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Preliminary survey on the root causes of attacks and discrimination against persons with albinism 2016, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- There is also the myth that intercourse with female persons with albinism can cure infertility, sexually transmitted infections and, in particular, HIV/AIDS. This has led to the rape and forced prostitution of women and girls with albinism, some of whom end up contracting various infections. Cases have been reported of young girls with albinism being prostituted by their family to customers who thereby expect to be cured of HIV/AIDS. It is believed that cases of this sort are underreported owing to various factors, including a pre-existing context of myth-led discrimination against persons with albinism, the stigma of reporting rape and the likelihood of further abuse. Such lack of reporting is bound to aggravate the already oppressed and disenfranchised situation of women and girls with albinism.
- Body
- Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- In its resolution 66/140, the General Assembly reiterated its call for an end to harmful traditional or customary practices, such as early and forced marriage, and called upon States to take appropriate measures to address the root factors of child and forced marriages, including by undertaking educational activities to raise awareness regarding the negative aspects of such practices. It urged all States to enact and strictly enforce laws to ensure that marriage was entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses, and, in addition, to enact and strictly enforce laws concerning the minimum legal age of consent and the minimum age for marriage and raise the minimum age for marriage where necessary, and to develop and implement comprehensive policies, plans of action and programmes for the survival, protection, development and advancement of the girl child in order to promote and protect the full enjoyment of her human rights and to ensure equal opportunities for girls, including by making such plans an integral part of her total development process.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- The General Assembly also urged States to ensure that efforts to enact and implement legislation to end child and forced marriages engaged all stakeholders and agents of change and to ensure that the information on the legislation against the practice was well known and generated social support for the enforcement of such laws and legislation. States were urged to support community workshops and discussion sessions to enable communities to collectively explore ways to prevent and address child and forced marriages, provide information through stakeholders credible to the community, such as medical personnel and local, community and religious leaders, regarding the harm associated with those marriages, give greater voice to girls and ensure consistence of message throughout the entire community, and encourage the much-needed strong engagement of men and boys.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- In its general recommendation No. 24, the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women specifically recommends that States parties enact and effectively enforce laws that prohibit the marriage of girls. In its general recommendation No. 21, the Committee recognizes that forced marriage may exist as a result of cultural or religious beliefs, but maintains that a woman's right to choose a spouse and enter freely into marriage is central to her life and to her dignity and equality as a human being and that this must be protected and enforced by law.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Article 21 (2) of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child states that child marriage and the betrothal of girls and boys are to be prohibited and effective action, including legislation, is to be taken to specify the minimum age of marriage to be 18 years. Article 6 of the 2003 Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa states that no marriage is to take place without the free and full consent of both parties, and requires States to enact appropriate national legislative measures to guarantee that the minimum age of marriage for women is to be 18 years.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- In some communities, honour is connected with virtue, good works, righteous behaviour and obligations to one's parents, older persons and the community. Honour-related killings have often been associated with religious beliefs. These, however, are traditional or cultural practices. Among some Asian tribes, honour (or izzat) is associated with the female body and therefore women and girls must be guarded, protected and passed on to another member of the tribe. A girl or woman dishonours her family and tribe if her body is violated, even by force, and the shame can be cleansed only through her death.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- Family status depends on honour. In patriarchal and patrilineal societies, maintaining the honour of the family is a woman's responsibility. The concept of women as commodities and not as human beings endowed with dignity and rights equal to those of men is deeply embedded in these societies. Women are seen as the property of men and must be obedient and passive, rather than assertive and active. Any assertive behaviour is considered to be an element that would result in an imbalance of power relations within the parameters of the family unit (E/CN.4/2002/83, para. 27). UNICEF reports that in some countries, early marriages are regarded by families as a means of protecting girls from premarital sex that would undermine their honour and that of their families.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 86
- Paragraph text
