Issued on: 02/11/2022 -
Iran has been rocked by protests following the death of Mahsa Amini after she was arrested over the way she was wearing her headscarf - AFPGeneva (AFP) – The new United Nations rights chief voiced deep concerns Wednesday over a swelling "pushback" on women's rights across much of the world.
During his first press conference as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk said he was deeply worried to see rises in misogynistic attitudes and efforts to reverse the rights of women and girls in many countries.
There has been "a real pushback, and that's very worrying and it affects women and girls in many parts of the world in a way that is unparallelled," he told reporters.
Turk, who became the UN rights chief two weeks ago, did not point to specific country situations.
His comments however came as Iran continues to be rocked by over six weeks of deadly protests following the death of Mahsa Amini after she was arrested by the morality police in Tehran over the way she was wearing her headscarf.
Protests are also continuing, albeit on a much smaller scale, in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have issued a slew of restrictions controlling women's lives since they returned to power in August 2021.
They have also blocked girls from returning to secondary schools and barred women from many government jobs.
Turk meanwhile hinted that there was a much broader trend of pushbacks against women's rights "both in the global north and in the global south".
'Very divided world'
The Austrian national, who has spent most of his career within the UN system, voiced alarm at a growing "strongman mentality" and "autocratic tendencies" in a number of places.
This was contributing to an erosion of civic space and "the repression of and the silencing of dissent," with particular impacts for women and girls, he said.
Small protests are also continuing in Afghanistan, after the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 Wakil KOHSAR AFPSlamming "the rise in misogyny and misogynistic attitudes", he insisted that this was not something we should need to "even deal with ... in the 21st century".
More broadly, Turk voiced deep concern about the deepening geopolitical divisions at a time when the world is still wallowing in the Covid crisis and reeling from the conflict in Ukraine.
"I am taking up my function in a world where we see a lot of geopolitical tensions, where we see a lot of fragmentation within the international system," he said.
"We face incredible challenges... We are in a very divided world."
Turk warned that countries' refusal to cooperate towards resolving those challenges was taking a dire toll on the respect for human rights "which we cannot afford".
© 2022 AFP
UN chief warns of ‘relentless’ pushback on women’s rights
By EDITH M. LEDERER
March 11, 2019
In this Friday, March 8, 2019 photo provided by the United Nations, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, third from right, executive director of UN Women, speaks at the United Nations Observance of International Women's Day at the United Nations headquarters. Mlambo-Ngcuka is calling for the revolution in technology to be used to benefit the world's poor and especially women who will not achieve gender equality without "the giant leap that 21st century innovations can bring." At left is U.N. secretary General Antonio Guterres, and at right is Geraldine Byrne-Nason, chair of the Commission on the Status of Women and Permanent Representative of Ireland to the United Nations.
(Eskinder Debebe/The United Nations via AP)
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Monday that there is a “deep, pervasive and relentless” pushback on women’s rights and called for a fight to “push back against the pushback.”
Calling himself “a proud feminist,” the U.N. chief said, “It is a fight we must win — together.”
Guterres spoke at the opening of the annual meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women, which since its establishment in 1947 has been committed to achieving “equality with men in all fields of human enterprise.”
The secretary-general told hundreds of ministers, delegates and representatives from civil society and business that the U.N. body could equally go by another name: “the Commission on the Status of Power — because this is the crux of the issue.”
While advocates for gender equality are mobilizing as never before, Guterres said, “around the world, there is a pushback on women’s rights.”
He pointed to increased violence against women, especially defenders of human rights and women running for political office. He cited “online abuse of women who speak out,” women 26 percent less likely to be employed than men, and “an ongoing uphill battle for reproductive rights.”
“And nationalist, populist and even austerity agendas are tearing social fabric — aggravating inequality, splintering communities, curtailing women’s rights and cutting vital services,” Guterres said.
The fight against these negative trends is a fight that must be won, he said.
“So let us say it loud and clear,” Guterres said. “We will not give ground. We will not turn back. We will push back against the pushback. And we will keep pushing. For wholesale change. For rapid change ... our world needs, starting by addressing the imbalance in power relations.”
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, head of the U.N. women’s agency, gave some examples of pushback in an Associated Press interview ahead of the commission’s meeting.
In negotiations on its final document, she said, some countries don’t want health care facilities to provide “sexual and reproductive rights,” issues that were fought over and are part of the 1995 platform for action adopted by the world’s nations at the U.N. women’s conference in Beijing.
In addition, she said, “Some countries don’t want to use the word gender. You must always say men and women, so that you do not include people who are gender non-conforming.”
She said these ideological issues are “the usual pushback” that are “ultimately about women’s bodies.”
Mlambo-Ngcuka told the commission on Monday that gains for women over the past two decades “are fragile, and we are seeing them reverse.”
