OURs at the AWID Forum: “How Can We Reclaim Our Rights? – Universal Human Rights and the Fierce Backlash of Religious Fundamentalisms”

This session will publically launch the Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs) initiative and its first trends report on the impact of religious fundamentalisms on the international human rights system.

The session will open with a visual presentation illustrating key concerns being addressed by the OURs project and the trends report. We will then open up a discussion regarding the ways in which conservative actors are using arguments based on religion, culture, and tradition to undermine the universality and indivisibility of human rights standards, and move into a critical reflection on the growing and important influence of these actors in international human rights spaces, their organizing and collaboration and their tactics, and strategic opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for gender justice movements.

Speakers:

• Zainah Anwar, Musawah
• Cynthia Rothschild, Independent expert/WHRD-IC
• Carrie Shelver, CAL
• Naureen Shameem, AWID

Time: 11:30 AM–1:00 PM, 9 September, 2016

This session will be a collaborative effort planned by the OURs Working Group.