The UN reiterated on Tuesday September 26 its opposition in principle to imposing or prohibiting women from wearing clothing, in reaction to the ban on French athletes wearing the Islamic veil at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. (JOP) of Paris, in 2024, in the name of secularism.
“In general, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights believes that no one should dictate to a woman what she should or should not wear”said the spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Marta Hurtado, in response to a question during the regular UN press briefing in Geneva about the statements of the French Minister of Sports and Olympic Games , Amélie Oudéa-Castéra.
The minister explained on Sunday in the program “ Dimanche en politique ” on France 3 that, if the International Olympic Committee “is based on a logic which consists of understanding the wearing of the veil not as a religious factor but as a cultural factor”, the French government is “attached to a regime of strict secularism, strictly applied in the field of sport. What does it mean ? This means the prohibition of any form of proselytism, it means the absolute neutrality of the public service, therefore that the representatives of our delegations, in our French teams, will not wear the veil. »
Mme Hurtado recalled that the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women requires all parties to take “all appropriate measures necessary to modify any social or cultural model based on the idea of inferiority or superiority of one or the other sex”.
“But these discriminatory practices can have harmful consequences”she argued, this is why, “Under international human rights standards, restrictions on the expression of religions or beliefs, such as choice of clothing, are only acceptable in very specific circumstances that proportionally and necessary address concerns legitimate in matters of public security, public order, public health or morality”.
At the end of June, the Council of State ruled that the French Football Federation could enact the rules it considers necessary for ” the good proceedings “ matches and was, as such, justified in prohibiting the wearing of the hijab on the pitches.