A/HRC/59/62 women are disproportionately affected by gender-based violence and forced sterilizations, which often occur with impunity.33 Moreover, in some European countries, Roma persons aged under 15 and/or Roma persons aged over 65 are more likely that non-Roma persons of the same age to live in poverty. Young Roma persons are more likely to experience harassment motivated by their ethnicity.34 Studies shows that, on average, Roma women live 11 years less than their non-Roma counterparts. The life expectancy gap is most pronounced in Croatia (15.7 years for women) and Czechia (13.4 years for men).35 This pattern emphasizes the compounded effect of ethnicity and gender on life expectancy, with Roma women facing some of the worst outcomes. 26. Against the background of the occupation and ongoing systemic violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Palestinian women and girls are at heightened risk of grave human rights violations and increased economic and social marginalization. The massive destruction has caused irreparable damage, subjecting Palestinian women and girls to a protracted humanitarian crisis with no access to basic food and healthcare. The combined impact of race, religion and geography exacerbates the marginalization of Palestinian women and girls. Such intersectional impacts of the policies of Israel on women and children have been recognized. For example, the settlement policy and control of water resources by Israel in the West Bank mean that supplying water to Israeli settlements is prioritized, at the expense of Palestinian communities. Resulting water shortages in some Palestinian communities affect Palestinian women and girls in particular, because they have additional needs for water for hygiene. There has also been a decline in the agricultural sector as a result of the policies of Israel, which has disproportionately affected employment opportunities for Palestinian women, further exacerbating their exclusion, financial instability, marginalization and oppression.36 27. Dalit persons in South Asian countries, including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, face intersectional discrimination stemming from overlapping identities of caste, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, disability and religion. These intersecting factors reinforce marginalization, limiting access to education, employment, health, political participation and justice among Dalit persons. For example, 70.4 per cent of Dalit women reported difficulty in accessing healthcare when they needed it.37 These challenges are the result of systemic caste-based discrimination, inadequate healthcare infrastructure in marginalized areas, and economic vulnerabilities. This triple-layered marginalization, often termed “tripartite marginalization”, is rooted in caste, gender and poverty, further exacerbating their exclusion from essential health services. Dalit women are particularly affected and are disproportionately trapped in informal, hazardous labour situations, such as manual scavenging. 38 The interconnection between caste and occupation further exacerbates the status of Dalit women, particularly in the context of manual scavenging. A vast majority of those occupied in manual scavenging are Dalit women who are subjected 33 34 35 36 37 38 GE.25-07755 A/HRC/32/44, para. 57; CERD/C/SVK/CO/13, paras. 30 and 31; CERD/C/CZE/CO/12-13, paras. 19 and 20; and submission from Global Forum of Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent. Submission from European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, Roma in 10 European Countries (Vienna, 2022), p. 47. See the conference room paper of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel entitled “‘More than a human can bear’: Israel’s systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since 7 October 2023”, available on the web page of the fifty-eighth session of the Human Rights Council, at https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/regular-sessions/session58/list-reports; and International Court of Justice, Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, Advisory Opinion, 19 July 2024, Declaration of Judge Charlesworth, para. 6. India, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4): 2015-16:(Mumbai, 2017), table 11.21. “Manual scavenging” is manually cleaning, carrying, disposing of, or otherwise handling in any manner, human excreta in an insanitary latrine or in an open drain or pit into which the human excreta from the insanitary latrines is disposed of, or on a railway track or in such other spaces or premises before the excreta fully decomposes (see https://ncsk.nic.in/sites/default/files/manualscaact19913635738516382444610.pdf). 9