Our advocacy
Choisir la cause des femmes organise au Parlement européen à Bruxelles, ce 8 mars, une rencontre sur le Meilleur de l’Europe pour les femmes avec des féministes rencontrées lors de son tour européen, des parlementaires et le commissaire européen à l’emploi et aux affaires sociales.
Avec Marta Lempart Tonja Jerele Lynn Ruane Karima Delli Maria Noichl, SPD-Europaabgeordnete, Biedrība Papardes zieds Les Brave sisters #hrabrasestra de Croatie, Ogólnopolski Strajk Kobiet Coordination française pour le Lobby Européen des Femmes Le Planning Familial Assemblée des Femmes Leïla Chaibi Véronique Séhier Hanane Rebiha Manon Kerivel Violaine Lucas Maria Cornaz Bassoli Avortement : les femmes décident European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual & Reproductive Rights
Brave Sisters were part of the course “Gender, sexuality, identities – from oppression to equality“, which is part of the regular study program at the Department of Cultural Studies of the Faculty of Philosophy in Rijeka (25.11.2022.)
President Nada Peratović introduced the Brave Sisters at the Sceptics in Pub, Zagreb, Croatia (17.09.2022.)
À l’heure où le droit des femmes à disposer de leur corps est plus que jamais menacé, comme en témoigne le recul historique de juin dernier aux Etats-Unis, comment préserver l’accès légal à l’IVG en Europe ? Nora Hamadi en débat dans ce nouveau numéro de “27”.
Comment réduire les inégalités sociales et territoriales qui entravent le droit à l’avortement ? Attaquer ce droit, n’est-ce pas remettre en question la notion même de démocratie ? Pour répondre à ces questions, trois invitées : Ghada Hatem est gynécologue-obstétricienne et fondatrice de la Maison des Femmes à Saint Denis, en région parisienne. Elle pilote ce centre médico-social qui accompagne des victimes de violences. Andrea Dibben, anciennement opposée à l’avortement, et devenue mère à 17 ans, a changé de position et est devenue une figure de la lutte pour les droits des femmes à Malte, un pays ou l’IVG reste interdit. Et Leah Hoctor, directrice régionale pour l’Europe au sein de l’ONG Center for Reproductive Rights, spécialiste des politiques publiques européennes et du plaidoyer en matière d’avortement.
Le reportage nous emmène en Pologne, sur les pas de la première activiste à être poursuivie en justice pour avoir aidé des femmes à avorter, une démarche illégale depuis janvier 2021.
Enfin, dans le grand entretien, Nora Hamadi reçoit la philosophe de la pensée féministe Geneviève Fraisse, et l’interroge sur le corps des femmes, source d’instrumentalisation politique, espace d’émancipation comme de domination.
Présentation: Nora Hamadi
Pays: France
Année: 2021
Abortion deleted from UK Government-organised international human rights statement
July 19th, 2022
A UK Government-organised multinational statement committing to the fundamental rights of women and girls has been amended to remove references to ‘sexual and reproductive health and rights’ and ‘bodily autonomy’. The statement was issued by the UK as part of an intergovernmental conference it hosted in London on 5-6 July. A total of 22 countries signed the joint statement before it was amended. One – anti-abortion Malta – has first signed since. Humanists UK has expressed serious alarm at the changes. It is asking the UK Government for a full explanation, and if possible, a reversal.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) has also expressed his dismay at the changes, saying that ‘Claims that FoRB can be invoked to deny women the enjoyment of their sexual and reproductive health rights… must be rejected as representing intolerant and patriarchal attitudes’. He says FoRB in fact guarantees such rights.
The original statement was issued as part of the 2022 International Ministerial Conference on FoRB. It gave a commitment to abolishing discriminatory laws that ‘restrict women’s and girls’ full and equal enjoyment of all human rights, including sexual and reproductive health and rights, bodily autonomy’. It also said it would ‘support and build capacities of local religious and belief leaders to… ensure access to sexual and reproductive health and rights’.
