Interview with Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur HRDs
In this empowering interview, our young expert Christina Cushen from the Girl’s Human Rights Hub interviews Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. They discuss the pivotal role of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in promoting gender equality, the challenges and advancements in girls' education worldwide, and the inspiring work of young women human rights defenders. Mary highlights the intersectional struggles faced by women and girls with disabilities and underscores the importance of inclusive policies and sustained advocacy to ensure a more equitable future by 2050. Dive in to learn more about the ongoing fight for women's and girls' rights and the crucial role of the UN in this journey.
How does the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reflect and encourage Gender Equality for women and girls?
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a cornerstone document advocating for gender equality for women and girls. Article 2 of the UDHR is key in underlining the imperative of non-discrimination and the equal enjoyment of rights and freedoms for all, irrespective of gender.
Several articles of the UDHR in particular are fundamental in fostering gender equality:
Article 7 on the right to equality before the law, which ensures that women and girls are afforded equal protection under legal frameworks
Article 23 enshrines equality in the workplace, “equal pay for equal work”
Article 26 on the right to education, which underscores the critical role of education in empowering women and girls, enabling them to exercise their rights and fulfill their potential
By championing these principles, the UDHR not only reflects but also encourages gender equality by establishing a normative framework that demands states' compliance and accountability in advancing the rights of women and girls.
The efficiency of the UDHR ultimately depends on the commitment of States to translate these principles into concrete actions through legislative reforms, policy interventions, and institutional mechanisms to address the root causes of gender inequality.
While the UDHR serves as a foundational document, subsequent human rights instruments such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) provide more comprehensive frameworks specifically dedicated to advancing gender equality. CEDAW requires that state parties take concrete measures to eliminate discrimination against women and girls in all areas of life.
For many women and girls, the right to education is a distant dream that may never come true. Do we see a shift in state governments globally recognising the importance of empowering these women and girls, and what is the United Nations doing to encourage states to recognise the value of education?
In addition to the foundations laid by the UDHR, the recognition of education as a fundamental human right for girls wasaffirmed through the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1981 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1989, which obligates states parties to take measures to ensure equal access to education for girls and boys.
On a global scale, there has been an increasing awareness of the critical role education plays in empowering women and girls, not only as a fundamental human right but also as a catalyst for socio-economic development and gender equality.
Many governments have demonstrated a commitment to advancing girls' education through various policy initiatives, legislative reforms, and programmes aimed at overcoming barriers that hinder girls' access to education.
Rwanda has made significant strides in promoting girls' education in recent years. The government implemented policies aimed at increasing girls' enrollment in schools, including by providing free primary education and establishing girls' boarding schools, which led to 98% of children being enrolled in primary school in the country, with equal numbers of boys and girls in classrooms and girls being more likely to complete primary school than boys.
In India, the government's Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme, aimed at making elementary education universal, includes specific provisions to address barriers to girls' education, such as providing free textbooks and uniforms, building separate toilets for girls, and offering scholarships and incentives to encourage girls to enrol and remain in school.
Yet, considerable disparities remain, and it can be disheartening to see that so many barriers continue to obstruct access to quality education globally.
Deep-rooted gender norms and stereotypes continue to undermine girls' access to education, particularly in patriarchal societies where girls' education is often undervalued compared to that of boys. Structural barriers such as poverty, geographic remoteness, and lack of infrastructure further exacerbate disparities in access to education, particularly for marginalised girls, including those from rural areas, ethnic minorities, and girls with disabilities.
In addition, armed conflicts, humanitarian crises, and emergencies have disrupted access to education for millions of girls worldwide, jeopardising their right to learn and perpetuating cycles of poverty and inequality. In many contexts, girls' education continues to be threatened by socio-economic disparities and by gender-based violence, including sexual harassment, child marriage and trafficking.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated that achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls was the “unfinished business” of our time and the greatest human rights challenge in our world.
The UN plays an important role in advocating for the importance of education for women and girls, and it does so through various mechanisms:
the Sustainable Development Goals (particularly Goal 4 which aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all), to which all 191 UN members States have adhered.
