ORAL STATEMENT
Humanists International
56th session of the UN Human Rights Council (18 June –12 July 2024)
ID with the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
Mr President,
We thank the Working Group for its ongoing work and important report on the escalating backlash against gender equality, which as the report points out “is intensifying and has reached extreme proportions in certain countries.”[1]
As observed in the report, religion and culture have been used by some governments to challenge the universality of human rights and to undermine gender equality. Perhaps the most egregious example of this is regimes of gender apartheid. We support the call for gender apartheid to be recognised as a crime against humanity.[2]
Meanwhile, in states where laws more effectively uphold gender equality, we see non-state actors using language around ‘religious liberty’ and conscience, child protection and so-called parental rights, to subvert gender equality and reproductive health and rights.
As the report notes, the gender backlash destabilizes and undermines the foundation of the human rights system by denying equal rights to half of the world’s population; but that system is also destabilized by coordinated challenges to the institutions designed to uphold it. As part of this gender-backlash, the multilateral institutions seeking to address gender inequality and to hold states to account are also targets. Their legitimacy has been questioned and capacity to function undermined and disrupted through misrepresentation and disinformation campaigns,[3] and progress on gender equality is being blocked.[4]
Accordingly, we wondered whether the Working Group has any reflections or recommendations in terms of these specific challenges to multilateral institutions such as the UN and elsewhere?
Thank you.
Endnotes
[1] A/HRC/56/51, p1.
[2] A/HRC/56/51, p20; https://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2023/07/experts-taliban-treatment-women-may-be-gender-apartheid; https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/09/irans-proposed-hijab-law-could-amount-gender-apartheid-un-experts
[3] E.g.: Family Watch International at the The African Bar Association Conference 2022, on Vimeo, https://vimeo.com/738021132/0e3816b69a?inf_contact_key=1d26ee20d36271debb619f20bd2 492567e470d92b8b 75168d98a0b8c ac0e9c09; Family Watch International (2009), Family Policy Brief on The International Guidelines on Sexuality Education: Comprehensive Sexuality Education Defined, https://familywatch.org/fwi/documents/fwipolicybriefunesco2ndREVISION.pdf; Center for Family and Human Rights (September 2022) “Evidence of Systemic and Unlawful Promotion of Comprehensive Sexuality Education by UN Secretariat, Agencies, and other Entities,” https://c-fam.org/briefing_paper/evidence-of-systemic-and-unlawful-promotion-of-comprehensive-sexuality-education-by-un-secretariat-agencies-and-other-entities/; https://eclj.org/geopolitics/un/-corruption-silencieuse–a-lonu–le-nouveau-rapport-de-leclj, https://www.valeursactuelles.com/politique/comment-george-soros-etend-son-influence-sur-les-nations-unies, https://eclj.org/geopolitics/echr/limpartialite-de-la-cedh–presentation-du-rapport, https://www.ejiltalk.org/the-scandal-of-foundation-support-for-un-human-rights-special-procedures/
[4] https://www.ipas.org/resource/mission-creep-expanding-attacks-on-gender-threaten-the-united-nations/?utm_source=Eye+on+the+Rights&utm_campaign=4b4861a987-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_05_10_01_23_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-ce66757f0f-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D&mc_cid=4b4861a987&mc_eid=d6d75092c4
'Escalating backlash against gender equality worlwide', Humanists International