The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 19/6 and focuses on the enjoyment of cultural rights by women on an equal basis with men.
The Special Rapporteur proposes to shift the paradigm from one that views culture as an obstacle to women’s rights to one that seeks to ensure equal enjoyment of cultural rights; such an approach also constitutes an important tool for the realization of all their human rights.
From 18 to 20 January 2012, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) held an International Expert Group Meeting at UN Headquarters entitled “Combating violence against indigenous women and girls: Article 22 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” This conference applied a human rights framework to the issue of gender‐based violence faced by indigenous women, while contextualizing its global manifestations in the context of States’ responsibilities under international human rights law, as articulated in Article 22.2 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP): “States shall take measures, in conjunction with indigenous peoples, to ensure that indigenous women and children enjoy the full protection and guarantees against all forms of violence and discrimination.”
UNICEF and UN Women are pleased to announce the launch of a new free electronic resource center on Equity, Gender Equality and Human Rights responsive evaluation available at http://www.mymande.org/.
Manfred Nowak, former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture
This statement was originally presented at the side-event “Acid burning attacks – victimization, survivors, support”, sponsored by Women’s UN Report Network, Worldwide Organization for Women and NGO Committee on the Status of Women- Geneva.
This is the first written report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Rashida Manjoo, to the General Assembly, pursuant to General Assembly resolution 65/187. The report provides an overview of the mandate’s work and main findings and the challenges it continues to encounter, and presents specific recommendations to address violence against women through a holistic framework based on States’ obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of women and girls.
This Shadow Report aims to draw attention to the discrimination and the human rights violations that women in Turkey face, within the framework of the Initial Review for Turkey under CESCR to take place in May 2011. The following evaluation and demands are based on the shadow report submitted to the U.N. CEDAW Committee in July 2010 by 20 NGOs and 6 NGO platforms.
Under the current Government’s second term (since 2007), there has been little progress in Turkey in terms of the necessary legal and institutional reforms for gender equality.
Contrary to modernist predictions that religion would retreat into a private zone of worship and practice, recent decades have seen religion become increasingly salient on the political stage worldwide. Does this matter? From the point of view of women’s rights and gender equality, much is at stake. UNRISD research shows that politicized religion impinges on women’s rights in problematic ways. The challenge to gender equality comes not just from fundamentalist agendas, but also from those who instrumentalize women’s rights for political ends.
14 June 2011 - GENEVA – Gender-biased sex selection reflects and fuels a culture of discrimination and violence, and must be addressed urgently by all segments of government and society as a matter of women’s human rights, five UN agencies have stressed.
This publication contains rich research findings concerning global trends and the prevalence of female genital mutilation/cutting and its linkages with maternal and newborn health. It describes changing patterns and practices, including medicalization, and analyzes the threat FGM/C poses to the achievement of Millennium Development Goals as well as its economic and health costs. It identifies important lessons and discusses in detail case studies as well as the application of theories as a basis for accelerating the abandonment process.
The publication “Women’s and Children’s Rights: Making the Connection,” a joint effort by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), makes a case for linking the human rights of women to those of children.
A Blueprint for UN Women outlines the views of 100 civil society organisations – working in 75 countries on women's human rights, gender equality and social justice – on the role UN Women should play.
The World’s Women 2010 is intended to contribute to the stocktaking being done to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the Beijing Conference. It addresses critical aspects of life: population, families, health, education, work, power and decision-making, violence against women, environment and poverty.
The General Assembly today adopted 52 resolutions and 6 decisions recommended to it by its Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), including one welcoming the establishment of “UN Women” and another that sets new standards governing the treatment of women prisoners.
On 24 and 25 November 2010 the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) organised an 'Expert workshop on the elimination of all forms of violence against women – challenges, good practices and opportunities'. The event was requested by Human Rights Council (the Council) Resolution 11/2 adopted in June 2009, aiming at accelerating the elimination of violence against women.
Farida Shaheed, Independent Expert in the field of Cultural Rights
Video: Concluding remarks by Farida Shaheed, Independent Expert on Cultural Rights, at the presentation of her first annual report to the UN Human Rights Council (March 2010)
In addition to the Bill of Rights, there are nine core international human rights treaties. Each of these treaties has established a committee of experts to monitor implementation of the treaty provisions by its States parties. Some of the treaties are supplemented by optional protocols dealing with specific concerns.
