A/72/155 Report of the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights Summary Building on her previous report on diverse forms of fundamentalism and extremism as threats to cultural rights, the Special Rapporteur elaborates on their grave impact on the cultural rights of women. She stresses that a human rights-based response to fundamentalism and extremism must by fully gender sensitive, centering the cultural rights and equality of women, and defending universality. Women ’s human rights, including cultural rights, are an essential part of the fight against fundamentalism and extremism, without which it cannot succeed. Contents Page I. II. III. IV. 2/23 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 A. Defining and understanding fundamentalism and extremism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 B. A women’s human rights approach to fundamentalism and extremism, with cultural rights at its core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 International legal framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 A. Relevant international standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 B. Analysis of fundamentalism and extremism in the United Nations system . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Fundamentalism, extremism and women’s cultural rights: a survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 A. Women’s freedom of artistic expression and attacks against women artists . . . . . . . . . . . 14 B. Women’s right to take part in cultural life without discrimination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 C. Attacks against others based on their perceived or assumed “difference” . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 D. Right to education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Conclusions and recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 A. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 B. Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 17-12043