“The proposal is discriminatory and violates the human rights of women who choose to wear a veil to cover their face”says the organization in a statement. On Friday, the Portuguese Parliament approved, in general, the Chega party’s bill to ban the use of burqas and other veils that hide the face in public spaces, citing women’s rights and security issues.
For Amnesty, the application of this measure also has “implications for the right to privacy, the right to freedom of expression and the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and demonstration”.
Reporting that it has serious doubts about the compatibility of this ban with the country’s obligations under international human rights law, Amnesty emphasizes that “no political decision-maker should dictate what a woman can or cannot wear”.
Furthermore, the organization argued, “no woman should be punished for exercising her faith, cultural identity or beliefs.”
For Amnesty International, this ban, “far from defending women’s rights” violates “the rights of those who choose to wear full-face veils, while at the same time it would do little to protect those who do so against their will, who risk greater exclusion or confinement as a result”.
While recognizing that veils that cover the face, such as ‘burqas’ and ‘niqabs’, can pose security concerns, Amnesty International suggests that people “may be forced to reveal their faces when objectively necessary, for example, for identity checks”, remembering that this is already provided for in Portuguese law.
To RTP, Amnesty International’s investigation coordinator, Inês Subtil, said that the measure violates rights enshrined in the Portuguese Constitution.What does the bill say?
The ban on “clothing designed to hide the face” in public spaces was approved this Friday by the Assembly of the Republic. The initiative came from Chega and brought together the support of PSD, CDS-PP and Liberal Initiative. PS, Livre, PCP and Bloco de Esquerda voted against, while PAN and JPP chose to abstain.
The bill from André Ventura’s party says that the objective is to prohibit the use of “clothing intended to hide or obstruct the display of the face” and gives examples such as Denmark, France or Belgium, which have already banned the use of the Islamic veil in public spaces.
“The prohibition (…) does not apply whenever such appearance is duly justified for health reasons or professional, artistic and entertainment or advertising reasons”, clarifies the document, adding that the prohibition also does not apply “to airplanes or in diplomatic and consular installations, and faces can also be covered in places of worship and other sacred places”. The text now goes down to the specialist to be refined before the final global vote. If this diploma is made viable in a final global vote, the use of burqas or other similar clothing will be prohibited.
The ban in Portugal on the use of burqas and other veils that cover women’s faces in public spaces follows a trend that has been adopted in more than 20 countries in recent years, initiated by France in 2011.
These countries, which include Spain, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, among others, commonly justify the decision with the need to protect secular values, combat religious extremism or for reasons of public security.
w/Lusa
