Symposium on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Cultural Rights and Women:

Promoting a Gendered Perspective on Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion

*If you need a U.N. pass, please register here.

Program

Coffee: 9:45am - 10am (compliments of the EU DEL)

Opening Remarks: 10:00am - 10:30am

• 10:00am,Introductions and Objectives: Ms. Ani Zonneveld, Founder and President of Muslims for Progressive Values, Board Member of Alliance of Inclusive Muslims;

• 10:10am, Speaker: H.E. Ambassador Monique T.G. van Daalen, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Geneva and Peter Sørensen, Ambassador, Head of EU Delegation to the UN in Geneva;

• 10:20am: Keynote Speaker - H.E. Ambassador Walid Doudech, Permanent Representative of Tunisia.

Session 1:10:30am - 12pm

Transforming religious and cultural narratives to be just and equitable for women and girls through critical expression and religious freedom, potential impacts on women’s rights in the field of religion and belief, and potential consequences. Moderated by Mr. Ahmed Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief.

• 10:30am, Framing and Introductions: Mr. Ahmed Shaheed;

• 10:45am, Mr. Liviu Olteanu, Secretary General of the International Association for the Defense of Religious Liberty (AIDLR);

• 11:00am, Dr. Fawzia al Ashmawi, President of the European Forum for Muslim Woman;

• 11:15am, Ms. Liliana Religa, Communications and Promotions Coordinator at the Federation for Women and Family Planning;

• 11:30am - 12:00pm, Q&A (prompts below to facilitate discussion)

How do religious and cultural fundamentalisms inhibit the achievement of sustainable gender equality and women’s empowerment?

What are some the major obstacles in your own community regarding the transformation of religious and cultural narratives that negatively impact the rights of women and girls?

How can this discussion be brought and applied to local communities and contexts?

Lunch Served:12:00pm - 1:00 pm (compliments of the EU DEL)

Session 2:1:00 - 2:30 pm

Recognizing women’s and girls’ perspectives on religion, belief, and culture by highlighting gender equitable religious and cultural movements, and providing examples of instances in which religious and cultural practices or the actions of religious entities have had a positive impact on women’s rights. Moderated by Ms. Karima Benounne, Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights.

• 1:00pm, Framing and Introductions: Ms. Karima Benounne;

• Video by Catolicadas

• 1:15pm, Ms. Amel Grami, Professor at the Department of Arabic Studies, University of Manouba;

• 1:30pm, Ms. Fernanda San Martin, Member of Parliament of the Plurinational State of Bolivia;

• 1:45pm, Ms. Ani-Osman Zonneveld, Founder and President of Muslims for Progressive Values, Board Member of Alliance of Inclusive Muslims; concludes her presentation with a song.

• 2:00 - 2:30pm, Q&A (prompts below to facilitate discussion)

What strategies or partnerships do you think are necessary for you or your organization to promote understandings of religion and culture that are gender equitable and aligned with rights norms?

What roles do religious and cultural institutions and actors play in sustaining gender equality and women’s empowerment?

Closing Remarks, 2:30pm - 3:00pm

Coffee/tea reception for those who wish to continue the discussion, 3:00pm - 3:30pm

Directions:

I. Use the Pregny Gate security entrance (8-14, Avenue de la Paix)

II. Enter the building at door A17 (Last door of building A)

III. Go down the stairs IV. Go straight and find room XIV on your left hand.

In October 2017, Muslims for Progressive Values sponsored an event organized by the UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights that explicitly addressed the causal links between the global upsurge in fundamentalisms and extremisms and violations of the cultural rights of women. The Symposium will continue this series of discussions to further challenge the rights-diminishing instrumentalization of religion and culture while promoting human rights affirming, just, and equitable faith narratives.

Please RSVP for this free event. If you do not have U.N. accreditation, please register here. By RSVPing here you will also be notified of speaker updates, and in advance of the Symposium, we will be emailing attendees a set of questions, prompts to engage and involve attendees in the sessions.

Objectives:

I. Showcasing first-person accounts of how forms of fundamentalism are weaponized against women and girls;
II. Analyzing interplay between cultural, religious, and nationalistic narratives and purported patriarchal, and
misogynistic gender roles;
III. Promoting sound theological frameworks for gender equality and the empowerment of women;
IV. Normalizing a gender equitable interpretation of FoRB obligations.

Format and Methodology:
The Symposium will bring together in two panels actors from various backgrounds — human rights experts and advocates, grassroots women’s rights activists, faith-based organizations and feminist and religious scholars. Participants will seek to identify positive and reinforcing linkages between freedom of religion or belief, faith narratives and theology on the one hand, and international human rights standards relating to equality between men and women on the other hand, with a view to promoting women’s and girls’ unrestricted enjoyment of freedoms of thought, of conscience and belief, of opinion and expression, and to freely take part in cultural life.

