Nov 3, 2019 | News
Bangkok, Thailand – From 1 to 2 November 2019, ICJ in collaboration with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, hosted a consultation on gender and the right to freedom of religion or belief with the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Dr. Ahmed Shaheed.
The primary objective of the consultation was to provide a forum for human rights defenders, particularly women and human rights defenders belonging to sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) minorities to share their perspectives on laws, practices and anti-rights strategies based on religion or belief that discriminate against women and SOGI groups and individuals in Asia. The consultation was attended by at least fifty-two (52) human rights defenders from all over Asia.
Emerlynne Gil, ICJ’s Senior International Legal Adviser, in her opening address, emphasized that gender equality and the right to freedom of religion or belief should not be viewed as inimical to each other. She said, “Women and individuals belonging to sexual orientation and gender identity minorities should also be able to being to a faith or religion of their choice, or religion into which they are born and they should continue to belong to the religion or belief without being discriminated against by the faith or religious community.”
The consultation included discussions on the domestic contexts and legal frameworks in relation to freedom of religion and the rights of women and SOGIESC minorities, including in relation to the right to health. The participants considered challenges faced by women and SOGIESEC minorities when religious leaders act as justice actors were also discussed. The consultation, while highlighting the good practices in advancing the rights of women and SOGIESC minorities, also explored existing challenges and tensions in respect of achieving gender equality.
At the conclusion of the consultation, Dr. Shaheed noted the diversity of the participants in the room, who came from all over Asia. He emphasized that “in order to engage more effectively and strategically, it is imperative that we improve our literacy in relation to the human rights framework and of religion in order to better understand its intersectionality.”
Contact
Sushmitha Thayanandan, National Legal Advisor, Sri Lanka (ICJ) e: sushmitha.thayanandan(a)icj.org
Oct 20, 2019 | Advocacy, News
From 18 and 19 October 2019, the ICJ, in collaboration with UN Women and the Federal Court of Malaysia, convened the 2019 Southeast Asia Regional Judicial Dialogue in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The judges from Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, and Timor-Leste discussed how to apply the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and other international legal instruments in their work at the domestic level to eliminate the negative impact of stereotyping and gender bias in the judiciary.
“We need to ensure that CEDAW and international human rights obligations are fully applied by national authorities, and not just taken as aspiration or long-term goal,” said Frederick Rawski, ICJ Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific.
“These standards need to have the force of law and made real, in workplace and in domestic settings, to ensure that women are free from violence and that there is access to justice when violence does occur.”
The judicial dialogue was opened by Malaysia’s first female Chief Justice, The Right Honourable Tan Sri Tengku Maimun binti Tuan Mat. The Chief Justice emphasized during her keynote speech the need for regular capacity strengthening initiatives for judges to be aware of gender-related issues. She emphasized further that “Judicial stereotyping can undermine the ability of women to exercise and enforce other rights guaranteed by law.”
This message was echoed by Carla Silbert of UN Women who said: “We see that women are often impacted disproportionately and thus judges should uphold women’s rights as human rights. It is a crucial role for the court to deliver justice with gender sensitivity.”
ICJ Commissioner Dato Ambiga Sreenavasan and the Ambassador of Sweden to Malaysia, Dag Juhlin-Dannfelt addressed the ongoing reforms in Malaysia and gender equality.
“Malaysia has its first female Chief Justice and has shown a remarkable growth of female leaders in influential positions. However, the participation of women in the labor workforce is still very low and it remains a challenge for us,” said Dato Ambiga Sreenavasan, Commissioner of the ICJ.
“The drive for democracy is to support and strengthen gender equality and the rule of law,” said Ambassador Dag Juhlin-Dannfelt. “ICJ’s Bangkok General Guidance for Judges on Applying a Gender Perspective in Southeast Asia is an important tool to address gender equality in judiciary.”
The dialogue included discussion on the topics of equality & non-discrimination, access to justice under international human rights law, gender stereotyping and gender discriminatory practices in cases involving women who are victims of trafficking.
Many participating judges said that they would be applying in their judicial work the tools introduced to them in the dialogue, including the Bangkok General Guidance. These could be used in decision-making, assessing evidence presented before them, and handling witnesses in their courts. Some also said that they plan to disseminate the information and tools to their colleagues in the judiciary.
Contact
Boram Jang, International Legal Adviser, Asia & the Pacific Programme, e: boram.jang(a)icj.org
Resources:
To access pictures from the event, click here.
Sep 25, 2019 | News
The Moroccan authorities should immediately and unconditionally release Moroccan journalist Hajar Raissouni and drop all charges against her, says the ICJ.
She was arrested on 31 August 2019, and has been detained since then on charges relating to “extra-marital sexual relations” and, purportedly, having consented to an “illegal abortion”.
Alongside Raissouni, the Moroccan authorities arrested and detained a medical doctor and two medical staff of the clinic where she had undergone medical treatment, and her fiancé. They too should be immediately and unconditionally released and have all charges against them dropped.
