WUNRN
WOMEN HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS UN
RESOLUTION PASSED DESPITE BACKLASH
By Agence France-Presse - 11/28/13
A special event was held commemorating
the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, 25
November 2013, at United Nations,
UNITED NATIONS – A UN General Assembly committee
has agreed a landmark first resolution on women's rights defenders such as
Malala Yousafzai, despite a hard fought campaign by an alliance including the
A Norwegian-led coalition, which has prepared the resolution for months, had to delete language that condemned "all forms of violence against women" to get the text passed by consensus late Wednesday, November 27.
African nations, the
The campaign for women's rights defenders has been given a huge boost in recent months by the likes of Malala, the Pakistani teenager shot in the head by the Taliban for her battle for girls' education, and Denis Mukwege, the Democratic Republic of Congo doctor briefly forced into exile for his work helping rape victims. Both had been named as Nobel Peace Prize candidates this year.
The resolution calls on all states to publicly condemn violence against women human rights defenders, amend legislation that hinders them and give activists free access to UN bodies.
"The international community has sent a clear message. It's unacceptable to criminalize, stigmatize or curtail women's human rights defenders," said Geir Sjoberg, the Norwegian government's lead negotiator on the resolution.
He added that the key aim now would be to make sure governments are held to commitments made in the text.
"There is a great mismatch between realities for brave women on the ground and what was agreed today. The real work starts now," Sjoberg added.
Fraught negotiations were held over the text.
African countries had insisted on
highlighting respect for customs and traditions.
In the end
African nations in turn withdrew a proposed amendment which said human rights defenders had to fall in line with "local situations," diplomats said.
More than 30 European countries, including
The
Rights groups said the UN committee should have stood firm against the changes.
Women human rights defenders often "challenge traditional religious and cultural values and practices which subordinate, stigmatize or restrict women" when they take up gender and sexual rights, said Eleanor Openshaw of the International Service for Human Rights.
Women Nobel Prize winners and the Elders,
a group of former leading statesmen including former US president Jimmy Carter
and UN secretary general Kofi Anan had all spoken up for the resolution