The new United Nations rights chief on Wednesday expressed deep concern at an increasing “pushback” of 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 concerned by the rise of misogynist attitudes and efforts to reverse women’s and girls’ rights in many countries.
“There has been a real setback and it’s very worrying and affecting women and girls in many parts of the world in an unprecedented way,” he told reporters.
Turk, who became UN chief justice two weeks ago, did not refer to specific country situations.
However, his comments 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 Tehran’s morality police over the way she wore her headscarf.
Protests also continue, albeit on a much smaller scale, in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have imposed a series of restrictions controlling women’s lives since returning to power in August 2021.
They have also barred girls from returning to secondary school 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 the Global South.”
– ‘Very Divided World’ –
The Austrian, who has spent most of his career in the UN system, warned of an increasing “strongman mentality” and “autocratic tendencies” in some places.
This is contributing to an erosion of civic space and “the repression and silence of dissidents,” with particular impacts on women and girls, he said.
He criticized “the rise of misogyny and misogynistic attitudes” and insisted that “in the 21st century we shouldn’t even deal with it”.
More broadly, Turk expressed his deep concern at deepening geopolitical divisions at a time when the world is still wallowing in the Covid crisis and reeling from the conflict in Ukraine.
“I take up my role 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 are facing incredible challenges … We are in a very divided world.”
Turk warned that countries’ refusal to work together to solve these challenges takes a heavy toll on respect for human rights “that we cannot afford.”
