WORKING PAPER FOR GENEVA-BASED
NGO COMMITTEE ON FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR
BELIEF
AND NGO COMMITTEE ON THE STATUS OF
WOMEN
Unofficial Summary in English of E/CN.4/2002/73/Add.2, 5 April 2002
None of the following summary text should be attributed to the author
without checking the full French original
CIVIL AND
POLITICAL RIGHTS (RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE)
Report of the
Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief in accordance with
resolution 2001/42 of Commission on Human
Rights
Study on the Freedom of Religion or Belief and the Status
of Women
From the Viewpoint of Religion and
Traditions
TABLE OF CONTENTS
(giving paragraphs and pages of the full original document in French/English summary)
Introduction
A. An Attempt to Define Religion
B. Religion and Culture
C. The Universality of Women’s Rights and Cultural Specificities
I JURIDICAL ASPECTS OF THE STATUS OF WOMEN FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF RELIGION AND TRADITIONS
A. The inadequacy of general instruments with a universal character
1. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights:
the contribution of the Committee on Human Rights
2. Instruments related to slavery
B. The contribution of specific instruments
1. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women
2. The Convention on the Rights of the Child
3. Other texts, instruments and specific mechanisms
C. Regional Experiences
1. The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of Children
2. The draft protocol to the African Charter on Human and
People’s Rights with regard to women’s rights in Africa
II FACTUAL ASPECTS OF THE STATUS OF WOMEN FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF RELIGION AND TRADITIONS
A. The persistence of cultural stereotypes prejudicial to women
1. Some general considerations
2. Preference for boys
3. Religious extremism
4. Prescriptions on clothing
B. Practices prejudicial to women’s health
1. Female genital mutilation
2. Traditional obstetric practices and food taboos
C. Forms of discrimination arising from the status of women in the family
1. Practices linked to marriage and divorce
2. Forms of discrimination related to nationality
3. The role of witness
4. Inheritance and independent management of property
D. Prejudices to the right to life
1. Infanticide
2. Cruelty to widows
3. Crimes of honour
E. Prejudices to Dignity
1. Prostitution and slavery-like practices
2. Rape and sexual abuse
F. Social Disqualification
1. Prejudice to the right to education
2. Prohibition from performing some functions
G. Forms of aggravated discrimination
III CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
A. Internal Measures
1. Prevention
2. Protection
B. International Measures
1. Prevention
2. Protection
C. Conclusion
Introduction
1. In many countries forms of discrimination against women are based on or attributed to religion and culture and may be tolerated or even legalized.
2. International human rights instruments almost all assume gender equality and proscribe discrimination. However, women’s rights to some individual freedoms such as freedom of religion or belief may not have received sufficient attention when set against the collective manifestations of such individual freedoms as those of religion or belief.
3. A basic and sensitive problem arises where the fundamental, universal rights of women are claimed by religious communities to be in conflict with what are seen as their religious obligations, which in turn are difficult to differentiate from the cultural or ethnic dimension.
4. The right to difference and cultural specificity implied by freedom of religion or belief is to some degree incompatible with universal rights, especially those of women, who are often the victims of a certain view of religious freedom, particularly in situations of conflict and identity crisis.
5. This study addresses these apparent contradictions by seeking to define religion, to see the relationship of religion to culture, and of universality to cultural specificities.
6. Religion, etymologically, can suggest common bonds of beliefs and practices which link the human, men and women, with the sacred.
7. Later definitions may include references to a “Supreme Being” but this is not required for claiming religion as a common human property.
8. While no complete or single definition exists, one may seek common characteristics, although the sacred, the magical and the profane may be intermingled.
9. Despite differences, many religions define women in terms of fidelity and fecundity and ascribe to them a secondary status.
10. Freedom of “religion” or “belief” in Article 18 of ICCPR is far-reaching and applies to theism, non-theism, and atheism, to ancient and to new manifestations, as well as to individuals and minorities. Sincerity, credibility and respect for public order are criteria for rights to protection.
11. Freedom to manifest one’s religion is a collective and individual right but this study will focus on collective aspects of worship and education.
12. Many ritual and customary manifestations of religion such as food or dress laws affect women, but some, such as genital mutilation, polygamy, discrimination for inheritance, “sacred prostitution”, preference for male children and attitudes of female inferiority, are a particular challenge to see how religion can and should influence peoples and nations.
B. Religion and Culture
13. Religions did not invent discrimination against women; it stems, world-wide in all ages, from social and cultural behaviour which men could not or would not change.
