UN Criticizes France’s Hijab Ban for Athletes at 2024 Paris Olympics

The UN opposes the ban on the hijab for French athletes. Responding to a question during the regular UN press briefing in Geneva, Marta Hurtado, spokeswoman for the High Commissioner, said: "In general, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights believes that no one should impose on a woman what she must or must not wear." She also recalled that the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women requires all parties - including France - to take "all appropriate measures necessary to modify any social or cultural pattern based on the idea of the inferiority or superiority of either sex."

"Discriminatory practices against a group can have harmful consequences. That is why, according to international human rights standards, restrictions on the expression of religions or beliefs, such as the choice of clothing, are only acceptable in very specific circumstances that respond in a proportionate and necessary way to legitimate concerns about public security, public order, public health or morality," added the UN official.

Invited to the Dimanche en politique program on France 3, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra affirmed that France remains committed to a "strict secularism regime." "This means the prohibition of any form of proselytism, the absolute neutrality of the public service," explained the Minister of Sports. The representatives of our delegations in our French teams will not wear the veil." A policy that is the opposite of the discourse of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). "The IOC, which governs the rules of participation, is on a logic that consists of apprehending the wearing of the veil not as a cultic factor but as a cultural factor," acknowledged Castéra.

The French minister recalled that the French position was based on a decision of the Council of State. In June, the supreme administrative court in France rejected the request of the Hijabeuses - a collective of Muslim players who were demanding the cancellation of