Dr Montserrat Gas Aixendri, Full Professor in the Faculty of Law at UIC Barcelona, participated in the international seminar on Global Law and Religion organised by the Central European University of Vienna on freedom of religion and gender equality. This was held as the result of a report submitted to the Human Rights Council in 2020 by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Ahmed Shaheed.

In her talk, Gas presented the challenges of the intersection between two fundamental rights such as religious freedom and gender equality in the context of academic research. She also stressed that gender equality is not a unique concept but is open and permeable to different cultures and sensitivities. In that sense, she added that religion must not be placed in opposition to gender equality and that, in the event of conflict, people’s rights must be weighed up and limited only when necessary. Finally, she mentioned that it has had an impact on the neutrality of states, which cannot impose certain views of gender equality on religious groups, and on the autonomy of religious entities in terms of finding gender balances that can be combined with their own beliefs.

In addition to Ahmed Shaheed, his predecessor as UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Heiner Bielefeldt, and lecturers and subject specialists from different universities in Europe also participated in this international seminar.