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Summary Excerpts:
The report traces the trends in the
development of the international normative framework on violence against women
in relation to culture that culminated in the recognition of the primacy of
women's right to live a life free of gender-based violence over any cultural
considerations. The report critically examines how cultural discourses are
created, reproduced and instrumentalized to challenge this primacy and the
validity of the principle of gender equality and women's human rights in
general.
Building on the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, women's movements appropriated the universally
agreed language of human rights and transformed the international human rights
framework to address their concerns. Thanks to the common struggles of women of
diverse cultures and backgrounds, a well-established gender equality and
women's rights regime has evolved within the United Nations, reflecting a
universalizing culture from within.
These norms establish the primacy of
women's right to live a life free of gender-based violence and provide that
States cannot invoke any cultural discourses, including notions of custom,
tradition or religion, to justify or condone any act of violence. This also
means that they may not deny, trivialize or otherwise play down the harm caused
by such violence by referring to these notions. Instead, States are expressly
required to condemn such violence, which entails denouncing any cultural
discourse put forward to justify it.
In order to successfully uphold
universally agreed values, in particular the principle that no custom,
tradition or religious consideration can be invoked to justify violence against
women, the report identifies the myths around cultural discourses and outlines
general guidelines for an effective strategy to counter culture-based
discourses, which constitute one of the major obstacles to the implementation
of women's rights.
27. The Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, adopted by the UN
General Assembly, addresses linkages between culture and gender discrimination,
requiring States not only to take all appropriate measures, including legislation,
to modify or abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices which
constitute discrimination against women, but also stipulates that States
"shall take all appropriate measures to modify the social and cultural
patterns of conduct of men and women" that are linked to inequality
between the sexes and gender stereotypes.
36. The UN Human Rights Committee
has stated that the minority cultural rights articulated in Article 27 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, do not authorize any
State, group or person to violate the right to the equal enjoyment by women of
any Covenant rights. Instead, States are asked to report on measures taken to
discharge their responsibilities in relation to cultural or religious practices
within minority communities that affect the rights of women.
63. Armed conflict, occupation, the
war against terror and militarist cultures often reinforce dominant cultural
paradigms that discriminate against women....
64. Similar dynamics are often
observed in immigrant, minority or indigenous communities that very often
experience ethnic or religious discrimination.
65. Militarization also transforms
culture, introducing socially accepted norms of violence. Women are very often
specifically affected by these developments.
66. Concern must also be expressed
about failing and failed States: where the rule of force has fully replaced the
rule of law, the worst "cultural" forms of violence against women
tend to occur.....
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ADVANCE EDITED VERSION |
Distr. GENERAL A/HRC/4/34 17 January
2007 Original: ENGLISH |
HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
Fourth session
Item 2 on the provisional agenda
REPORT OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
ITS
CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES, YAKIN ERTURK
INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN CULTURE
AND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
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