majority women. There needs to be a similar acknowledgement in recommendation 30 that harmful
practices are not only found in minority communities. Without that explicit recognition, there is a
danger of the recommendations perpetuating stereotypes of minority communities. This can lead to
two different problems:
a)
that states ignore harmful practices within minority communities because they are
reluctant to interfere with cultural practices. This means that minority women are not
protected on an equal basis as other women or
b)
that states use the existence of harmful practices as a reason to crack down on all
cultural practices of the minority whether harmful or not. This results in discrimination
against the community.
,
In practice we suggest the following amendments to recommendation 30. It should
start by saying that "All women have the right to protection from harmful practices.
Harmful practices may be found in all communities — majority and minority". It
should then go on to state "Governments should take measures to eliminate all
harmful traditional and cultural practices, including those that discriminate against
minority women and girls..." followed by the rest of the recommendation.