Annotation:
In this report, the Association for
Women's Rights in Development (AWID)
explores the obligations that states have
with respect to international human rights
treaties and conventions, especially in
relation to cultural, social and religious
norms that can undermine the protection
and extension of these rights for women
and other marginalized individuals. They
affirm the precedence that human rights
have over social, cultural, or religious
norms, and posit that states are required
to take positive steps to ensure that
fundamental rights are realized. The AWID
emphasizes education as an important tool
to impact social practices that render
women more vulnerable to violence and
other forms of discrimination. The report
then analyzes how fundamentalist
movements, based on tradition, culture,
religion, nationalism, and ethnicity have
the potential to further marginalize women
and individuals and deny them their
fundamental human rights. The report also
explains how the rise in fundamentalism is
often associated with a state's inability
to meet its population's basic needs.