With the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) still in the process of finalising its systems and procedures, the NGO participation during the 4th session of the Human Rights Council from March 12-30, 2007 in Geneva demanded active engagement at several levels. The NGO support to the UN special mechanisms and procedures currently under review by the HRC was crucial to ensuring the existence and independence of special mechanisms; alongside engaging with the shaping of the Universal Periodic Review. The institutional changes underway demanded as much attention as issue based lobbying for most NGOs present at the 4th session. Further, there were concerns relating to spaces for NGO participation in the HRC and the unpredictability of procedures that needed attention. For women's rights groups, there were additional demands for advocacy towards ensuring both the retention of the existing spaces for women's rights as well as securing integration of women's human rights within the HRC. APWLD's participation in this context became more challenging and crucial - playing as it was the multiple role of endorsing the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women (UNSRVAW), advocating for the strengthening of the special mechanisms, and engaging within the Special mechanisms and the High Commissioner's office to draw attention to the intersections between culture and women's human rights. In addition, it continued its advocacy together with other international and regional groups towards ensuring that the HRC retains, strengthens and expands the mechanisms that address human rights. APWLD made two oral statements at the interactive sessions of the UNHRC. The first statement was on the rights of indigenous women delivered by Olga Djanaeva, Convenor of the APWLD Rural and Indigenous Task Force. She called for the UNHRC to undertake an independent investigation into the political killings of peasant human rights defenders in Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka and India; and urged for immediate intervention to save the lives of Philippine peasant organisers persecuted by the government - Angelina Bisuna-Ipong, Leni Robinos Nicerio and Riza Fanilag. The Philippines government exercised their right to reply to the APWLD statement and reiterated its commitment to addressing complaints related to the rights of indigenous people and "unexplained" killings.

I made the second statement supported by OMCT and IWRAW Asia Pacific, to endorse the work of the UNSRVAW and emphasise the need to strengthen the mandate. In her response to the HRC, Yakin Erturk, UNSRVAW, acknowledged the role of APWLD's regional consultations, calling them a model that other regions could emulate, to help make her mandate stronger and more effective.

Panel Discussions held parallel to the HRC
APWLD initiated its thematic engagement on culture and women's human rights (WHR) through two panel discussions organised parallel to the HRC session, both supported by partner organisations. The panel discussion on 'Intersections between culture and violence against women - concerns and strategies forward' was organised by APWLD together with the Centre for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL) on March 21st with three panellists: Yakin Ert?rk, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Charlotte Bunch, Centre for Women's Global Leadership, and Madhu Mehra, Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development. The panel was moderated by Heisoo Shin, CEDAW Committee Member. The panel discussion commenced with Yakin Erturk acknowledging the APWLD's consultation in September 2006 in Ulaan Bataar, and the potential for the replication of such consultations by other regional organisations. She stressed that addressing violence did not necessarily require a victimisation approach, for the protection of victims must include recognition of empowerment and programmes that facilitate empowerment. She also expressed the need to widely document cultural norms that contribute to violence against women in the west, to continue the work her report had started, to draw attention to structural and ideological barriers arising from culture in the First World. She was glad that the state parties at the HRC session expressed overwhelming support to combat violence against women. She pointed out the need to focus on the United Nations for it to institutionally develop linkages with VAW.

Charlotte Bunch highlighted some critical areas of the debate on culture and VAW. She pointed that although nationally in the US, feminist engagement has historically been seen as a 'cultural war', in the international discourse, northern or western cultures tend to associate culture and VAW with traditional cultures only. In light of this, she emphasised that we need to address both modern and traditional cultures.

I highlighted the concerns that steered APWLD's 2006 regional consultation with the UNSRVAW which the UNSRVAW's recent report had so effectively addressed. I also touched upon the concerns arising from the discourse on culture within the human rights discourse, in relation to its focus on traditional cultures, portrayal of women in traditional cultures predominantly as victims. In addition, I mentioned the problematic focus on cultural forms and practices rather than on the construction of culture itself, such as that in the context of post 9/ 11 global scenario, this approach had only fed into identity politics, fundamentalism, Islamophobia and the war on terror. The approach taken on culture in the 2007 UNSRVAW report and equal attention to contemporary cultures, therefore, signalled a welcome change. In closing, Heisoo Shin recalled the connection of the discussion theme with struggle of comfort women who have asserted accountability from Japan, one of the most powerful states despite their frail physical condition. In doing so, they demonstrated that victimhood is not a continuing condition and that cultural barriers can and are broken everyday by women who speak against sexual violence perpetrated on them and demand state accountability.