14. Distant civilizations, including ancient Greece with its predominantly male pantheon, did not esteem women who were often classified as wives or women of pleasure.
15. Monotheistic faiths were often patriarchal, permitted polygamy, divorce, stoning, etc. and saw women as impure, but they also regulated or forbade some forms of discrimination. Some current discriminatory measures were originally intended to emancipate women.
16. Religions can favour or block the emancipation which social and economic evolution bring. Religions may fail to resist patriarchal and oppressive trends; different social conditions affect women, despite a common religion, and different interpretations of religion are made.
17. Culture (comprising beliefs, art, customs, laws, skills and, in part, religion) motivates conscious or unconscious response to history and environment, values, constraints and fears.
18. There is no such thing as pure religion, for its practice is affected by human culture and history. A religion varies across different tribes, classes or sects; a region may be influenced by an ancient or a newly arrived religion. It can be hard to distinguish religion from tradition.
19. The condition of women can be greatly affected where there is a “state religion” or where religion is very influential. Extremist regimes can remove all women’s rights.
20. Custom and culture need not impose themselves; so some Muslim countries are tolerant about head covering or encourage monogamy. Some cultural practices like disinheritance or forced marriage contravene religious teachings. State reforms may have to defy local culture.
21. The wide variety of juridical situations across the same religion creates misunderstandings and tensions; much depends on levels of education, industrialization, etc.
22. Most history, including that of religions, is written from a male perspective and harmful traditions have survived in defiance of both religious and secular law.
23. The difficulty of changing traditions that affect women adversely is made worse by the support given by some women to those traditions.
24. It is hard to distinguish the roles of culture and religion; some industrialized societies retain a negative view and discriminatory practices towards women despite secularisation.
C. The Universality of Women’s Rights and Cultural Specificities
25. “Culture” can appear to obstruct modernity and the universality of women’s rights but traditions can preserve medicine that is beneficial to women’s health, can promote security in marriage, family unity, and respect for elders. Community values in Africa often protect children from prostitution.
26. The Vienna Conference underlined that women’s rights exemplify the necessary tension between identity and difference, between oneself and the other. We are the same but different.
27. Human rights are universal, not international. Racial, ethnic, religious or sexual differences allow for unity and diversity, equal dignity and differences of identity.
28. Differences in inheritance, family responsibilities, child-care, access to political or religious posts may not necessarily be felt as discriminatory when viewed as part of coherent family or social structures or religious requirements. Such justifications (even when women’s health or life are at risk) are hard to answer since sacred or irrational beliefs are at issue.
29. Women’s rights are incontestably part of fundamental and universal human rights and are inherent to human dignity. Cultural and religious specificities must give way if there is prejudice to women’s dignity. Dignity is the common denominator for all peoples.
30. Respect for the human person and equality between men and women take precedence over customs and traditions, whether religious or not. Here there is no room for compromise.
31. This does not reduce or relativize cultural specificities but cultural and religious pluralism can enrich the universality of women’s rights and be enriched by that universality.
32. Moral, ethical and also practical reasons support universality. While women in different places are subject to different laws (civil, religious, customary) either supporting or denying their rights, all women can come together in rational loyalty to the principle of dignity.
33. International law may challenge or affect domestic law without infringing sovereignty. Co-operation and co-ordination among nations and international organizations in the protection of women’s rights does not imply ideological or cultural domination.
34. The Vienna Declaration reaffirmed the universal rights of women and girls and addressed the possible contradictions between equal rights of individuals and intolerant or extremist application of religious or customary laws.
35. The Beijing Declaration affirmed that women’s rights are fundamental human rights, preclude any discrimination, and go beyond cultural and religious diversities.
36. The principle of equity is used by some states to undermine the principle of equality, for example in inheritance law. Equity is too ambiguous as a criterion and is a dangerous notion.
37. There is need for pragmatism, realism, and dynamic compromise in balancing the modern opportunities for technology and for advancement of human rights with respect for religious beliefs and cultural traditions.
38. Religion is impregnated with its historical and geographical development; religious practices vary, and religions bear some responsibility for those forms of discrimination which may essentially be caused by cultural conditions but can be reformed by religions; reformers, including states, must take a prospective role in emancipating women.
39. The aim is not to change religions or to hurt religious sentiments but to restore the reforming role of religions against patriarchal domination.
40. So one must look at juridical factors, at real experiences, and make recommendations.
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Note: Full Study is attached.
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