Women's rights

The arts and culture have the ability to bind and heal societies and the practitioners and practices should be protected and allowed to flourish, said Karima Bennoune. “Cultural and artistic expressions have a strong transformative power and can influence the societies we live in,” said Bennoune, who is the UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights. “This power can be used either to maintain division in society or to overcome it.” Bennoune recently presented her latest report on cultural rights to the UN General Assembly, followed by a discussion about the importance of cultural diversity and cultural rights with Nobel Laureate for literature Wole Soyinka on Facebook. This discussion reiterated the importance of engaged cultural and artistic practices, as highlighted in her previous report, which help shape more inclusive and peaceful societies by addressing social challenges such as exclusion and violence. As an example, Bennoune told about the NGO Free Women Write...

For Noorena Shams, the quest for excellence in her chosen sports has mirrored her quest to improve the perception and promote the strength of women and girls in her native Pakistan. “I have been a cyclist, a cricketer and a world-ranked squash player for my country, and I am very, very proud to be a human rights activist,” she said. Shams’ push to participate and excel in sports as well as advocate for human rights, has had her taking chances and using a bit of subterfuge to achieve her goals. When she was 11 years old, Shams would sneak outside her family compound in a remote village in Pakistan and ride around, hoping to improve her cycling technique. Her father eventually found out and rather than being angry with her, and he made sure she received training. She made her way to junior Olympics in 2008 as a cyclist. At 15, she wanted to play cricket and so disguised herself as a boy. For a year she was part of the Boys’ National Under-15 Cricket team, much of it as vice-cap...

Any investigation of human rights abuses and violations that does not include gender as one of the criteria risks being incomplete at best or biased at worse, said UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kate Gilmore. “Investigations that overlook the ways in which gender other identities and the associated social norms serve aggravate, falsely normalise hid an even excuse human rights impacts, cannot be accepted,” Gilmore told an audience during the annual discussion on the integration of a gender perspective throughout the work of the Human Rights Council. “Gender identity and status matters.” Wrongful gender stereotypes and assumptions can manifest as acceptable human rights violations and rob the survivors of their agency and testimony, leaving them voiceless and undocumented. Gender sensitive investigative methodologies refers to work that pay attention to the differences in experiences of both men and women, rather than as one monolithic group of conflict survivors...