“The proposal is discriminatory and violates the human rights of women who choose to wear a veil to cover their face,” the organization stated in a press release today.
The Portuguese parliament approved on Friday, in general terms, a bill by the Chega party to ban the use of burqas and other face-covering veils in public spaces, citing women’s rights and security issues.
According to Amnesty International, the implementation of this measure also has “implications on the right to privacy, the right to freedom of expression, and the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and demonstration.”
Expressing serious doubts about the compatibility of this ban with the country’s obligations under international human rights law, Amnesty emphasizes that “no policymaker should dictate what a woman can or cannot wear.”
Furthermore, the organization argued, “no woman should be penalized 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 doing little to protect those who wear it against their will, who may face greater exclusion or confinement as a result.”
While acknowledging that face-covering veils, such as ‘burqas’ and ‘niqabs,’ may pose security issues, Amnesty International suggests that individuals “can be required to reveal their faces when objectively necessary, for example, for identity checks,” noting that this is already provided for under Portuguese law.
The ban in Portugal on the use of burqas and other face-covering veils for women in public spaces follows a trend adopted in more than 20 countries in recent years, initiated by France in 2011.
These countries, including Spain, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, and the Netherlands, among others, commonly justify the decision with the need to protect secular values, combat religious extremism, or for reasons of public security.