However, it has now been revised, removing all references to ‘sexual and reproductive rights’ and ‘bodily autonomy’.
Alongside this change, the 22 signatory countries have reduced to six. 17 have departed (and are presumably being asked to sign up to the new wording). The only country added since the change is Malta. In Malta there is an absolute ban on abortion in all circumstances, including rape, incest, and fatal foetal abnormalities.
Humanists UK Chief Executive Andrew Copson said:
‘The headline of this summit was freedom of belief for everyone, everywhere and the common government statement on gender made it clear that this was a real aspiration. Now that is in doubt. If a woman is not free in the most intimate conscientious choice that could face her, then how is she free?
‘The removal of support for conscientious freedom in relation to one’s own body is only the latest in concerningly frequent attempts by some to use freedom of belief as a weapon rather than a shield. They want to use their religious belief to infringe the rights of others – but that is not what the human right to freedom of religion or belief means.
‘We will be raising these changes with the UK Government as a matter of urgency, asking for a full explanation and a reversal.’
Professor Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, commented:
‘Claims that freedom of religion or belief can be invoked to deny women and girls the exercise and enjoyment of their sexual and reproductive health rights have no foundation in human rights. Rather, such claims must be rejected as representing intolerant and patriarchal attitudes that deny the equal rights of men and women to freedom of religion or belief. Such claims especially ignore that freedom of religion or belief also guarantees to women the right to bodily autonomy and conscientious choice.’
The stated intention of the London 2022 International Ministerial Conference on Freedom of Religion or Belief was bringing international governments, parliamentarians, faith and belief representatives, and civil society together to increase global action on freedom of religion or belief for all. Speakers included Humanists UK’s Chief Executive Andrew Copson, in his capacity as President of Humanists International. He spoke at the opening session alongside the Foreign Secretary, Archbishop of Canterbury, Chief Rabbi, and global Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh leaders.
Addressing the delegation of international governments, Mr Copson pointedly rejected so-called ‘religious freedom’ in favour of ‘freedom of religion or belief’, highlighting that the latter importantly includes the non-religious and ‘those with whose choices, values, and beliefs we may be in profound disagreement’. He referred to abortion as a freedom of belief matter in his comments:
‘If FoRB is to be for everyone everywhere, we must all resist the temptation to impose our beliefs on others. This is how so many violations of FoRB originate. That is true of the Christian in China whose atheist government prevents her from congregating freely as her conscience leads her and of the non-religious woman in the West when Christians in her Government block her conscientious choice of an abortion or any other practice. Illiberal totalitarianism, whether atheist, Christian, Islamic: many forces limit freedom of religion or belief today. All of us are in the minority somewhere and all of us have brothers and sisters subject somewhere to the vilest of persecution.’
Brave Sister at the discussion “Yesterday, today, woman! The right to abortion” at the Tolerance Festival – JFF Zagreb in Bundek (2.7.2022)
Humanists International and its Croatian Member, Center for Civil Courage, have jointly criticized the Croatian government’s failure to uphold women’s reproductive rights (watch the video at 33’50”), during the adoption of a report on Croatia’s human rights record, concluding the Universal Periodic Review process, at the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council (16th March 2021).
The Croatian government defended its position by arguing that “conscientious objectors” are legally required to refer patients to a medical professional willing to perform the procedure. Peratovic pointed out in response, however, that referrals are “unregulated” in practice. In discharging their referral duty, hospitals do not take into account the disproportionate economic and psychological burden placed on women who are forced to travel long distances to access abortion services.
Ideological pressure also arises from the powerful anti-abortion movement in Croatia, which engages in online and offline harassment and disinformation campaigns aiming “to instill fear and to mislead women about their rights.”
Rebecca Gomperts (Women on Web) and Nada Peratović (04.12.2020)
