2023-09-26 16:40:42
The United Nations reiterated on Tuesday, August 26, its opposition in principle to imposing on women what they should or should not wear, reacting to the ban on French athletes wearing the veil at the 2024 Olympics, in the name of secularism.
The sentence is common sense: “In general, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights believes that no one should impose on a woman what she should or should not wear,” declared the spokesperson for the High Commissioner. Commissioner, Marta Hurtado. This is a response to a question asked during the regular UN press briefing in Geneva, on the statements on Sunday by the French Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra.
Guest on Sunday on the show “Dimanche en politique” on France 3, the minister explained 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 during the next Olympics organized in Paris. ‘next summer.
Marta Hurtado recalls 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,” she emphasizes, “these discriminatory practices can have harmful consequences.” This is why, “under international human rights standards, restrictions on the expression of religions or beliefs, such as choice of clothing, are only acceptable in very specific circumstances that respond proportionally and necessary for legitimate concerns regarding public safety, public order, public health or morality.
Previous on the hijab
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 for its part “AOC”, which defended itself by pointing out that the French position was based on a previous decision of the Council of State, the supreme French 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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