The latest data indicate 131 million girls worldwide aren’t going to school and there has been a 6 percent increase in girls not attending elementary school, she said.
“On average, globally, women still have only three-quarters of the legal rights of men, and more than one billion have no recourse against violence or are restricted in their education or employment — what is now being called ‘economic violence,’” Mlambo-Ngcuka said.
And every day, approximately 830 women — 99 percent of them in developing countries — die of preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, she said.
Ireland’s U.N. ambassador, Geraldine Byrne Nason, who presides over the Commission on the Status of Women, said the Beijing declaration statement that women’s rights are human rights generated optimism, but “we have been disappointed.”
Today, she said, less than 7 percent of heads of state and government are women, and only one in four parliament members around the world are female. And, she said, “it’s estimated if we don’t act, it will take 217 years to reach parity between men and women in pay and employment opportunities.”
“So what went wrong?” Byrne Nason said. “The truth is that collectively we haven’t yet succeeded in making sure that women are wherever decisions are being made.”
She said gender empowerment means handing over or sharing power “and we know how hard that is.”
“What we’re trying to achieve is that men have their rights, and nothing more, and that women have their rights, and nothing less,” Byrne Nelson said.
She said the commission will be deliberating in the next two weeks about maternity, pensions, safe roads and transport, schools that teach girls skills to succeed, women’s access to vital health care, “and the fair distribution of care and the domestic work between men and women.”
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Monday that there is a “deep, pervasive and relentless” pushback on women’s rights and called for a fight to “push back against the pushback.”
Calling himself “a proud feminist,” the U.N. chief said, “It is a fight we must win — together.”
Guterres spoke at the opening of the annual meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women, which since its establishment in 1947 has been committed to achieving “equality with men in all fields of human enterprise.”
The secretary-general told hundreds of ministers, delegates and representatives from civil society and business that the U.N. body could equally go by another name: “the Commission on the Status of Power — because this is the crux of the issue.”
While advocates for gender equality are mobilizing as never before, Guterres said, “around the world, there is a pushback on women’s rights.”
He pointed to increased violence against women, especially defenders of human rights and women running for political office. He cited “online abuse of women who speak out,” women 26 percent less likely to be employed than men, and “an ongoing uphill battle for reproductive rights.”
“And nationalist, populist and even austerity agendas are tearing social fabric — aggravating inequality, splintering communities, curtailing women’s rights and cutting vital services,” Guterres said.
The fight against these negative trends is a fight that must be won, he said.
“So let us say it loud and clear,” Guterres said. “We will not give ground. We will not turn back. We will push back against the pushback. And we will keep pushing. For wholesale change. For rapid change ... our world needs, starting by addressing the imbalance in power relations.”
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, head of the U.N. women’s agency, gave some examples of pushback in an Associated Press interview ahead of the commission’s meeting.
In negotiations on its final document, she said, some countries don’t want health care facilities to provide “sexual and reproductive rights,” issues that were fought over and are part of the 1995 platform for action adopted by the world’s nations at the U.N. women’s conference in Beijing.
In addition, she said, “Some countries don’t want to use the word gender. You must always say men and women, so that you do not include people who are gender non-conforming.”
She said these ideological issues are “the usual pushback” that are “ultimately about women’s bodies.”
Mlambo-Ngcuka told the commission on Monday that gains for women over the past two decades “are fragile, and we are seeing them reverse.”
The latest data indicate 131 million girls worldwide aren’t going to school and there has been a 6 percent increase in girls not attending elementary school, she said.
“On average, globally, women still have only three-quarters of the legal rights of men, and more than one billion have no recourse against violence or are restricted in their education or employment — what is now being called ‘economic violence,’” Mlambo-Ngcuka said.
And every day, approximately 830 women — 99 percent of them in developing countries — die of preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, she said.
Ireland’s U.N. ambassador, Geraldine Byrne Nason, who presides over the Commission on the Status of Women, said the Beijing declaration statement that women’s rights are human rights generated optimism, but “we have been disappointed.”
Today, she said, less than 7 percent of heads of state and government are women, and only one in four parliament members around the world are female. And, she said, “it’s estimated if we don’t act, it will take 217 years to reach parity between men and women in pay and employment opportunities.”
“So what went wrong?” Byrne Nason said. “The truth is that collectively we haven’t yet succeeded in making sure that women are wherever decisions are being made.”
She said gender empowerment means handing over or sharing power “and we know how hard that is.”
“What we’re trying to achieve is that men have their rights, and nothing more, and that women have their rights, and nothing less,” Byrne Nelson said.
She said the commission will be deliberating in the next two weeks about maternity, pensions, safe roads and transport, schools that teach girls skills to succeed, women’s access to vital health care, “and the fair distribution of care and the domestic work between men and women.”
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