Pertaining to
CEDAW
The Intersectionality between Culture, Faith and Rights:
An Analysis of the Impact of the United Nations “Faith for Rights” Initiative
This report examines the extent to which the United Nations Faith for Rights initiative, designed to engage religious actors in the protection and promotion of human dignity, is mobilized by treaty bodies when issuing recommendations related to women’s rights. Through a horizontal mapping of CEDAW and other treaty body jurisprudence since 2017, it identifies where the 18 commitments of the Beirut Declaration are seized or overlooked. The analysis reveals that treaty bodies rarely invoke Faith for Rights explicitly and often miss opportunities to integrate its faith-based, cross-sectoral approach when addressing gender discrimination rooted in cultural or religious norms. The report concludes by proposing pathways to strengthen the systematic use of the Faith for Rights framework to support more context-sensitive and transformative gender-equality outcomes.
Presentation of the Project
The research team is composed of six law students from the Licentiate in Civil Law (LL.L.) program at the University of Ottawa, along with various collaborators. Each member of the Observatory on Human Rights at the United Nations of the University of Ottawa contributes to a unique blend of perspectives stemming from different cultures, religions, genders, socio-economic backgrounds, levels of education, and political affiliations.
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Our research project is part of the ongoing efforts of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). We believe that this project will be beneficial not only to CEDAW in the implementation of its initiatives but also to all United Nations treaty bodies in their collective mission to uphold human rights.
“The Intersectionality between Culture, Faith, and Rights: An Analysis of the Impact of the United Nations ‘Faith for Rights’ Initiative” is a research project that explores the complex interactions between women’s rights, religion, and culture. The analysis focuses particularly on the impact and implementation of the “Faith for Rights” initiative, launched in 2017 with the Beirut Declaration.
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To democratize knowledge, we will produce a comprehensive report aimed at assessing the effectiveness of the “Faith for Rights” initiative in combating gender-based discrimination within religious contexts, by identifying various opportunities where the implementation of the initiative’s 18 commitments have been either successfully realized or missed.