ORAL STATEMENT
Humanists International
UN Human Rights Council, 57th session (9 September –11 October 2024)
Annual discussion on the integration of a gender perspective
Speaker: Tania Giacomuzzi Mota
Mr President,
We thank the Panel for their insights on this important topic, and we welcome the continuation of this valuable annual discussion. The importance of including a gender perspective throughout the work of the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms is vital to uncover specific human rights abuses and to help the international community better understand and prevent them.
One driver of human rights abuses against women, and the subsequent lack of self-reporting, is the instrumentalization of the right to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB). As outlined by the previous Special Rapporteur on FoRB: traditional, historical, religious or cultural attitudes must not be used to justify violations of human rights.[1]
Unfortunately, such attitudes engender real-world barriers to the implementation of a gender perspective into human rights investigations. In our own work with humanists-at-risk, we see the lack of self-reporting of abuses as a major barrier.
Women are less likely to reach out to report abuses. Those who do contact us report the control they are subjected to in the home as a major risk. For them, reaching out for help is dangerous. They often lack independent access to the internet, they face stigma and taboo depending on the nature of the abuse, and face intersecting abuses if they try to exercise their right to FoRB.
The instrumentalization of FoRB in the name of tradition and religion must be reckoned with as a barrier in human rights investigations, and we urge those teams conducting such investigations to be mindful of the specific nature of the right to FoRB, and what it does and does not include.
Finally, we ask the Panel, how can we work to ensure victims of human rights abuses feel supported to speak out in spite of the barriers they face on account of traditional, historical, religious or cultural attitudes?
Thank you.
[1] A/HRC/43/48, Para 76(a)
'Gender and human rights investigations', Humanists International