3 The role of gender and equality in our efforts to promote freedom of religion or belief

Freedom of religion or belief gives individuals and groups the right to interpret their religion in line with their convictions. Religion cannot legitimize gender-based discrimination and oppression. Discrimination based on gender and sexuality nevertheless has a long history, and gender equality can be a controversial topic within religions. All over the world, people are affected by restrictive gender norms and other structural barriers. Religiously based gender roles can also limit women’s and LGBT+ people’s rights and opportunities to participate in society. Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and LGBT+ equality and human rights are particularly controversial. Increased efforts against discrimination and abuse based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression are necessary to achieve equality for all. In all our efforts, we must ensure that we do not contribute to harm.

To effectively combat gender-based discrimination and promote human rights we must know and understand the religious and cultural context. This includes understanding that different gender identities and expressions exist in cultures and traditions in all parts of the world. Women and LGBT+ persons can be part of the same religious communities that oppose their rights. Therefore, the right to believe in a religious interpretation that includes equality in diversity, related to gender as well as sexuality, must also be defended based on freedom of religion or belief. Equally so must the right to gather to practice one’s belief be defended based on freedom of assembly.

Cooperation with religious actors will be important for achieving gender equality. In several contexts, religious leaders can be positive and constructive actors who use their influence to emphasize that violations of women’s and LGBT+ rights cannot be justified by religion. For some religious leaders, however, questions about SRHR and LGBT+ rights will be difficult. Although gender and equality are dealt with together in this guidance tool, this does not mean that representatives of the Foreign Service must address these issues at the same time. The local context should determine how these questions are raised in meetings with local actors.

Gender equality

Several religions are associated with traditional patriarchal traditions which, on the one hand, recognize men and women as valuable and created by God, but which, on the other hand, promote gendered power structures that work against women and LGBT+ people.

Gender equality is necessary for inclusive and sustainable development, and the right to freedom of religion or belief is a fundamental freedom. Nevertheless, there is a widespread opinion that the right to freedom of religion or belief and the human rights of women and LGBT+ persons are in conflict. Gender equality has become a struggle that also applies to the right to freedom of religion or belief.

Conservative political and religious groups are mobilizing against increased gender equality. Acceptance of gender and sexuality diversity is portrayed as a threat to family, tradition, and nation, often with reference to religious scriptures or doctrines. These forces are referred to as the “anti-gender movement” and have a negative impact on women’s and LGBT+ rights in many countries. Conservative and religious groups often refer to traditional family values to mark opposition to what are portrayed as Western secular values. A particular aim of this movement is to limit women’s right to sexual and reproductive health, to maintain or introduce bans on same-sex sexual relations, to fight against the right of homosexuals and lesbians to found a family, and the right of trans people to define their gender identity. Conservative Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups have at times stood together on such views.

The women’s rights movement has been largely secular and often given little attention to the role of religion in women’s lives. Still, there are many examples of women and others who use their faith to fight for gender equality, anchored in their religion or beliefs.

Several Muslim majority countries have entered reservations against articles in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women on the basis of sharia law. This especially applies to article 16 on the elimination of discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage. Among the Western countries, only the United States has not ratified the convention.

The priorities for the Norwegian efforts to promote gender equality are outlined in the Action Plan for Women’s Rights and Gender Equality in Norway’s Foreign and Development Policy and Development Policy, “A just world is an equal world”, which was launched in 2023. It includes an emphasis on combating patriarchal power structures and restrictive gender norms, based on cultural and religious traditions among other factors. Changing norms and power relations and strengthening women’s individual and collective influence and decision-making authority is the basis for this. Dialogue and cooperation with religious leaders and faith-based organizations and networks that can contribute to promoting progressive voices working for gender equality will be important to achieve the goals of the Action Plan.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

Everyone has a right to decide over their own bodies and sexuality, and to be able to realise their sexual and reproductive rights. This is a matter of freedom and dignity. The right to decide over one’s own body and sexuality is also about self-determination of one’s own gender, which is fundamental to personal freedom and identity.

In its international efforts to promote gender equality, the Norwegian Government will give priority to support women’s right to decide over their own bodies. On a global basis, Norway works to protect and strengthen the normative framework for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and to promote non-discrimination in access to health services. SRHR is part of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 3.7 on gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. Key elements included in SRHR are sexuality education, family planning, contraception, safe childbirth and safe abortion. Securing SRHR can help prevent unwanted pregnancies, and unnecessary pain and death during pregnancy.

In recent years, opposition to SRHR work has increased. The opposition is justified by the fact that SRHR threatens family values, culture, and morality. It will be important to be aware of the authorities’ and religious leaders’ use of power politics to oppose progress in this area.

There are also contradictions internationally between the right to protect unborn life and the right to safe abortion. The right to self-determined and safe abortion is challenged in several countries through restrictive legislation, prohibitions, and stigmatization. This happens even though banning abortion does not reduce the number of abortions, but causes more women, especially younger women, to die because of unsafe abortions. From the Norwegian side, we are concerned that women’s right to SRHR and safe abortion cannot be restricted with reference to religious traditions.