Venue: Room XIV, Palais des Nations, Geneva

Organizers:
• UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief
• UN Special Rapporteur in the Field of Cultural Rights
• Muslims for Progressive Values
• Alliance of Inclusive Muslims

Sponsors:
• Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Geneva
• Delegation of the European Union to the U.N.
• International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief (IPPFoRB)
• Permanent Mission of Canada
• Permanent Mission of Sweden

Biographies:

Speakers:
• Dr. Liviu Olteanu: Ph.D. is currently serving as the Secretary-General of the International Association for the Defense of Religious Liberty (AIDLR). Since 2011, he is an observer and representative at the United Nations, at the European Parliament, at the Council of Europe and at the OSCE. His expertise is focused on education for human rights, intercultural and interreligious dialogue, religious minorities, peace, and security. For him promoting the defense of the PRINCIPLE of freedom of religion or belief for all people, everywhere, must be seen as the key factor for peace and understanding between people, religions, and cultures.

• Dr. Fawzia alAshmawi: President of the European Forum for Muslim Woman, with the objective of creating a network between various European organizations representative of Muslim Women and to promote the status of Muslim Women in Europe; Dr. al-Ashmawi is an expert on the compatibility of the rights of Muslim Women with the 30 Articles of the Universal Declaration of human rights.

• Ms. Erin K. Wilson: Director of the Centre for Religion, Conflict and the Public Domain at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Queensland, Australia in 2008. Her research focuses on the intersection of religion with various dimensions of politics and public life, at the local, national and global levels. She has published on religion and global justice, globalization, active citizenship and the politics of asylum in International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Refugee Studies, Global Society, Globalization and Politics, Religion, Ideology. Before joining the Faculty, Erin K. Wilson spent four years as a research fellow at RMIT University, Melbourne. Her current research interests include the interconnections between religion, secularism, global justice and human rights, with a particular emphasis on forced migration, gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights in development, and the right of freedom of religion or belief. Her books include After Secularism: Rethinking Religion in Global Politics, and Justice Globalism: Ideology, Crises, Policy, co-authored with Manfred B. Steger and James Goodman. (TBC)

• Ms. Liliana Religa: communications and promotions coordinator at the Federation for Women and Family Planning - non-governmental organization, which has been fighting since 1991 for reproductive health and rights in Poland as well as counteracting conservative backlash. As a feminist activist, she has co-organized rallies and educational activities as part of campaigns against sexual violence. Between 2010 and 2017 she worked as PR officer and project coordinator at the Heinrich Böll Foundation & the Green Institute. She studied at the Faculty of Applied Linguistics at the University of Warsaw and completed postgraduate studies in "Gender Mainstreaming" at the Polish Institute of Sciences.

• Ms. Amel Grami: Professor of Sociology, Tunisia. Since 1993, Amel Grami has been working at the Manouba Faculty of Arts and Humanities in various positions, where she became Professor at the Department of Arabic Studies in 2005.Her fields of specialization include Islamic and gender/women studies (with a focus on Maghreb), comparative religion and dialogue between religions and cultures. Her fields of interest include reforms in the Middle East as well as the new reformers in Tunisia. She is a member of many dialogue and research groups concerning religious media discourses and of the Association of Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights. Her various academic publications also include numerous studies and articles on “the voice of women” and gender analysis in the Arab media as well as works on human rights with a focus on the impact of (new) media. Prof. Grami was a fellow at the Käte Hamburger Center for Advanced Study in the Humanities “Law as Culture” from May until August 2014.

• Ms. Fernanda San Martin, MP Bolivia (Confirmed): She currently chairs the Committee on Gender Rights of the Chamber of Deputies of Bolivia, chaired the Committee on International Economic Relations, is currently a member of the Commission of Women Leaders of Latin America (OAS), representative of the Chamber of Deputies in Open Government Partnership Summit 2016. She was a lecturer, columnist in the Newspapers La Prensa and La Razón, founder of the Movimiento Ciudadano Plaza Avaroa and leader National of the Social Democratic Movement.

• Ms. Karmen Ramírez Boscán: Karmen is a Wayuu indigenous woman from Colombia. She currently works as a consultant for international affairs for Wayuu Women's Force and other indigenous women's organizations in Latin America. She is editor of several online portals for indigenous peoples. She has worked as a consultant for ILO and OHCHR. (TBC)

• Ms. Ani Osman-Zonneveld, Founder/President - Muslims for Progressives Values, Board Member - Alliance of Inclusive Muslims: Ani Zonneveld is a writer, a singer/songwriter, founder and president of Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV), a global, grassroots faith-based human rights organization. Founded in 2007 in Los Angeles, MPV advocates for egalitarian expressions of Islam, for women’s rights, LGBTQI inclusion, freedom of expression, and freedom of and from religion or belief. MPV promotes these values at the United Nations by challenging human rights abuses in the name of Islam, and by offering an inclusive understanding based on universal human rights and justice, through its presence in 12 cities in eight countries. In October of 2017, Ani co-founded Alliance of Inclusive Muslims, a global umbrella organization spanning five continents and registered as a human rights association in Geneva. Born and raised Muslim from Malaysia and based out of Los Angeles, she spearheads the progressive Muslim movement both internationally and in the U.S.

For more information, email us at info@mpvusa.org