and  fairness for women, but they are still insufficient as long as the legitimization of honor killing in the Arab criminal codes and judicial practices is still going on, along with the absence of a deterrent punishment for  perpetrator in these offences. 

In light of the aforesaid the suggestion is that full legislative reform requires radical remedy in the laws in force through the whole abolition of all legal texts and judicial practices related to the mitigation of punishment for offences committed under the pretext of honor.