Gender-based violence

Female genital mutilation, child- and forced marriage, domestic and intimate partner violence, and honor killings prevent gender equality. Children, especially girls, around the world are particularly vulnerable to discrimination and harmful practices. The work against gender-based violence is enshrined in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 5. In some societies, violent cultures of honor are legitimized with reference to religion. According to human rights, religion does not allow for discrimination, nor permits violence or harmful practices. Such attitudes must be combated. In all our work, we must ensure that we do not contribute to violations of human rights. This is part of the operationalization of human rights and equality as a cross-cutting issue.

The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention) is the most comprehensive international human rights treaty on the protection of women against gender-based violence. The Convention safeguards non-discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity. The Convention recognises violence against women as a violation of human rights.

The main purpose of the Convention is to prevent violence, protect victims and ensure prosecution of perpetrators. The Convention also aims to increase awareness and change attitudes. It states that violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between women and men in society. In some religious communities, women are largely confined to the home, and domestic violence is hidden and considered to be a private family matter. This makes it more difficult for women to get the protection to which they are entitled.

The Convention supports SDG 5 Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, in particular targets 5.2 and 5.3 that deal with the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls. The Convention is binding for all countries that have ratified it and serves as inspiration for other countries as well.

The right to freedom of religion or belief, in a gender perspective, entails that all people have the same rights regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. In 2011, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and in 2016 it appointed an independent expert on the topic with a mandate to assess and address various aspects of the resolution. This mandate has provided an important basis for documenting abuse of LGBT+ people, and for making recommendations on the protection of LGBT+ people and their rights to member countries. In 2023, the UN Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity presented a thematic report on freedom of religion or belief and freedom from violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression are a problem throughout the world. Engaging in same-sex relations is still a crime in some countries, and some have laws that impose the death penalty as a legal punishment for it. LGBT+ people are at higher risk of being subjected to physical and sexual violence, or forced to submit to conversion therapy, exorcism and other practices designed to make people change, renounce or suppress their identities. Individuals experience stigmatisation, abuse and exclusion both within their family and in their local community, and this has long-term negative impacts on their physical and mental health and quality of life. In 2020, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief put forward recommendations related to gender-based discrimination and violence, including against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people.

In many countries and communities, religious groups claim that religious teachings prohibit same-sex relations and take the view that gender is purely biologically determined. Religious leaders, authority figures and others deny that LGBT+ people are entitled to equal status and human rights, invoking the need to protect religious and traditional values as justification. Growing resistance to comprehensive sexuality education in schools illustrates the broad mobilisation that is emerging in many countries against the rights of LGBT+ people and gender equality in general.

For many people, religion and beliefs are of existential importance. People who are excluded from a religious community because of their sexual orientation or gender identity may be prevented from practising their faith and vulnerable to harmful conversion therapy. Both the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and other UN agencies have recommended that countries implement measures to prohibit or abolish conversion therapy.

Norway is at the forefront internationally in efforts to combat discrimination and abuse based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. Norway’s national Action Plan for Gender and Sexuality Diversity focuses on, among other things, LGBT+ people in religious communities. The Action Plan also includes measures for international efforts, including for sexual and reproductive health and rights for all.

What is the role of the Foreign Service?

• Increase the interaction between groups working to promote freedom of religion or belief and those working to promote the rights of women and LGBT+ people and gender equality, locally, nationally, and internationally, including with the foreign service’s strategic partners in the field. (See Appendix 4 in the electronic edition).
• Play an active role in supporting international efforts protecting gender equality, including close collaboration with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in combatting religiously justified gender-based violence.
• Contribute to the development of Norwegian positions and recommendations for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in the UN Human Rights Council, which promotes freedom of religion or belief in a way that ensures the rights of women and LGBT+ people.
• Strengthen gender equality and women’s right to participation and co-determination through establishing dialogue and cooperation with religious leaders and faith-based organisations.
• Strengthen the right to self-determination when it comes to bodily autonomy and sexuality by intensifying Norwegian efforts, establish alliances with faith-based organizations, and increase support for activities relating to family planning, contraception, safe abortions, and SRHR for all.
• Foster dialogue with progressive forces in the area of freedom of religion or belief to safeguard women’s access to safe abortion and use development aid as a tool in promoting safe abortion in countries where it is possible to collaborate with local actors.
• Emphasise that the right to freedom of religion or belief cannot be used to restrict the right of women and LGBT+ persons to realise their human rights, including their sexual and reproductive rights.
• Underline that gender equality entails the ability of all women to realise their rights, including their sexual and reproductive rights, and highlight that access to SRHR enables women to obtain an education and engage in paid employment, and also prevents unnecessary suffering and death caused by pregnancy.
• Identify and mobilise untraditional actors, including liberal faith-based organisations, to promote gender equality efforts.
• Combat religiously motivated persecution and discrimination against people based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Facilitate safe meeting places and dialogue between religious leaders, women’s organisations and LGBT+ organisations.
• Ensure that partners who receive financial support for the promotion of freedom of religion or belief do not counter Norway’s efforts for gender equality and human rights.
• Contribute to knowledge building to support locally adapted measures against discrimination and harmful practices against at women, children, and LGBT+ people.