A/HRC/43/48 I. Activities of the Special Rapporteur 1. In its resolution 40/10, adopted on 21 March 2019, the Human Rights Council extended the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief for a period of three years. The current mandate holder, Ahmed Shaheed, assumed his mandate on 1 November 2016, following his appointment by the Council during its thirty-second session. 2. An overview of the activities of the mandate holder between 1 March and 31 July 2019 is provided in the report presented to the General Assembly at its seventy-fourth session (A/74/358). The Special Rapporteur participated in the seventh meeting of the Istanbul Process for Combating Intolerance, Discrimination and Incitement to Hatred and/or Violence on the Basis of Religion or Belief, held in The Hague on 18 and 19 November 2019, and took part in the validation meeting of the #Faith4Rights toolkit1 in Collonges, France, on 18 and 19 December 2019. He undertook a number of activities to advance the recommendations in his report to the General Assembly on combating antisemitism, including participating in a workshop in Geneva on 16 and 17 December 2019 on the role of education, and giving evidence at a hearing on antisemitism organized by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom and held in Washington, D.C., on 8 January 2020. The Special Rapporteur also took part in the meeting of the International Contact Group on Freedom of Religion or Belief, held in The Hague on 20 November 2019. II. Introduction 3. The year 2020 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a pivotal document affirming women’s rights and equality, and five years since 193 countries signed on to the most ambitious development agenda in history, the Sustainable Development Goals, which included a pledge to achieve gender equality and leave no one behind. In this regard, this past decade has witnessed significant advances in protections for the human rights of women, girls and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) persons, accompanied by a worldwide escalation in challenges to these efforts. 4. The Secretary-General recently reported that, although there had been a significant global decline in the practices of female genital mutilation, and early and forced marriage, in the past decade, at least 200 million girls and women had been subjected to female genital mutilation, and some 30 per cent of women aged 20 to 24 years had been married before the age of 18 years. 2 An estimated 295,000 women died of causes related to pregnancy or childbirth in 2017, most of which were preventable; 3 globally, women parliamentarians risk harassment and violence for their work;4 and a typical economy this past decade gave women only three-fourths of the legal rights of men. 5 Seventy-two countries worldwide criminalize same-sex relationships; up to 11 States impose the death penalty for homosexual acts. Only 10 per cent of States have laws that protect against discrimination based on gender identity. 6 5. Fundamental to these challenges, the Secretary-General notes, is “insufficient progress on structural issues at the root of gender inequality, such as legal discrimination, unfair social norms and attitudes, decision-making on sexual and reproductive issues, and low levels of political participation”.7 At risk are the crucial international goals of combating gender-based discrimination and violence, in addition to the longstanding critical objectives tethered to these aspirations. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 2 See www.ohchr.org/Documents/Press/faith4rights-toolkit.pdf. See https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/24978Report_of_the_SG_on_ SDG_Progress_2019.pdf. See www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/Maternal_mortality_report.pdf. Inter-Parliamentary Union, Sexism, Harassment and Violence against Women in Parliaments in Europe (2016). See https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/31327/WBL2019.pdf. See www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23092&LangID=E. See https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/24978Report_of_the_SG_on_SDG_ Progress_2019.pdf.