- Girls and women who seek to leave servile marriage may be victims of acid attacks or honour-related killings. Acid attacks, which involve the use of sulphuric acid to disfigure or kill, have been reported in Asia, Europe and North and Latin America.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- As a result of cultural beliefs, girls and women with dual nationality are sometimes abducted by their families from one country and forced to marry men from their parents' country of origin. This has happened in the United Kingdom to women from Asian diaspora communities. The Governments involved have worked through consular assistance and judicial proceedings to provide victims with effective remedies. In 2005, the United Kingdom set up a forced marriage unit under the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Home Office to tackle the issue.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- Domestic bonded labour can be linked to gender-discriminatory cultural practices. Among certain ethnic groups in Ghana and neighbouring countries, for instance, girls as young as 6-10 years old are forced into bonded labour, serving as so-called trokosi or vudusi in the household of priests at local fetish shrines. They are given by their parents to the shrine to pay the shrine for erasing a moral failing or curse attached to the parents. In addition to performing domestic chores and ritual duties at the shrine, a trokosi is usually also expected to work long hours on farmland belonging to the shrine. From puberty, she is expected to endure sexual relations with the fetish priest. Although the Government of Ghana has criminalized the practice, it has not yet been eradicated.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Youth
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- The violations that occur within servile marriage cannot be viewed only as acts of violence against women and girls because, although the overwhelming majority of those in servile marriage are girls and women, boys and men are also victims. Owing to gender prejudices, it is often easier for boys and men to leave forced marriages, live as divorcees, remarry and regain control of their lives, in particular because they are usually more educated and can be financially independent. Girls and women are more vulnerable and more likely to be sexually and physically abused. The Special Rapporteur focuses herein on girls and women in servile marriage for those reasons and also because, whether by design, error or omission, there is scant information available about the impact of servile marriage on boys and men.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 94
- Paragraph text
- Many communities believe that girls should marry and can never divorce because of cultural, religious and financial factors, among others. Consequently, families and communities resist change. In addition, there is an overwhelming belief that events within a family are private and should not be subject to outside interference. A wife who runs away is not permitted to return to her family and, if she does, she will be stigmatized for having left her husband, no matter how abusive the marriage. In some societies, it is believed that the husband has every right to discipline his wife and that there should be no interference in marital matters. The female spouse is often made to feel as thought she is at fault and must learn to be a better wife (i.e. more subservient).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- From an early age, girls are brought up and viewed as commodities to be used to solidify family links and preserve honour, in addition to financial assets that can improve the family's economic status. Discriminatory attitudes within the family are reinforced in the community and throughout the girl's life. Complicity by other women in the family and the community strengthens the concept of women as property and embeds the perception that violence against female family members is to be tolerated and remedied privately within the family environment. From the beginning of the marriage, a spouse is treated not as an individual but as a commodity, given that his or her consent to the marriage is not required.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 88
- Paragraph text
- Women in servile marriage lack adequate protection in the light of their specific vulnerabilities arising from their gender, low social status and their age (if they are girls). Many countries lack laws criminalizing forced marriage or slavery-like practices that arise from servile marriage such as domestic servitude or marital rape, mainly because some abuses that occur in a marriage are often seen as domestic matters and outside interference is often frowned upon because it would be interference in the privacy of the home. Consequently, there is a tendency to deal with this form of slavery privately, outside the courts.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 92
- Paragraph text
- In some cases, although laws may be in place to protect women and girls from servile marriage, the authorities fail to prosecute the perpetrators. Consequently, victims do not seek help from the police or judiciary as they fear further abuse from Government authorities or being forcibly returned to their husbands. According to a 2008 report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women, between 70 and 80 per cent of Afghan marriages are forced, and 57 per cent are child marriages where one of the spouses is under the age of 16 years. In 2009, Afghanistan enacted legislation on the elimination of violence against women, in order to criminalize servile marriage and ensure that perpetrators were brought to justice. The law does not, however, address how authorities should treat a woman who runs away to escape the offences criminalized under the law. Consequently, girls and women who flee servile marriage are arrested and often convicted of intent to have sex outside marriage.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 61
- Paragraph text