UN entities such as UN Women, UNICEF and UNESCO work to support states in recognising the value of education for women and girls, providing technical assistance to states and promoting policy reforms aimed at bridging gender disparities in education.
Access to education is not part of what my mandate entails per se, but I have met and heard from many human rights defenders working on this issue. At my level, as a UN independent expert, my contribution to promoting gender equality involves listening to what girls and women who defend human rights have to say, and carrying their voices forward in international fora, to states, NGOs, funders, businesses, and whoever will listen.
I have made the situation of women human rights defenders one of my priority areas, and I strive to continuously highlight the voices of WHRDs, including girls and young women in particular, by:
holding hearings specifically for WHRDs, providing them with a safe space to share their experience and the challenges they face
hosting blogs written by young women human rights defenders from all over the world on my website (Afghanistan, Yemen or Ecuador)
https://srdefenders.org/information/guest-blog-rania-from-yemen/
https://srdefenders.org/information/guest-blog-dulce-maria-from-ecuador/
Raising awareness on issues that WHRDs tell me they encounter in their particular contexts (war and conflict zones, protests, humanitarian crises, state of emergency, etc.)
https://srdefenders.org/information/gender-based-attacks-on-whrds-in-sudan/
We know that many women and girls' fundamental human rights are nonexistent, and they suffer silently. According to António Guterres, gender equality will take over 300 years to achieve. What are the fundamental reasons for the regressive trend in fundamental rights?
Patriarchy and Religious Fundamentalism,authoritarian leaders,and populist movements in various parts of the world has led to the erosion of democratic institutions and the suppression of individual freedoms and human rights, in priority in terms of gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, and minority rights.
Political instability, militarism, armed conflict, and humanitarian crises also exacerbate human rights abuses and violations. In conflict-affected areas, civilians, including women and children, are particularly vulnerable to violence, displacement, and exploitation, leading to severe violations of their fundamental rights.
Persistent economic inequality exacerbates disparities in access to basic rights and opportunities and perpetuates cycles of poverty and exclusion, in particular for marginalised groups, including women, ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples, and persons with disabilities.
Global challenges such as climate change, pandemics, and migration crises pose significant threats to human rights. The Covid 19 crisis for example particularly impacted women (increase in gender-based violence, increase of unpaid care work of children and elders, women’s employment being more at risk than men’s, etc.).
This quote from French writer Simone de Beauvoir resonates strongly today: "Never forget that it only takes a political, economic or religious crisis for women’s rights to be called into question. These rights can never be taken for granted. You must remain vigilant throughout your life."
Given gender equality and a poor human rights record, where do we see women's and girls' human rights in 2050?
Ideally, by 2050, we might have a situation where gender equality is not just an aspiration but a tangible reality for women and girls worldwide. However, realising this vision requires perseverance, hope, and resilience. But great strides have been made since and progress can continue.
At the state level, this can only happen through sustained political will, investment in policies and programmes that address systemic barriers and discriminatory practices, and active participation and leadership of women and girls in decision-making processes at all levels.
I have great hope in the present generations of girls and boys, young men and women defending human rights and working on achieving gender equality.
Women and girls everywhere are already challenging patriarchal structures and gender norms each day. They do this loudly and quietly, on the streets and in their homes, pushing against the weight of centuries of discrimination, disrespect, and violence.
In Vienna, I met amazing and impressive young WHRDs, including some trailblazers such as Zeinab, a young WHRD from Kenya who founded the first girl-led organisation in her province to support marginalized girls against forced early marriages, gender-based violence, and Female Genital Mutilation; or Janna from Palestine, who started reporting on human rights violations committed in her village by Israeli forces when she was 7 years old.
Some of their stories are mentioned in my most recent report on child and youth human rights defenders, entitled “Not just the future”.
If we listen to young defenders now, if we adequately support them right now, I am hopeful that the situation for women and girls’ human rights will be drastically better in 2050. They are already achieving great successes, some of which are highlighted in another report I presented last year to the Human Rights Council about achievements obtained by HRDs. Some examples:
Women human rights defenders in Indonesia played a vital role in the passing of the Sexual Violence Bill, in 2022, which criminalizes physical sexual abuse, including in marriage, sexual exploitation, forced marriage, including of children, and the circulation of non-consensual sexual content.
