E/CN.4/2002/73/Add.2 page 5 Introduction 1. At the dawn of this third millennium, many women across the world suffer discrimination in their private and family lives and in relation to their status in society. Such discrimination, which is deeply rooted in the dominant culture of some countries, is largely based on or imputed to religion. It is often trivialized and tolerated by the State or society and sometimes sanctioned by law. In some cases it assumes very cruel forms and denies women their most fundamental rights, such as the right to life, integrity or dignity.1 2. Universal protection of the rights of women is a recent development but has seen considerable progress. Women’s rights occupy an increasingly important place in the operation of United Nations bodies responsible for the protection of human rights, and virtually all international human rights instruments incorporate, in their respective fields, provisions concerning the principles of gender equality and non-discrimination. However, women’s rights may not have received the attention that they warrant in the face of collective manifestations of some individual freedoms, notably freedom of religion or belief, as recognized in international instruments.2 3. Compatibility between certain individual rights, including freedom to practise a religion or faith or to observe rites, and women’s fundamental rights as universal rights poses a major problem. The problem stems from the fact that the right to engage in certain practices injurious to women’s health or their position before the law or their status in general is claimed by persons, communities or States pursuing those practices or perceiving them as a component of freedom of religion and as a religious duty by which they and their ancestors have been bound from time immemorial and which in their eyes appear unrelated to issues concerned with the universal protection of women’s rights. Universality of the rights of women as individuals thus draws us into a classic yet still topical debate, that of the universality of human rights, and women’s rights in particular, in the face of cultural diversity. The issue is a sensitive one since practices or norms that impair the status of women originate, from the standpoint of the discriminator, in what are regarded as deeply held beliefs and, on a practical level, in rules, regulations or values based on or imputed to religion. One may seek to define them but, as will be seen, they are not always readily distinguishable from a society’s cultural or ethnic identity dimension. 4. Freedom of religion or belief, which entails the legitimate assertion of a right to be different and to respect for cultural diversity, is to some extent incompatible with the universality of women’s rights, whether in society or specifically within the family. That paradox—which may at first sight be surprising or even shocking—shows the difficulty of coexistence between certain rights when exercised by a specific community and the fundamental rights of each of the members of that community, especially women. This is particularly the case since it is in general women who are often the first and main victims of the exercise of conflicting asserted rights and of the adverse consequences arising from a certain view of freedom of religion, notably in situations of conflict or ethnic or cultural identity crisis. 5. Those issues and the conceptual contradiction between the cultural dimension of freedom of religion and the fundamental rights of women as individuals in the light of religion and traditions will form the framework of the present study. The significance of that contradiction can be understood only after an attempt is made to define religion and explain its relationship