- There are several practices in which girls are forced into marriage under the guise of religious rites. For example, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has noted the existence in India of devadasi, whereby a girl, usually a Dalit, is forced to marry a deity and forced to have sex with members of the temple (CERD/C/IND/CO/19, para. 18). The Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination have addressed the deuki system in Nepal, under which girls may be offered to deities by their families or by wealthy people who buy girls from their parents to be granted wishes or heavenly favours. The girl is then called a deuki and engages in prostitution (CRC/C/15/Add.261, para. 67, and CEDAW/C/NPL/CO/4-5, para. 17).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 62
- Paragraph text
- Other forms of ritual slavery in which a girl is given to a shrine and married to the gods are practised in parts of West Africa. The girl is enslaved to atone for the real or alleged sins of a male relative. There is a belief that gods often punish a person's sin by causing the deaths of family members until the sin is pardoned. Until the early eighteenth century, livestock or other gifts were given to the priests in atonement. As girls could be used as domestic help and as sexual partners, priests began taking young virgins as reparation instead. A girl is expected to serve a priest for a certain period, depending upon the severity of the crime and the policy of the shrine. The girl's family can redeem her after that period, but the priest demands a high price. If the priest dies, the girl becomes the property of his successor. If the girl dies without her family redeeming her, her family is obligated to replace her with another virgin, meaning that the cycle can continue for generations. Enslaved girls and women are forced to live in inhumane conditions. They are expected to work in the fields and the local market and also provide sexual services to the priests. They are beaten into submission if they resist (E/CN.4/2002/83, para. 42).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- As with domestic violence, it is difficult to obtain accurate figures of the numbers of girls and women in servile marriage. Statistics for early marriage, however, can be used as an indication. According to UNICEF, adolescent marriages (where one or both spouses are below the age of 19 years) commonly occur in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In those regions, most marriages take place between the ages of 15 and 18 years. UNICEF suggests that early marriages are often considered to be a way to protect girls, and even sometimes boys, from sexual predation, promiscuity and social ostracism. In some communities, parents perceive girls as wealth.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Boys
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- In its general comment No. 4, the Committee on the Rights of the Child strongly urges States parties to develop and implement legislation aimed at changing prevailing attitudes, and address gender roles and stereotypes that contribute to harmful traditional practices. It also calls upon States parties to protect adolescents from all harmful traditional practices, such as early marriage, and recommends that they review and, where necessary, reform their legislation and practice to increase the minimum age for marriage with and without parental consent to 18 years, for both girls and boys.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 99
- Paragraph text
- In many countries with a legal minimum age for marriage, there are also exceptions for girls below that age. Where exceptions exist, rigorous procedures must be put in place to ensure that the marriage is in the child's best interests. Private and public institutions must be required to systematically consider how children's rights and interests are affected by their decisions and actions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- According to the Special Rapporteur on traditional practices affecting the health of women and the girl child, the practice of forced marriage deserved the close scrutiny of the international community, as it would not be eradicated until women were considered full and equal participants in the social, economic, cultural and political life of their communities (E/CN.4/Sub.2/2005/36, para. 82).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- Reaffirming forced and early marriages as slavery-like practices is important as it provides an understanding of the violations that victims endure and the kind of interventions required to prevent, monitor and prosecute servile marriage. Victim protection programmes can also be specifically tailored better to support victims of servile marriage. It moves the discussion from being about the rights of women and girls to being about abolishing slavery within communities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- Studies have shown that an overwhelming majority of women in servile marriage were forced to be girl brides. According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Niger has the highest occurrence of early marriage, followed by Chad, Mali, Bangladesh, Guinea, the Central African Republic, Mozambique, Nepal, Malawi and Ethiopia. Girls and women experience the same violations within a servile marriage and, unless otherwise stated, the violations discussed herein apply to both girls and women. Girls are, however, much more vulnerable to abuse given their lack of physical and emotional maturity.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- Gender inequality also contributes to servile marriage through its impact on formal legal systems. Although a woman's right to choose if, when and whom to marry is recognized in international human rights law, and although the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Committee on the Rights of the Child and other treaty bodies state that the minimum age of marriage should be 18 years, several countries with high rates of early marriage also have unequal laws of consent for boys and girls. Such laws reinforce and legalize the idea that marriage is suitable for girls earlier than for boys. Patriarchal laws and practices give women and girls less negotiating power around marriage and sexual and reproductive health and rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 71