In Bangladesh, the National Children’s Task Force, an organisation run by children, reported that, working with a local district commissioner, it has prevented 13 child marriages, despite the fact that its members often work at great personal risk, including receiving death threats.
In 2022, Payzee Mahmod, a woman human rights defender and survivor of child marriage, together with the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organization, was successful in securing a ban on child marriage in England and Wales, raising the minimum age from 16 to 18.
In Colombia, women human rights defenders involved in the Causa Justa movement, made up of more than 150 NGOs and human rights defenders, succeeded in obtaining the decriminalisation of abortion up to 24 weeks. This followed the success of the “green wave” women’s movement in Argentina, which led to the decriminalisation of abortion in December 2020.
We need to be persistent. You need to have dedicated people who will continue to raise the injustice of issues to change things. It is a long, painstaking process but things do change.
I grew up in Ireland, a country that was very backward for women. My mother, who is a doctor, had to resign when she got married because she was a woman. There was no divorce, no contraception, no equal marriage. All those things were non-existent, and it took a lot of campaigning by a lot of people to reverse this.
Given that girls and women with disabilities face severe human rights violations, how can we challenge state governments to challenge disability stereotypes in order to encourage and promote theirrights? What is the United Nations doing to challenge and advocate for their rights?
Women and girls with disabilities face intersecting forms of discrimination and marginalisation, which exacerbates their vulnerability to human rights violations.
To challenge the stereotypes around disabilities and promote the rights of women and girls with disabilities, we need to adopt a multifaceted approach that would address both attitudinal barriers (ableism and paternalism for example) and structural impediments, notably in terms of accessibility.
As things stand, similarly to members of other marginalised groups, girls and women with disabilities are still hampered by structures that deny them the opportunity to engage fully in the struggle to defend their own rights.
States must be urged to adopt comprehensive legislative frameworks that protect the rights of women and girls with disabilities, ensure their access to inclusive education, healthcare, and employment opportunities, and actively challenge discriminatory practices. The very first step in doing so is to consult with girls and women with disabilitieswhen forming of policies that impact them. Nothing about them without them! States must ensure the participation and consultation of girls and women with disabilities in any decision- and policy-making process undertaken to promote gender equality. And it is the role of NGOs, human rights defenders, activist groups, etc. to remind states of their obligations in terms of inclusivity. Everyone should get a seat at the table if we want to build more inclusive and sustainable societies.
Accent should also be placed on accessibility – in 2022 I partnered with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Gerard Quinn, for a joint campaign on HRDs with disabilities. As part of that campaign, we consulted women and men with disabilities who shared some practical recommendations regarding accessibility to physical and digital spaces andfostering the participation of persons with disabilities in civil society, policy making, events, etc.
As for what the UN does to promote the human rights of girls and women with disabilities:
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2006, is a landmark human rights treaty that explicitly recognizes the rights of persons with disabilities, including women and girls. States parties to this Convention have to take measures to ensure that persons with disabilities fully enjoy their human rights and fundamental freedoms, without discrimination. In particular, the CRPD highlights the intersectionality of gender and disability and calls for a gender-sensitive approach to disability rights.
The Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in the same way that I was, is in charge of monitoring the implementation of the CRPD and investigating allegations of human rights violations against persons with disabilities. They play a crucial role in raising awareness of the rights of women and girls with disabilities and advocating for their inclusion in policies and programs.
Specialised agencies such as UN Women and UNICEF also play a role in advocating for the rights of women and girls with disabilities, addressing the discrimination they face at the intersection of women’s rights, disability rights, and child rights. UNESCO also supports initiatives to remove barriers to education for girls with disabilities, such as inaccessible school infrastructure and discriminatory attitudes. It also advocates developing teaching methods that accommodate diverse learning needs.
These UN agencies provide technical assistance to both state and civil society organisations to strengthen their efforts toward gender equality and incorporate disability rights within the broader human rights agenda. It includes support for legislative reforms, policy development, and awareness-raising campaigns aimed at challenging disability stereotypes and promoting more inclusive practices.
