Backing Reem Alsalem: Championing the Fight Against Sex-Based Violence
Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
The LGB Alliance Australia supports the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Ms Reem Alsalem.
For executing her mandate without fear or favour by
emphasising the biological basis of discrimination experienced by women and girls,[1]
pointing out the deprioritisation of sex-related data collection due in large part to a deliberate conflation of sex and gender,[1,2] and
underscoring the ramifications of this conflation for understanding and preventing sex-based violence, especially its consequences for the viability of single sex spaces,[1,2]
Ms Alsalem has been accused of weaponising the protection of women’s rights,[3] assuming a harmful position against legal gender recognition,[4] and undermining her mandate as Special Rapporteur.[4]
These accusations are baseless and have been rejected and decisively refuted by Ms Alsalem,[5] whose record both as Special Rapporteur and as an advocate for the rights of women and girls and for human rights more broadly is unimpeachable.
Ms Alsalem is fulfilling her mandate with the honesty, integrity, compassion, discernment, and courage befitting her office, attributes which are lamentably in short supply amongst some of her colleagues at the UN.
The LGB Alliance Australia commends Ms Alsalem: a vital and dauntless voice on the global stage for the interests and sex-based rights of women and girls.
[1] https://sdg-action.org/repression-of-women-is-blocking-the-sdgs/
[2] https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=27681
[3] https://www.awid.org/news-and-analysis/there-no-place-anti-trans-agendas-un