- Paragraph text
- If a woman refuses marriage, she can be subject to character assassination or kidnapping by the man or his family to force her into marriage or to rape her. Bride kidnapping, a practice by which a bride is forcefully abducted and married, sometimes occurs in Kyrgyzstan and is often accompanied by physical and sexual violence (CEDAW/C/KGZ/CO/3, paras. 21 and 22). In many cases, girls and women endure years of constant abuse that sometimes leads to death at the hands of their relatives, their husbands or their husbands' families. Girls and women are also encouraged or forced by their husbands or their husbands' families to commit suicide.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 65
- Paragraph text
- Non-consensual marriage is a form of marriage where one or both parties have not consented. The lack of consent is the main principle underlying all forms of servile marriage. In some instances, the law is used to justify non-consensual marriages. For example, to protect the honour of a girl or woman, some countries can compel a rape victim to marry her rapist if the rapist so agrees. In this situation, the rapist is pardoned. Although these marriages purport to be consensual, fear of stigma and family pressure sometimes coerce rape victims into consenting to them (see E/CN.4/2002/83). Recently, the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice reported the case of Amina Filali, a Moroccan woman who committed suicide after allegedly being forced to marry her rapist. Article 475 of the Moroccan Penal Code provides that a kidnapper or seducer of a minor girl may be acquitted of rape if he marries her (A/HRC/20/28/Add.1, para. 24).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Challenges and lessons in combating contemporary forms of slavery 2013, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- Servile marriage and domestic servitude are two forms of contemporary slavery that disproportionately affect women and girls. In a previous report, the Special Rapporteur defined servile marriage as an arrangement "in which a spouse is reduced to a commodity over whom any or all the powers of ownership are attached" (A/HRC/21/41, summary). Practices such as polygamy and "bride price", especially when coupled with the prevalence of domestic violence, are possible indicators of servile marriage. Women's bodies are directly tied to a family's honour in many cultures, and if a girl refuses to marry, "she can be subject to character assassination or kidnapping by the man or his family to force her into marriage or to rape her" (ibid., para. 71). There is little to no legal protection for women in these situations in many countries. Some countries have gone so far as to enact legislation that acquits perpetrators of rape if they marry their victim. If a woman enters into a servile marriage, she essentially becomes a slave to her husband and his family.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- Cultural relativism is often given as an excuse for slavery-like violations such as servile marriage and sexual slavery committed against women and girls. Societies that permit servile marriage are based on an overwhelming fear of female sexuality and culturally believe that it should be curtailed and regulated.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Stigma and the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2012, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- The silence and stigma surrounding menstruation makes finding solutions for menstrual hygiene management a low priority. Menstruating women and girls often lack a private place to change or wash the rags used. Menstruation has many negative cultural attitudes associated with it, including the idea that menstruating women and girls are "contaminated", "dirty", "impure" or "polluted". These manifest in practices such as the seclusion of women and girls, reduced mobility, dietary restrictions, and/or women and girls being required to use different water sources or prohibited from preparing food for others during menstruation-practices that are often deeply rooted in sociocultural and patriarchal interpretations of religious prescriptions. Even where such restrictions are not followed, women and girls may continue to harbour internalized stigma and are embarrassed to discuss menstruation. The lack of privacy for cleaning and washing, the fear of staining and smelling, and the lack of hygiene in school toilets are major reasons for being absent from school during menstruation, and have a negative impact on girls' right to education.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Practices and beliefs are different in every culture, but generally menstruation is considered to be something unclean or impure and contact between men and women during menstruation is viewed as something that should be avoided. Girls and women are sometimes not allowed to use the same toilets as men or are barred from certain locations. Girls all over the world grow up with the idea that menstruation is something they should hide and not speak about - an embarrassing event associated with shame. This powerful stigma and taboo surrounding menstruation translates into fear of leaking or staining clothes. Worldwide, women and girls prefer to hide the fact that they are menstruating. Data collected in Senegal shows that, owing to shame, menstrual material, once washed, is mainly dried in secluded, private and dark locations, such as tiled rooms or even under pillows, instead of in direct sunlight, which would reduce the risk of infection by ensuring that pathogens do not grow.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph