A/67/287 contradictory state of becoming, in which both social institutions and individual wills are deeply implicated”. 10 12. Gender equality analyses consistently emphasize women’s diverse identities and related implications. The Beijing Declaration adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women, for example, acknowledges, in paragraph 32, that women and girls face multiple barriers “because of such factors as their race, age, language, ethnicity, culture, religion or disability or because they are indigenous people”. “Intersectional” identities oblige women to deal with multiple and many-layered forms of oppression simultaneously. For example, Traveller women in Ireland face “triple discrimination — as Travellers, as women, and as Traveller women”; more in contact with settled people than men, women are more likely to confront racism from outsiders while being blamed by other Travellers if they speak out against negative internal practices, which is perceived as speaking against the community. 11 A dualistic “either/or” perspective on identity cannot account for the interacting, intersecting and shifting positions of domination and subordination that the same person occupies because of her varied identities. 12 13. Recognizing and protecting multiple identities helps to resist and overcome political forces, in particular identity politics, which seek to deny any possibility of pluralism within self and society, as well as gender equality. 14. People must be able to thrive “both as an individual and as a member of larger communities”. Stressing that “women’s full participation in the cultural and political life of the state” is undermined by “the systematic denial of their political, economic, social, civil and other legal rights”, scholars insist that human rights must focus on ensuring “personhood” for women, which is both individualistic and relational. 13 This resonates with the notion of “citizen participation” advanced by gender equality advocates and scholars, for example, in Latin America. One obstacle to such participation is that cultural rights have been the “poor cousins” of economic and social rights, receiving scant attention at the national and international levels. Women’s cultural inequality, coupled with economic and social inequalities, “makes it difficult, if not impossible, for them to exercise their civil and political rights, to enjoy personal autonomy and to participate in the political life of their community or country”. 14 2. Women, the essentialization of culture and power relations 15. “All societies have to address three incontrovertible facts of life: birth, death and the existence of two sexes (at least). Consequently, all societies are obliged to construct gender systems defining the roles, responsibilities and rights of girls/ women and boys/men. Whether of great inequality or more equality, the constructs __________________ 10 11 12 13 14 12-45930 Angela P. Harris, “Race and Essentialism in Feminist Legal Theory”, Stanford Law Review, vol. 42, No. 3 (February 1990), p. 584. Niamh Reilly, “Women’s Rights as Cultural Rights: The Case of the Irish Travellers”, Human Rights Dialogue, Series 2, No. 12 (Spring 2005), special issue: “Cultural Rights”, p. 17. Diane Otto, “Rethinking the ‘Universality’ of Human Rights Law”, Columbia Human Rights Law Review, vol. 29 (Fall 1997), p. 29. Hernández-Truyol, pp. 135, 147, 144 and 146. Gaby Oré Aguilar, “The Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of Women in Latin America: Status and Strategies”, Women’s Health Journal, 1 July 2007, pp. 4 and 11. 7