A/HRC/50/25 affecting us and defend our human rights.” Campaigns of defamation and attacks on honour and reputation were also mentioned, whereby activists were portrayed as lacking so-called “morals”, values and ethics, and undermining culture and tradition. As the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders has noted, girl human rights defenders can be stigmatized and ostracized by community leaders, faith-based groups, families, neighbours and communities in the belief that they and their actions are a threat to religion, honour, culture or ways of life.35 42. Additionally, girl and young women activists are subject to various types of surveillance that pose further challenges to their activism. They continue to face excessive policing by their families, especially their male relatives, with respect to public affairs, including their Internet use and access to digital devices, which greatly affects their opportunities to engage freely in the public and political life of their communities and societies. 43. In addition, mental health problems, such as burn-out and post-traumatic stress disorder, were mentioned by many activists as the consequences of the threats and risks they faced. They identified the importance of self-care and collective care, which needed to be recognized institutionally by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and donors. The lack of psychological support was identified as one of the obstacles to supportive environments. 5. Legal and administrative obstacles and lack of access to justice 44. Many girls organize informally because of the obstacles they face in registering their organizations. The registration process may be too costly; there may be minimum age requirements for registration; or a requirement to have a bank account. 36 That limits the ability of young activists to seek and receive funding for their work, which has been identified as one of the major obstacles to girls’ and young women’s activism. 45. In some cases, girls face legal barriers to the exercise of their right to freedom of assembly, owing to blanket bans on children participating in public assemblies. 37 Furthermore, in the case of girls and young women with disabilities, additional barriers often reside in the deprivation of legal capacity. However, even when they are not formally denied their legal capacity, discriminatory attitudes, including infantilization and dependency on others, particularly family members, constrain their autonomy and opportunities to engage in public and political life. 46. A distinct set of obstacles consists in the legal barriers to freedom of expression on sexual orientation and gender identity that have been introduced in various countries across the world. At the end of 2020, legal barriers to freedom of expression on issues related to sexual and gender diversity existed in at least 42 Member States, including in the form of bans on the dissemination of so-called gender ideology.38 Furthermore, laws criminalizing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer+ persons, pose formidable threats to the activism of girls and young women belonging to that community, forcing many of them to remain silent or impeding them from creating their own organizations and movements. 47. Different types of legal barriers concern the lack of legal recognition of undocumented migrant, refugee and stateless women and girls. Similarly, the lack of recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights in certain countries make the participation of indigenous girls and young women in public life nearly impossible and laws banning face coverings in public spaces may prevent young women and girls of Muslim background from engaging in public and political life. 48. Girls and young women also face great obstacles to accessing information about their human rights and the mechanisms available to them to seek protection against violations of their rights and reparations in cases of violations, sometimes including a lack of specific forms of reparation, such as for online harassment and violence. There is a lack of effective, age- and gender-sensitive procedures, information, advice, legal and other assistance, and 35 36 37 38 12 See A/HRC/40/60. See http://nostraightlines.youngfeministfund.org/. See A/HRC/26/29. See ILGA World, State-sponsored Homophobia. Global Legislation Overview Update (2020).