Stellungnahme von unabhängigen Experten des OHCHR, 25.11.2016 (engl. Originalfassung)
Women who step up to defend human rights are facing worsening obstacles amid a global trend of fundamentalism and populism, a group of United Nations rights experts (Aldo Facio, Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice; Michel Forst, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; and Dubravka Simonovic, Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences) has warned.
“In the face of rising populism and fundamentalisms and deplorable setbacks on the women’s human rights agenda, we need more than ever to unite our forces to preserve the democratic space in which women human rights defenders represent an essential counter-power and a colossal force of action,” the experts said in a joint statement.
The experts paid tribute to the hundreds of thousands of women working for equality and women’s rights around the world.
“However, this participation has been limited by the discrimination which confronts women throughout the world. The very concept of feminism is too often misunderstood, denigrated and discredited, even by some in the human rights community.”
The experts highlighted a host of specific challenges faced by women rights defenders – including misogynistic attitudes, threats of sexual assault, travel bans, lack of protection and access to justice, imprisonment, killings, laws which violate their rights, gender-based defamation questioning their “femininity” or sexuality, and gender stereotyping which questions their engagement in public life instead of sticking to their caretaker role in the family.
Women’s organizations also struggle disproportionately with access to resources and political support, they added.
They urge all States to ratify and fully implement the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the milestone 2013 UN General Assembly resolution on protecting women human rights defenders", which requires Member States to take concrete measures to end gender discrimination.
Die vollständige Stellungnahme finden Sie hier.