The second panel discussion spearheaded by APWLD was on 'Negotiating Culture: Intersections between Culture and Women's Human Rights: How the Special Procedures integrate culture and the human rights of women in their mandates', organised in collaboration with World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and CWGL on March 28th. The aim of the panel was to explore linkages with other UN Special Procedure mandates in relation to culture and women's human rights. Its panellists were Doudou Di?ne, UN Special Rapporteur on racism, Hina Jilani, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on human rights defenders, Madeline Rees, Head of Women's Rights and Gender Unit, OHCHR and Jan Arno Hessbruegge, Assistant to the UNSRVAW. I set out the concerns that compel in the post 9/ 11 context to revisit the constructions of culture so as to ensure women's human rights is not used to demonise Southern countries and immigrant communities, and thereby close rather than expand spaces for women to contest and negotiate culture. I pointed to the shift in the discourse marked by the 2007 UNSRVAW report in this regard and hoped that the other mandates would similarly draw upon intersections of culture with their mandate.

Hina Jilani shared the lessons drawn from her work as a women's human rights defender in Pakistan, in the context of combating honour crimes. Not only is there a greater jeopardy attached to defending women's human rights but also, an assumption in relation to cultural concerns, that social change rather than the law should lead the struggle. Honour crimes enjoyed wide social support in Pakistan putting women human rights defenders like her to additional risk. However, her strategies as a defender rejected the assumption of social change first - and one case that was intensely pursued by her, on which legal and media campaign was mounted nationally and internationally, finally paid off. Women's human rights cannot be put on the back burner or made contingent upon social change as the Pakistan experience has shown. Today, despite lack of explicit law on the subject, public opinion against honour crimes has been mobilised.

Doudou Di?ne approached strategies to combat intersections between culture, racism and gender from another angle. He explained that racism in terms of an economic, social and cultural construction is shaped by the prevalent political context. While the dominant approach in human rights to combating such discrimination has been through the law, this, he felt, only touched the tip of the problem. He placed greater value on political strategy to change the value system that creates racial hierarchies, and views the legal dimension as merely supporting this strategy. Madeline Rees turned the focus on fulfilling economic, social and cultural rights as a pre-condition to securing women's human rights. She also felt that while there is need to deconstruct and surface intersections with a new forms of discrimination, patriarchy must remain the central framework that informs our understanding of how discrimination and exclusion get operationalised. No matter what the manifestation, be it cultural or any other, it stems from patriarchy. She gave examples of how social exclusion resulting from patriarchy leads to denial of women's rights and justice - as seen in the failure of conviction for rape in conflict situations, or the failure of equal pay legislation in all countries. To ensure that social exclusion does not almost always become legal exclusion, social and economic rights need greater attention and centrality. Finally, Jan spoke about the value and difference the UNSRVAW's report offers to expanding women's human rights through adoption of UNESCO's definition of culture. In particular, he pointed to the ways in which this has shifted the understanding of culture from monolithic static terms to changing and heterogeneous understanding that allows one version to be contested by another.

In addition, APWLD supported IWRAW Asia Pacific's panel discussion, together with Human Rights Watch, CWGL and OMCT on 'Integrating Human Rights of Women into the Human Rights Council'. The discussion focused on the Gender Architecture underway and integration of gender in the UNHRC, sharing their experiences and developments that require close monitoring. I shared on the work of APWLD with the UN special mechanisms through which gender integration and intersections had been effectively achieved. Examples of our collaboration and support to UN Special Rapporteurs on adequate housing, migration, internally displaced persons and human rights defenders, in addition to its work with SRVAW were shared.