During the latest, 46th session of the HRC, GIN intervened in 3 interactive dialogues of 3 different UN Special Rapporteurs. 3 members of GIN were able to speak during sessions regarding :
– Freedom of Religion or Belief;
– Cultural Rights;
– Minority Issues.
For the interactive dialogue of the Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights, our board member Dillon Mohamed discussed the impact of COVID-19 on the most vulnerable communities around the world, including in the Caribbean.
« We have observed in various national and regional contexts, the dominance of religious majorities over religious minorities including indigenous religions, who have not had the scope to practise their faith due to some religious activities being banned especially on Sundays. This dominance is usually led by leaders of religious majorities using their influence on national leaders to implement regulations and policies that would directly or indirectly put religious minorities at a disadvantage. »
The link to the statement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMr4b2dJrVM
During the interactive dialogue on freedom of religion or belief, our partner from TGEU, Anwar Ogrm, from Brazil, from France, presented some of the main finding from our report to the Special Rapporteur in 2020:
« Over the past decades in France, the image of and policies towards Muslims have deteriorated. This is a trend which has been observed in many countries around the world and which, in France, results in an escalating scenario of discriminatory legislation and practices feeding hate speech, and attacks against Muslims. The latest attack to date: the so-called “Islamist Separatism” bill targetting Muslim people and Muslim-led associations. LGBT Muslims find themselves caught at the intersection of the violence of French authorities and society, on one hand, and rejection by part of their own threatened minority communities on the other hand. »
The link to the statement: hhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVPWejOc_Xw
For the interactive dialogue on minority issues, our Board member Amir Mukambetov, spoke of the situation for LGBTI+ communities in his own country, Kyrgyzstan:
« The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Concluding observations on the combined eighth to tenth periodic reports of Kyrgyzstan says:
“Despite the steps taken by the State party to combat discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, the Committee is concerned that LGBT individuals belonging to ethnic minorities are subjected to multiple forms of discrimination, and to a range of human rights violations, by State and non-State actors, often acting with impunity (…) Further, according to the data of LGBT organizations in the country, conversion practices remain quite frequent, especially among families of representatives of ethnic Muslim minorities. We urge to ban both religious and medical conversion practices in the country at the legislative level. »
The link to the statement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV6IvTxbEnM
