In this week’s episode, Emma Park speaks to Josephine Macintosh, a solicitor and vice president of the National Secular Society, about her work representing the NSS at the United Nations.
Earlier this year, Josephine attended the 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council at Geneva. She made submissions on behalf of the NSS on its objections to male circumcision, proposed reforms to Italian law to counter child abuse in the Catholic Church, and the need for the UK to legislate explicitly against caste discrimination.
She discusses the content of these submissions, the process of presenting them at the UN and lobbying for support, and why it’s vital for the NSS to be represented at international level. She also talks about the constraints that the coronavirus is likely to place on the UN’s human rights work.
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Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/zdfQeKP8Tj8
Transcripts: https://www.secularism.org.uk/transcripts
Notes
43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session43/Pages/43RegularSession.aspx
Protect all children from ritual genital cutting, NSS tells UN
NSS raises Italy’s response to child abuse in Catholic Church at UN
The Vatican Is Talking About Clerical Abuse, but Italy Isn’t – New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/22/world/europe/italy-catholic-church-pope-francis-abuse.html
Outlaw caste discrimination
https://www.secularism.org.uk/outlaw-caste-discrimination/
NSS urges UN to push government to pass law on caste discrimination
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