The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
UN Women press conference 28 November 2022
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16:43
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MP4
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1 GB
STORY: Defending Migrants’ Human Rights – UN Women
TRT: 01:45 mins.
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 28 November 2022 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
- Medium shot, UN Palais with flags
- Wide shot, Press briefing
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Inkeri Von Hase, Global Coordinator, Making Migration Safe for Women, UN Women: “We are trying to create an environment, like situations, where women migrants can actually do this work without, you know, risking their lives.”
- Medium shot, journalist
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Inkeri Von Hase, Global Coordinator, Making Migration Safe for Women, UN Women: “They do this kind of work individually, but also collectively, as state as well as non-state actors and through professional and employment-related roles, but also voluntarily, just because they see a need for this work to be done and they do it”.
- Medium shot, speaker on laptop screen and at podium
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Inkeri Von Hase, Global Coordinator, Making Migration Safe for Women, UN Women: “By providing food, water, shelter, emergency medical supplies, by documenting and publicizing human rights violations, by accompanying migrants through dangerous routes, searching for those who are missing, reuniting families and facilitating access to justice, just to name a few”.
- Medium shot, panelists
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Inkeri Von Hase, Global Coordinator, Making Migration Safe for Women, UN Women: “So these include arrest, detention and deportation, refoulement, deprivation of status, deprivation of their liberty, disappearances, torture, cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, again sexual and gender-based violence, digital and physical surveillance, and racial profiling and public stigmatization”.
- Close up, journalist listening
- Wide shot, panel with speakers
- Close up, speaker in camera view finder
Women human rights defenders play a crucial role in protecting migrant rights. On today’s International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, UN Women is launching a groundbreaking set of recommendations on the protection of women human rights defenders around the world, especially those at risk in migration contexts.
“We are trying to create an environment, like situations, where women migrants can actually do this work without, you know, risking their lives”, said Inkeri Von Hase, Global Coordinator for UN Women in charge of Making Migration Safe for Women, while speaking to the media at the United Nations in Geneva.
These recommendations are the first of their kind and were developed with experts, including migrant women human rights defenders, to protect women human rights defenders who work in an unpaid manner for which they often are silenced and harassed. They reaffirm the legally binding obligations of States parties to human rights defenders and the defence of human rights articulated in international human rights treaties and related authoritative guidance by human rights treaty bodies such as to counter stigmatization and criminalization, develop effective protection measures for migrant women human rights defenders but also secure the rights of migrant women and girls at all stages of migration.
“They do this kind of work individually, but also collectively, as state as well as non-state actors and through professional and employment-related roles, but also voluntarily, just because they see a need for this work to be done and they do it”, emphasized Ms. Von Hase.
Women human rights defenders play a crucial role in securing the right of people on the move but while doing so, they also face enormous threats such as rape, extorsion, use and force of labor. They are the unsung hero who are working in the background of people’s life to protect their rights on the move “by providing food, water, shelter, emergency medical supplies, by documenting and publicizing human rights violations, by accompanying migrants through dangerous routes, searching for those who are missing, reuniting families and facilitating access to justice, just to name a few”.
UN Women documented in recent years a dramatic rise in anti-rights moments, resulting in a backlash against women’s right organizations and a rise in attacks against women human rights defenders and activities. They are exposed to smear campaigns, indirect discrimination, criminalization, censorship, restriction and reprisal.
Furthermore, due to their status as migrants, they are also experiencing “arrest, detention and deportation, refoulement, deprivation of status, deprivation of their liberty, disappearances, torture, cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, again sexual and gender-based violence, digital and physical surveillance, and racial profiling and public stigmatization,” said UN Women’s Global Coordinator for Making Migration Safe for Women.
According to estimates there are 281 million migrants worldwide, escaping poverty, unemployment, political instability, violence while others leave to pursue opportunities such as better education or to be with their family.
-ends-
Teleprompter
Welcome everyone to the press briefing of the launch of the recommendations of women human rights defenders at risk in migration context.
This year's 16 Days of Activists campaign is addressing one of the most pressing issues of our time.
The rollback on rights around the world is no longer just a ******, but a reality for women's groups, feminist organisations and other working for gender equality.
The threats to their very existence are a ****** to us all, especially for those people most at risk of discrimination, violence and oppression.
For too long, migrants have been scapegoated.
