Volker Türk, the UN’s new top human rights official, expressed grave concern on Wednesday about the growing “backsliding” on women’s rights around the world.
In his first press conference since taking office two weeks ago, Volker Türk denounced the rise in misogynistic attitudes and efforts to override the rights of women and girls in many countries.
There has been “a real setback, it is very worrying and it is affecting women and girls in many parts of the world in an unprecedented way,” she told reporters.
Women’s rights curtailed ‘both North and South’
Volker Türk did not name any particular country, but his comments come as Iran continues to be rocked by more than six weeks of anti-regime and women’s rights protests.
Women’s protests, on a much smaller scale, also continue in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have placed severe restrictions on Afghan women since returning to power.
But the High Commissioner also insisted that the problem was widespread and that women’s rights were restricted “both in the north and in the south”. In the United States, the abolition of federal protection of the right to abortion shocked the entire country and the world.
“Strongman mentality”, “rising misogyny”, and “autocratic tendencies”
Volker Türk, who has spent most of his career at the United Nations, has expressed alarm at the growing “strongman mentality” and “autocratic tendencies” in several countries with particular impacts on women and girls.
Denouncing “the rise of misogyny and misogynistic attitudes”, he insisted that it is not something one “has to deal with in the 21st century”.
The High Commissioner also expressed concern about deeper geopolitical divisions at a time when the world would need to act in concert.
“I am taking office in a world where we see a lot of geopolitical tension, where we see a lot of fragmentation within the international system,” he said, concerned about polarization that could lead to gridlock.
Source: BFM TV
