The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights believes that the current attacks on women’s rights “look like a last attempt by the patriarchy to increase its power”
From Afghanistan to Iran and misogynistic and sexist internet posts, Mr UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expresses its concern about “systematic” attempts to violate women’s rights.
In an interview this week with Agence France-Presse in Geneva, Volker Turk said he wanted to visit Kabul and Tehran to discuss with the authorities.
“Afghanistan is the worst of the worst,” he said. “Repressing women in this way is unprecedented.”
The 58-year-old Austrian, who took up the position in mid-October, expresses concern that, almost 75 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, efforts are increasing, including “insidiously”, to deprive women and girls of their rights.
“I am very concerned about these backslidings and the spread of regressive ideas,” he told AFP. Volker Turk.
Misogyny and efforts to block the path to gender equality may not be new, but she believes there is now “a more systematic, more organized way to attack women’s rights.”
The most telling example, according to Turk, is that of Afghanistan, where the Taliban deprived women of university and secondary education and prohibited NGOs from employing them.
These attacks on women are “a reminder of where a perverse perception can lead” and “we have to make sure that what is happening in this country does not become the norm in the future,” he said.
Like his predecessor, former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, the High Commissioner expects to go to Afghanistan to discuss “with the de facto authorities so that they understand that the development of their country must include women.”
The Austrian UN official has also asked to travel to Iran, which has been rocked by protests that erupted after the September 16 death of a young woman who was arrested for violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women, but Tehran has yet to respond. .
The High Commissioner wants to ask Iran to “remove certain discriminatory practices against women and girls”. He also wants to discuss the crackdown on protests that, according to the Oslo-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR), has left at least 476 people dead and thousands more arrested.
Turk is particularly concerned about the death sentences of protesters. To date, four people have been executed by hanging in connection with the protests.
In addition to measures taken by states, Turk also refers to social media “where misogynist and sexist comments seem to be allowed (…) and to thrive.”
He underlined the need to take “safeguards” so that social media “are responsible and do not add fuel to the fire” especially “on gender issues”.
The algorithms used by the platforms can “very quickly help to amplify hate speech in a very dangerous way,” he said.
Shortly after he took over as head of the High Commission, Volker Turk had written an open letter addressed to the new owner of Twitter Elon Musk, asking him to ensure respect for human rights on the social network.
He initially tried to contact the group working on human rights issues on Twitter, but, as he explained to AFP, “we couldn’t get in touch with anyone because everyone had just been fired.”
Although he is concerned about the current attacks on women’s rights, Turk believes that they “look like a last-ditch effort by the patriarchy to increase its power.” “It’s the old world that’s dying,” he argues.
RES-EMP
Read the News today and get the latest news.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News and be the first to know all the news.
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