They're very existing, bilified simply for seeking out a better life for them and their families.
Too often a lack of safe and regular migration pathways means that migrants may have no choice but to use dangerous and irregular channels.
The risks they face in these situations are enormous.
For migrant women, this includes the horrific but sadly very real ****** of ****, extortion, ***** and forced labour.
But there are people out there who are doing what they what they can to stand up for the rights of migrants.
Migrant women human rights defenders are the unsung heroes of the human rights world.
They are often working in the background, unseen and unknown, but what they do has enormous impact on people's lives.
Migrant women human rights defenders may or may not recognise themselves as such.
They are women, girls and gender diverse persons of all ages who promote and protect the human rights of people on the move, whether they are migrants themselves or not, irrespective of whether they self identify as a woman human rights defender.
In speaking to human women human rights defenders, we understand the enormous risk they face in doing this crucial work.
They may be silenced, face intimidation, harassment, violence among other threats.
This cannot continue today.
Ahead of tomorrow's International Day of Human Human Rights Defenders, UN Women is thrilled to be launching A groundbreaking first of its kind set of recommendations on women human rights defenders at risking migration context.
These recommendations are a blueprint for a better world.
Our hope with these recommendations is to increase awareness about the visible and invisible dangers faced by migrant women human rights defenders and encourage governments to make good on their commitments to eliminate gender based violence once for all.
Inquiry Von Haas, Global Coordinator of the Making Migration Site for Women project at UN Women, will launch the recommendations today.
Inquiry please.
Thank you so much, Vera.
So I've got the pleasure today to provide you with some additional details about these very innovative set of recommendations that were developed over various stages.
And we have thrilled today to launch these recommendations with you here in the room and online and ask any questions that you may have.
So I would love to start with providing you with some statistics about, you know, how many migrant women, human rights defenders are there?
What are the kind of, you know, like, you know, and quantitatively, what is what are the risks?
You know, what are the consequences of of the work?
Unfortunately, I've got news for you.
This data does not exist.
This is very much in line with the general lack of regular of data on gender and migration.
We are lacking sex disaggregated data and gender statistics in the context of migration.
So we already heard from Vera that migrant women human rights defenders are defined for the purposes of these recommendations as women and gender diverse migrants or persons who promote and protect the rights of others of migrants, whether they are migrants themselves or not, and irregard irregardless of the migration status.
And also often they do not even define themselves as migrant women human rights defenders.
They just protect the rights of of for themselves and those of others by and you know, very important, they promote and protect the rights of a range of people and operate in very diverse contexts across geographical areas, promoting, protecting a wide range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.
And they do that in numerous ways, for example by providing food, water, shelter, emergency medical supplies, by documenting and publicising human rights violations, by accompanying migrants through dangerous routes, searching for those who are missing, reuniting families and facilitating access to justice, and just to name a few.
They do this kind of work individually but also collectively as state as well as non state actors and through professional and employment related roles, but also voluntarily just because I see a need for this work to be done and I do it and often in an unpaid manner.
So they are facing enormous risks doing this kind of work.
So why are they so much at risk?
So it's not only that they are, you know, working for the rights of others that, you know already, you know, puts them up to, you know, be vulnerable to rights abuses themselves.
But also their work transgresses traditional gender norms that often very restrictive and you know, like, you know, like seek to maintain specific yeah roles for women that do not allow them to do this exercise or do these exercise this work.
So what are the risks that they are facing?
It's a very broad range of risks including sexual gender based violence, public shaming and smear campaigns, direct and in this indirect discrimination, judicial harassment and criminalization, criminalization, censorship, restrictions and reprisals for engaging with human rights institutions and mechanisms.
Threats to their status, whether citizens, migrants or refugees, physical incarceration or restrictions of movement, torture, killings and enforced disappearances, digital surveillance, hacking and savour violence and the list goes on.
So you can already see they are really at risk doing this work.
But now for migrant women, human rights defenders, they also, as a result of the migration status, face specific risks.
So these include arrest, detention and deportation reform, more the probation of status, the probation of their liberty, disappearances, torture, cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.
Again, section, genderless violence, digital and physical surveillance and racial profiling and public stigmatisation.
So you and woman, together with the Special Rapporteur on the situations of human rights defenders, as well as the special rapporteur on on the human rights of migrants, decided to develop a set of expert recommendations to help member states, policy makers and practitioners to kind of address these risks of migrant women human rights defenders.