Raissouni is a journalist working for the independent daily newspaper Akhbar al-Yaoum. On 31 August, Raissouni and her fiancé were stopped in Rabat as they left the clinic where, according to her lawyers, she had been undergoing treatment for internal bleeding.
Plainclothes police officers questioned the couple about the medical treatment she had been receiving, and accused the journalist of having had an abortion.
After her arrest, Raissouni was forcibly subjected to a vaginal examination. She was then charged with “having an extramarital relationship” and with “consenting to have an illegal abortion”.
“Ms Raissouni’s rights to privacy, to bodily integrity and to be free from torture and other ill-treatment, as well as her rights to liberty and security of person, including her freedom from arbitrary detention, and her right to sexual and reproductive health, have been violated by the very same authorities that are supposed to respect and protect them,” said Said Benarbia, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).
“She and others detained in connection with this case must be immediately and unconditionally released, the charges against them must be dropped, and their right to an effective remedy, including reparation must be ensured,” he added.
Raissouni, who was questioned after her arrest about her work as a journalist, recently covered mass demonstrations in the Rif region in the North of Morocco, where the protests by the local population were met with police repression.
This raises legitimate concerns over the political nature of the charges and prosecution against her.
On 5 September, the Rabat prosecutor’s office issued a public statement revealing that the results of the so-called medical examination to which Raissouni had been subjected purportedly indicated that she had undergone an abortion. The prosecutor also rejected all accusation that the charges against her were motivated by Raissouni’s work as a journalist.
On 23 September, Raissouni and the other accused, who remain in custody after their request for provisional release was rejected, appeared before the First Instance Tribunal of Rabat where they denied all charges.
Background
In Morocco, abortion is only allowed “if necessary to protect the mother’s health” (article 453 of the Penal Code) and is otherwise publishable with up to two years’ imprisonment and a fine (article 454). Consensual sex out of wedlock is also a criminal offence under article 490 of the Penal Code, punishable with up to one year’s imprisonment. These provisions are not consistent with Morocco’s obligations under international human rights law obligations, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Morocco is a State party.
In its 2019 report Obstacles to Women’s and Girls’ Access to Justice for Gender-based Violence in Morocco, the ICJ urged the Moroccan authorities to amend these provisions in order to recognize one’s right to sexual autonomy, among others, and to facilitate access to safe and legal abortion.
Download
Morocco-Abortion-News-web stories-2019-ARA (full story in Arabic, PDF)
Sep 18, 2019
La CIJ a publié son rapport annuel 2018 (disponible uniquement en anglais), qui offre un résumé concis du travail effectué par la CIJ au cours de l’année écoulée.
Le rapport peut être télécharger ici au format PDF: Universal-ICJ Annual Report 2018-Publications-Reports-Annual Report-2019-ENG
Sep 10, 2019 | News
ICJ expressed concern over the decision given on 27 August 2019 by the Malaysian High Court that a fatwa issued against the women’s organization, Sisters in Islam, should be referred to the Syariah Court.
The High Court used as a basis Article 121 (1A) of the Federal Constitution, which states that secular courts do not have jurisdiction over matters pertaining to Islam.
The ICJ called on the Malaysian authorities to ensure that custom, tradition, and religion should not be used as a justification to undermine human rights, including women’s human rights.
In 2014, the Selangor Fatwa Council issued a fatwa declaring the Sisters in Islam a “deviant organization.” For many years, Sisters in Islam has been promoting more egalitarian interpretations of Islamic laws with the aim of ending discrimination against women and achieving equality in the Muslim family.
“For women to fully exercise their religious freedom, they must be able to retain or adopt the religion of their choice, and they must be able to continue belonging to this religion without being discriminated against within the religion,” said Emerlynne Gil, ICJ’s Senior International Legal Adviser.
The ICJ stressed that under international law, States have an obligation to protect people who are prevented from exercising their religious freedom by private actors, such as their own religious communities.
“The Malaysian government, including the judiciary, has the obligation to protect groups like Sisters in Islam when they face persecution from within their religious communities for propounding alternative views about their religion,” said Emerlynne Gil.
Furthermore, the ICJ had previously underscored in a 2019 briefing paper on the challenges to Freedom of Religion or Belief in Malaysia, the tensions emerging from jurisdictional disputes between civil courts, which apply federal and state laws, and Syariah courts, which apply Islamic laws.
In 2018, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, in reviewing the performance of Malaysia, voiced its own concern over “the existence of a parallel legal system of civil law and multiple versions of Syariah law, which have not been harmonized in accordance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).” The CEDAW Committee concluded that this “leads to a gap in the protection of women against discrimination, including on the basis of their religion.
Contact:
Emerlynne Gil, Senior International Legal Advisor, ICJ, e: emerlynne.gil(a)icj.org
