Activists Call for End of Polygamy Abuses
The following is excerpted from a February 5 press
release produced by The Polygamy Justice Project, The Child Protection
Project, and The International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC) of the New York
University School of Law Clinical Program.
Activists are demanding that the United States put a
stop to the serious human rights abuses against women and children that
are being carried out in the name of religious freedom by polygamists in
Utah . . . and neighboring states. They say that women and girls in
polygamous communities are subjected to a pattern of abuses that violate
not only U.S. law, but also U.S. obligations under international law.
Federal and state governments have not adequately enforced the law,
advocates charge, allowing to go unpunished abuses such as incest,
violence, child marriage, trafficking in girls, coerced marriage of adult
women, sexual abuse, and the denial of education and access to
information.
"As U.S. citizens, we like to believe that we are on the
cutting edge of progress as a society. But women and children in
polygamous communities in the U.S. are suffering daily from human rights
violations that the perpetrators claim are justified by their religious
beliefs," said Laura Chapman, director of the Colorado-based Polygamy
Justice Project. "No religious belief excuses the reality."
Polygamy Experience
Chapman, who fled from a fundamentalist Mormon group 10
years ago, is all too familiar with the "crippling" effects of life in
these communities. "Whenever I describe practices that were considered
normal within my family and our polygamous community, people can't believe
that this could be happening in the U.S. in the 21st century," said
Chapman, whose efforts to help two girls escape forced marriages in
polygamous families were chronicled on CBS's "48 Hours."
. . . Many of these polygamous families belong to a
religious group known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the
Latter-Day Saints, which broke away from the mainstream Church of Jesus
Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (the "Mormon Church") over the mainstream
Church's official ban on polygamy. Although polygamy is prohibited by the
Utah State Constitution and its bigamy statutes, the prosecution of Tom
Green in 2001 for polygamy was the first since 1953. Most observers
believe that Mr. Green was prosecuted only because he had embarrassed
state officials through his aggressive promotion of polygamy in the media
at a time when preparations for the Winter Olympics had focused public
attention on Utah.
Women and girls who have fled polygamous families report
that religious teachings emphasize their duty to submit to the authority
of their fathers, husbands, and male religious leaders, and link polygamy
to their spiritual salvation. The religious teachings of these polygamous
groups and the closed nature of their communities create conditions in
which women and girls are especially vulnerable to violence, coercion, and
abuse. . .
Constitutional Defense
These violations cannot be excused in the name of
religious freedom. Leaders of polygamous groups and several public
officials have claimed that religious freedom protects the right to
practice polygamy. They argue that government action against
polygamy-related abuses amounts to religious persecution. But religious
practices that violate the human rights of others are not permitted by
international law, which stipulates that religious practices can be
restricted when necessary to protect the rights and freedoms of others.
Nor does the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
protect religious practices that cause harm to others. The harm associated
with polygamy-related abuses puts these practices beyond the scope of
religious freedom under the Constitution, including: the physical and
mental harm caused by violence and abuse; the harmful effects of child
marriage on a girl's health, educational opportunity and psychosocial
development; and the harmful emotional and psychological consequences of
isolation within communities that instill a belief in women's
subordination.
Officials in Utah, Arizona and the U.S. Federal
Government have allowed those responsible for polygamy-related abuses to
escape justice, with few exceptions.
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