And this was a, you know, you know, like a, you know, a long process with multi stakeholder consultations, regional consultations, as well as an expert meeting in July, earlier this, yeah, in July this year here in Geneva, where we invited, you know, prominent human rights defenders as well as human rights organisations to kind of, you know, share their inputs.
So the document that we're launching today, and we will provide you with the link later, the link has gone Live Today.
So this is all very exciting.
You can access this document is structured and and has three, yeah, 3 sections.
It starts with an introduction setting out, you know, what the situations are of migrant women human rights defenders similar to the way I am started this presentation.
Then it discusses the normative framework that is out there to to protect the rights of or can you can you use to further protect the rights of migrant women human rights defenders.
And then we go into the, you know, the most important part with which are the recommendations.
So the recommendations are divided in two overall.
Yeah, sets of recommendations.
The first one is creating an enabling environment for the defence of human rights in in migration context.
The second one is on securing the rights of migrant women and girls at all stages of migration and in all types of migration, so that can better promote and protect the rights.
So let me just very briefly, you know, go into the first overarching set of recommendations, which is on creating an abling environment for migrant women to be able to defend the rights of of other migrants.
And so here we are trying to create an, an environment, you know, like situations where women migrant migrants can actually do this work without, you know, risking their lives ultimately.
So there we have 5 subset sub recommendations that I will share with you.
So the first one is to protect the rights related to the offence of human rights more generally.
The second to to is on countering stigmatisation and criminalization.
The third one is on safeguarding access to justice and effective remedy while working to end impunity for rights violations.
The third one is on developing effective protection measures for migrant women human rights defenders.
And the fifth one is the is highlighting the importance on fostering strong, dynamic and diverse movements of migrant women human rights defenders.
And lastly, and this is, and then I pause in case you have any questions, is on the second set of recommendations, which is on securing the rights of all migrant women and girls at all stages of migration.
So here these kind of recommendations apply to all migrant women because you know, if these, you know, a set of circumstances and conditions are not met, it's very, very difficult for migrant women human rights defendants to do their work because their very existence is that real ******.
So here we've got 7 sub recommendations.
The first one is on enhancing access to safe, orderly and regular migration pathways.
Secondly, ending all forms of violence and harassment against migrant women and girls and protecting survivors.
The first one, sorry.
The third one is on ending labour, forced labour and the trafficking of migrant women and girls and protecting survivors.
And then we discussed in these recommendations the importance of protecting the rights of migrant women and girls deprived of the liberty.
So those that are under tension that are arrested, it's it's on the.
And then the fifth one is on ensuring access to decent work, access to services, as well as then ensuring gender equality, nationality laws.
So this is the structure of these recommendations.
This is really innovative work and this is has not done, been done before.
Something very specific, you know, or specific actions, measures that are identified that Member states, policy makers, practitioners, NGOs, human rights defenders themselves can use in their work to, you know, like demand the protection of their rights.
So we hope that this instrument is used and taken up by a broad range of stakeholders to really ape, you know, like, you know, like understand the situations of migrant women and human rights defenders and do something very concrete in order to protect and promote their rights at all stages of migration.
So I'm going to stop here.
If there are any questions amongst you participants, please do let me know.
For those online participants, you can raise your hand.
I can see it here on my screen.
And yeah, would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
So my presentation was so clear and your opening remarks so powerful that there doesn't seem to be many questions right now.
But I'm happy to wait a few moments.
Maybe you were in the process of formulating a question.
I will also put in the meantime the link on on the chat for the online participants so that you can actually find the document online.
That might also actually help you to just get a feel for these recommendations.
So I posted the recommendations online in case you want to have a look at them.
And yeah, do let me know if you have any questions.
So it seems that our presentation was very clear, no answers, no questions in the room.
This is great news.
We hope that you will be able to write about these recommendations to help us, you know, spread the word about this important work.
We very much hope that in in the events that will follow later today, we have a **** level launch to to yeah, in officially inaugurate these recommendations.
Yeah, we hope that it will be used in all the work going forward.
In case you should have any questions, I can put my e-mail address in the chat box and you can always write to me.
So I very quickly put my e-mail address in here and otherwise, you know, I would like to thank you all for being here today in the room as well as online.
It has been a great pleasure to launch with you today these recommendations.
Have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.