Reports

Since the 19th century, the women’s rights movement has championed the rights and entitlements of women and girls all over the world. The movement has advocated for a number of rights, such as the right to vote and to hold public office, freedom from sexual violence, equal pay, bodily and reproductive autonomy, access to education and property ownership, and overall gender equality. Great advances have been made for women and girls in the decades since. However, the women’s rights movement has historically failed to acknowledge the intersectionalities of so many women, such as race, sexuality, gender identity, age, migration status, and so on. As such, it is imperative to move away from the mainstream, middle class and white-dominated feminist movement which has often excluded women of colour and those of a less advantaged socioeconomic status, and to instead broaden the scope of inclusion to all women, regardless of their background. The path forward must include the experiences of all women, and ensure that rights are guaranteed for all, not just a select, privileged few. As the American writer and activist Audre Lorde stated, “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” The need to shed light on the grievances of those groups of women who have historically been, and continue to be, underrepresented by the traditional feminist movements, is unquestionable. This is especially true for women belonging to the more vulnerable subsets of society, whose demands for change are often unheard. As such, the purpose of this report is to illuminate the experiences of those women: migrant women, women with disabilities, transgender women, and sex workers, for instance. While women around the world have many of the same qualms against sexism, misogyny and the patriarchy, the specific and sometimes distinct needs of different groups of individuals must be addressed. It must always be remembered that, for the women’s rights movement to truly achieve equality for all, it is important to be intentional about inclusion and look at women’s rights through an intersectional lens in order to advance the rights of all women.

The achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is a priority in today’s society, as adopted in Sustainable Development Goal 5. The realisation of this goal also implies the assurance of equal and safe participation in, as well as access, of women to media and technology. However, the increase in access to the participation of women online creates new challenges, includ- ing their vulnerability to online violence. These new forms of violence against women are referred to as online gender-based violence (OGBV). In summary, it consists of every form of violence that is directed against women and carried out in the digital sphere, which may take different forms, such as cyberstalking and cyber harassment. The present Report aims at providing a comprehensive overview of the contemporaneous issue of online gender-based violence. For such means, in the first chapter, the problem will be investigated, addressing the concept of OGBV and the main aspects surrounding this issue. Furthermore, it will explain the different forms that OGBV can take, as well as who is affected by such violence, and the consequences it may lead to. Chapter 2 moves to the examination of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, since the restrictions imposed due to the pandemic were a factor that contributed to an increase in violence against women and the use of technology, therefore directly impacting OGBV. In Chapter 3, the forms of the legal protection of women from OGBV will be analysed, mainly through an analysis of the international legal framework. This chapter will also briefly address the means of protection provided in regional systems and domestic legislation, which are also essential factors for the effective combating of OGBV. The fourth and last chapter moves to the explanation of the main challenges faced regarding the pro- tection of women from OGBV, including the lack of specific legislation and the absence of adequate training in judicial systems. Lastly, it elaborates recommendations for different stakeholders involved in the issue of online violence against women, aiming at contributing to the efficient prevention and suppression of OGBV.

Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) play a fundamental role in the promotion of human rights worldwide, and their importance is particularly demonstrated in advocating for specific rights, such as women’s rights, gender equality, and sexual and reproductive rights. Nonetheless, WHRDs face several challenges; besides the issues common to Human Rights Defenders (HRDs), including verbal and physical attacks, threats, torture, forced disappearances, murder, and arbitrary detentions, WHRDs are faced with additional obstacles, such as gender-based violence. Against this backdrop, the present report will be divided into two main parts. Firstly, it will identify and explain the challenges and violations faced by WHRDs, and how they differ from the violations faced by HRDs generally. In the second chapter, the report addresses the forms of protection available in international law for WHRDs, and lastly, based on the analysis conducted, the report provides recommendations with the intent of ensuring that WHRDs can carry out their work safely and effectively.

Achieving gender equality among girls and women around the world is a priority, yet an ambitious goal that is far from being achieved by the year 2030. Among the numerous violations and gender- based violence experienced is Child, Early, and Forced Marriage (CEFM), a fundamental violation of human rights that has profound implications for the development, safety, and well-being of women and girls around the world. It is estimated that the total number of girls married in childhood stands at 12 million per year (UNICEF, 2022), and while girls are disproportionately affected, boys can also be victims. CEFM is intrinsically related to social norms and gender constructions, and it is caused by a range of factors, such as poverty and a lack of education, and is exacerbated by conflict, humanitarian crises, and climate change. However, its prevalence is substantially varied across different contexts, regions, and countries. On a global scale, today, more than half a billion women and girls were married in childhood. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have the highest rates of child marriage, and in Latin America and the Caribbean, the levels are equivalent to those from 25 years ago (UNICEF, 2021/b). The present report aimed to research and analyse the country with the worst data regarding child marriage in each of the above-mentioned regions. According to the “Child Marriage Atlas” of the NGO Girls Not Brides, in Niger, located in Sub-Saharan Africa, 76 percent of women aged 20–24 were first married or in a union before they were 18 years old, making Niger the country with the highest rate of child marriage in the world. In Bangladesh, located in South Asia, child marriage rate is 51 percent, the highest in the region. Finally, the Dominican Republic, in Latin America and the Caribbean, has 36 percent (Girls Not Brides n.d/d). The current report intends to provide an in-depth review of forced marriage and its causes, consequences, and prevalence worldwide, seeking to inform and raise awareness about the seriousness of the issue. Thus, it is organised around two main chapters. Chapter 1 aims to address the problem of forced marriage through its definition, international mechanisms, and national legislation. It will then move to an examination of the causes and consequences of CEFM. Chapter 2 will provide a comprehensive overview of Niger, Bangladesh, and the Dominican Republic. The countries’ cases will be analysed in terms of the prevalence of the issue in the country, its causes, consequences, and challenges, and finally, what efforts and actions, in terms of policies and projects, are taken by the country’s government to combat and eradicate CEFM.

