Legislative frameworks relating to the rights of women require an evaluation to understand their real effects on women, said Paula Wachter, Executive Director of Red por la Infancia in Argentina, on behalf of ISHR.
Speaking at the interactive dialogue with the UN Working Group on discrimination against women in law and practice, Wachter highlighted that advances in the defense of the family as a social value is often occurring at the expense of the rights of family members. ‘The openly misogynist patriarchal concepts about the sacralisation of the family are guaranteeing the impunity of perpetrators of abuse’ said Wachter.
In particular, Wachter highlighted that courts in Argentina continue to issue rulings which criminalise women who want to end incest within the family. ‘This concept of Parental Alienation Syndrome forces children to keep in touch with their aggressor and if they refuse, the mothers are often blamed and lose parental care of the child’, said Wachter.
Criminalisation and stigmatisation of women who defend human rights is a reality of her work, says Wachter, as threats are made by both State and non-State actors.
Paula Wachter was a participant in ISHR’s Human Rights Defenders Advocacy Programme in June 2017.
Watch the statement here:
Olnar Ortiz Bolívar and Alexandra Lezama, human rights defenders from Venezuela, are attending the Human Rights Council 52nd session, where the Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela will present an oral update on the human rights situation in the country.
Human rights violations amounting to crimes against humanity have been carried out in Nicaragua, a group of UN independent experts have told the Human Rights Council. To investigate these crimes fully, the Colectivo 46/2 coalition calls for the two-years renewal of UN Human Rights Council resolution on Nicaragua.
The UN Independent Expert on the Enjoyment of Human Rights by Persons with Albinism presented the Human Rights Council with a report noting continued barriers for defenders working on albinism and calling for greater cooperation between civil society groups.
