A/67/287 35. Every community also has multiple other subcultures, comprising groups which either do not accept or do not live according to, or in complete adherence with, the norms prescribed by the dominant culture. These include, depending on the contexts, ethnic or religious minorities, indigenous peoples, migrants, youth, marginalized populations such as the homeless, women, and groups who consciously reject the main dominant culture, for example human rights activists. 31 36. Diverse and dissimilarly positioned groups within the same community have differing levels of acceptance of and dissimilar interests in maintaining or changing dominant cultural norms. They also wield differing levels of power and influence. Hence, some minority or “divergent” voices are ignored, or even completely silenced. A crucial question therefore is which groups are recognized and who within these groups is accepted as the legitimate voice of the “community” by the State and other official entities, as well as the international community. 37. To enjoy equal cultural rights, women must become equal participants and decision makers in all the cultural affairs of their own specific communities, and in the wider “general” society. For this, women’s other human rights must be ensured, in particular their rights to freedom of movement, freedom of opinion and expression, religion or belief, and freedom of association, and freedom to participate in social, economic and political life, including in the decision-making processes in these arenas. 38. Conversely, realizing women’s cultural rights, which encompass the right to transform existing cultural patterns and thinking, is essential for realizing women’s human rights more generally. North or South, “[a]ll cultures contain spheres in which is it impossible for the members ‘to think that they are thinking wrongly’ — things are obvious, self-evident and natural”, resulting in zones of self-imposed silences and rules being “adhered to because they are perceived as a moral duty and because they may be sanctioned by, for instance, some people becoming angry if such duties are not performed”. 32 Gender equality cannot be achieved without overcoming such internalized obstacles in cultural life and, therefore, without ensuring the realization of cultural rights for women and girls. 39. In this sense, cultural rights are empowering, for they provide individuals with control over the course of their lives, facilitating the enjoyment of other rights. 33 A large part of the transformative aspect of cultural rights is being able to overturn presumed female and male characteristics and capabilities which, to a large extent, determine the scope of activities that a man or a woman can undertake in a given society. 34 This corresponds to the wider goals of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The Convention aims to achieve __________________ 31 32 33 34 12 Farida Shaheed, “Violence Against Women Legitimised by Arguments of ‘Culture’: Thoughts from a Pakistani Perspective”, in Due Diligence and Its Application to Protect Women from Violence, Carin Benninger-Budel, ed. (Brill, 2008). Tove Bolstad, “Kar-Contracts in Norway: Agreements Made by Men Concerning Women’s Work, Ownership and Lives”, Working Papers in Women’s Law No. 46, August 1995, University of Oslo, Department of Public Law, Institute of Women’s Law, pp. 26 and 27. Fons Coomans, “Content and Scope of the Right to Education as a Human Right and Obstacles to Its Realization”, in Human Rights in Education, Science and Culture: Legal Development and Challenges, Yvonne Donders and Vladimir Volodin, eds. (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2007), p. 185. See, for example, Women, Culture and Development: A Study of Human Capabilities, Martha Nussbaum and Jonathan Glover, eds. (Oxford University Press, reprinted 2007). 12-45930