Natural disasters affect all members of society, however, it is a misconception that their impacts are indiscriminate. Groups of people who are marginalised are more vulnerable, either socially, economically, culturally, politically, or institutionally, being impacted in more severe ways (Dagousset, 2020). Among these vulnerabilities, it is widely observed that natural disasters possess huge gendered consequences.

The principle of equality was enshrined in Article 1 of the Charter of the United Nations in 1945. The terms of reference of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, formulated at its first session in 1947, emphasised that its task was to “prepare recommendations and reports for the advancement of women’s rights in the political, economic, social and educational fields.” One of the first results of the Commission’s work was the 1952 Convention on the Political Rights of Women, which explicitly states that women “shall be admitted, on equal terms with men and without discrimination of any kind, to all public elections established by national law” (Article 2) and “shall have the right to hold public office and to exercise all public functions established by national law” (Article 3). Women today have the right to vote and hold office in almost every country in the world. However, relatively few women have been elected to national parliaments through the democratic process, and even fewer have reached top positions (Gierycz, 1999), although various analyses have shown the positive impact of women’s participation in decision making processes regarding conflict prevention and resolution.

The 1951 UN Refugee Convention, the first international legal document relating to asylum and migration, provides for a definition of what a refugee ought to be. Interestingly enough, this definition is defined in the masculine as a person who, “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.”1 While the inclusion of the term ‘sex’ was discussed in the list of grounds for non- discrimination in Article 3 of the Convention, the delegates decided against it as, like pointed out by the British delegate at the time, “the equality of the sexes was a matter for national legislation”2 and the inclusion of gender might not coincide with national legislations.3 This was further underlined by the UN High Commissioner for Refugee at the time, Van Heuven Goedhart, who pointed that the inclusion of sex/gender in the discriminatory grounds was not necessarily as he “doubted strongly whether there would be any cases of persecution on account of sex”.4 This absence of gender approach in the asylum framework was a large miscalculation on the part of the delegates as it has been largely shown since that women and girls face disproportionate struggles in seeking asylum. However, the mention of the specific struggle faced by women and girls in refugee settings was only brought up decades later thanks to the work of NGOs and academics in the late 1980s, early 1990s.5 They pointed out that, although no one argued that women could be refugees, the definition was applied in a way that ignored some of the persecution faced by women. Spijkerboer notes for instance the common rejection of sexual violence as a ground for persecution as it was defined as a private act. Similarly, issues of gender discrimination, even if brought up a level of harm severe enough to amount to persecution in the sense of the Convention, were often just sent back as an issue of national sovereignty.6 This grassroot work allowed for a change of perspective at the UN level, focusing the 1995 UNHCR’s calendar on refugee women which led to the organization of multiple conferences on the topic as well as the publication of conclusions7 and guidelines8 . The European Asylum system, in copying the UN’s asylum policies down the line added the mention of gender and gender sensitive language to its documents, particularly the Qualification Directive which define the grounds receivable for asylum to be granted. Through the work of UN Women and CEDAW9 , the UN has also now caught up on the inclusion of women and girls as a particular social group and of gender as a ground for persecution.10 However, there is still immense work to be done in reporting, defining and effectively responding to the harm faced by refugee women and girls around the globe. It is in this context that this report will dwell into the gender specific harm suffered by women and girls in refugee settings. To do so, it will follow the chronological journey of asylum seekers, highlighting at every step of this process the gender specific hardships. In this sense, it will first look at (1) the causes of flight and displacement , before looking at (2) the experience of the refugee journey for women and girls, (3) the reception conditions and the life of women and girls in refugee camps. Finally, it will highlight (4) the particular obstacles that LGBTQIA+ women have to overcome in the qualification process.

This article will provide a summary and analysis of the judgment, diving into the arguments of the German government subsequently supported by the Court, as well as exposing the weaknesses of the decision and its argumentation.

International Women’s Day is celebrated annually on the 8th of March. This report explains why it still remains important for us to celebrate this day, as a day to recognise the achievements women have made to our societies in a patriarchal world.