A/HRC/20/16 the situation of human rights defenders highlights the killings of several women human rights defenders and the gravity of the violence, persecution and sexual torture in these murders.81 54. In Afghanistan, women‘s rights defenders continue to be regularly threatened and intimidated, and high-profile women, mainly political activists, have been assassinated, and their killers have not been brought to justice. 82 The Taliban‘s interpretation of sharia law is used to justify harsher punishments for women seen to be mixing with men outside their immediate families.83 A common means of intimidation and control of local communities, mainly women, is the use of night letters. These are threatening letters, usually handdelivered, or pasted onto a door or in a mosque, by insurgent groups. The content of these letters varies, but the main message is a threat of harm to women and girls (or their parents) if they go to school or to work, leave their homes, speak to non-family men, or call radio stations with music requests.84 55. In the 45-year-old civil war in Colombia, women community leaders and women fighting for their rights are the main targets of gender-related killings.85 These women are especially vulnerable if they promote land rights 86 and the rights of the most marginalized groups, such as indigenous people, ethnic and religious minorities, trade unionists, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals. 87 The Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions has confirmed that defenders of women‘s rights are significant targets of unlawful killings by both Colombian State forces and illegal armed groups.88 The gender-specific intimidation of women defenders includes the targeting of their children and families, as a way to manipulate their roles as mothers, thereby exerting additional pressure on them to stop their human rights work. 5. Dowry-related killings of women 56. In some South Asian countries, a widespread practice is that of dowry-related murders. This term covers the deaths of young brides who are murdered, or driven to suicide by continuous harassment and torture perpetrated by the groom‘s family in an effort to extort dowry payment or an increased dowry of cash or goods. The most common manifestation of this practice is the burning of the bride. These incidents are often presented as, and accepted to be, accidents, such as death as a result of an ―exploding stove‖.89 57. Dowry-related violence is embedded in religious and cultural traditions of the South Asian region.90 The practice has permeated all communities. Pakistan enacted an anti81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 14 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, ―Mission to Colombia‖. 4 March 2010, A/HRC/13/22/Add.3. Human Rights Watch, Country Summary: Afghanistan. January 2011. Report ―Harmful Traditional Practices and Implementation of the Law on Elimination of Violence against Women in Afghanistan‖. United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Kabul, and Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva. 9 December 2010. Ibid. Supra Note 81 at para. 31. Colombia Human Rights Network, Urgent Action Appeal (May 3, 2002), available at: http://colhrnet.igc.org/newitems/may02/ai_urgent_appeal_3may02.htm. Human Rights First. Report to the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, on its Consideration of the Combined Fifth and Sixth Periodic Reports by the Government of Colombia. Thirty-seventh Session 2007. A/HRC/14/24/Add.2, at para 74, Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Mission to Colombia. 31 March 2010. BBC online network, ―World: South Asia Bride burning 'kills hundreds'‖, in BBC News, 27 August 1999 (accessed 5 September 2011). Flavia Agnes, ―Gender Based Killings—A South Asian Perspective‖, Paper prepared for Expert Group Meeting, New York, October 12, 2011, p. 7.