Annual discussion on the integration of a gender perspective throughout the work of the Human Rights Council and that of its mechanisms
Theme: Strengthening gender perspectives in transitional justice processes
Tuesday 30 September
Thank you, President,
Action Canada makes this statement on behalf of the Sexual Rights Initiative.
We welcome the recognition from this Council that transitional justice processes do not adequately or consistently address the needs, rights and experiences of women and girls. These processes often reduce women and girls to their perceived vulnerabilities and tokenise their participation in decision-making processes. This ends up recreating the same conditions and frameworks that enable gross human rights violations in the first place, deny women and girls their full humanity, and does not serve the transformative goals of transitional justice.
If the Council is truly serious in its objectives to meaningfully integrate a gender perspective into transitional justice processes, States must start their processes with gendered analyses at the centre, not as an add-in later. As 47 Independent UN Experts recently stated, gendered analyses are “essential for exposing power disparities, structural inequalities and discriminatory practices embedded in laws, institutions and social norms. ” The Council and States must move beyond a simplistic and biological categorisation of women and girls and towards a deeper understanding and visibility of the multiple and intersecting ways women, girls and gender diverse people are systemically excluded from transitional justice processes. There can be no transitional justice without gender justice.
Thank you.