THE
TANDEM PROJECT
UNITED NATIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS,
FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR BELIEF
Separation of Religion or Belief and State
RELIGION AND WOMEN
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Issue: Religion
or Belief and Women’s Human Rights
For:
United Nations, Governments,
Religions or Beliefs, Academia, NGOs, Media, Civil Society
Review: Religion and Women, Nicholas D. Kristof, New
York Times Op-Ed: January 10, 2010
Excerpts:
“Religions derive their power and
popularity in part from the ethical compass they offer. So why do so many
faiths help perpetrate something that most of us regard as profoundly
unethical: the oppression of women?
Women
are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths, creating an
environment in which violations against women are justified,” former President
Jimmy Carter noted in a speech last month to the Parliament of the World’s
Religions in Australia.
Mr.
Carter, who sees religion as one of the ‘basic causes of the violation of
women’s rights,’ is a member of The Elders, a small council of retired leaders
brought together by Nelsen Mandela. The Elders are focusing on the role of
religion in oppressing women, and they have issued a joint statement calling on
religious leaders to ‘change all discriminatory practices within their own
religions and traditions.
The
Elders are not attacking religion as such noted Mary Robinson, the former
president of Ireland and United Nations high commissioner for human rights. But
she added, ‘We all recognized that if there’s one overarching issue for women
it’s the way that religion can be manipulated to subjugate women.”
1981 UN Declaration:
Discrimination between human beings on grounds of religion
or belief constitutes an affront to human dignity and a disavowal of the
principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and shall be condemned as a
violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and enunciated in detail in the
International Covenants on Human Rights, and as an obstacle to friendly and
peaceful relations between nations.
UN Special Rapporteur on
Violence against Women, Its Causes and Consequences
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/women/rapporteur/
Attachments: Religion and Women; The Killing of Witches