2023-09-26 15:04:13
The UN reiterated this Tuesday its opposition in principle to imposing on women what they must wear or not, reacting to the ban on French athletes from wearing the Islamic veil at the Olympic Games in France in the name of secularism.
“In general, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights believes that no one should dictate to a woman what she should or should not wear,” OHCHR spokesperson Marta Hurtado said in response. to a question during the regular UN press briefing in Geneva, on the statements on Sunday by the French Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra.
Oudéa-Castéra wants to fight against “all forms of proselytism”
The minister explained in the program “ Dimanche en politique ” on France 3 the government’s attachment “to a regime of strict secularism, strictly applied in the field of sport”. ” What does it mean ? This means the prohibition of any form of proselytism, it means the absolute neutrality of the public service, therefore that the representatives of our delegations, in our French teams, will not wear the veil,” she declared.
Ms. Hurtado recalled that the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women requires all parties – in this case France – to take “all appropriate measures necessary to modify any social or cultural model based on idea of inferiority or superiority of one or the other sex. »
“But these discriminatory practices can have harmful consequences,” she stressed, which is why “under international human rights standards, restrictions on the expression of religions or beliefs, as clothing choices, are only acceptable in very specific circumstances that proportionally and necessary address legitimate concerns about public safety, public order, public health or morality. »
The Council of State maintained the ban on football
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) “is following a logic which consists of understanding the wearing of the veil not as a religious factor but as a cultural factor”, recognized the French minister, who recalled that the French position was based on a decision of the Council of State, the French supreme administrative judge. At the end of June, the Council of State maintained the ban on the wearing of the hijab in women’s football.
In a judicial epilogue to a new case linked to religious symbols in public spaces, a recurring subject of debate in France, the Council of State ruled that the French Football Federation (FFF) could enact the rules it considers necessary to the “smooth running” of the matches and was, as such, justified in prohibiting the wearing of the hijab on the pitches.
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