(Geneva) From Afghanistan to Iran, to misogynistic and sexist comments on the internet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said he was horrified by the “systematic” efforts aimed at violating women’s rights.
During an interview granted this week to AFP in Geneva, Volker Türk indicated that he wanted to go to Kabul and Tehran to discuss with the authorities.
“Afghanistan is the worst of the worst,” he said. “Suppressing women in this way is unparalleled.”
The 58-year-old Austrian, who took over in mid-October, said he was appalled that nearly 75 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the world is witnessing growing efforts, including “insidiously”, to deprive women and girls of their rights.
“I am very concerned about these backward steps and the spread of retrograde ideas,” Volker Türk told AFP.
PHOTO FABRICE COFFRINI, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Volker Turk
While misogyny and efforts to halt the march towards gender equality are nothing new, he believes there is now “a more systematic, more organized way to counter women’s rights.”
“Perverse Thought”
The most striking example, according to Mr. Türk, 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 what evil thinking can lead to”, and “we need to make sure that what is happening in this country does not become the norm in the future”, he said. assured.
As his predecessor, former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, did last year, the High Commissioner intends to go to Afghanistan to discuss “with the de facto authorities so that they understand that the development of their country must include the women “.
The Austrian has also asked to travel to Iran, rocked by protests sparked by the September 16 death of a young woman after she was arrested for violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code, but Tehran has yet to respond .
The High Commissioner wishes to ask Iran “to repeal some of the discriminatory practices against women and girls”. He also wants to discuss the crackdown on protests, which the Oslo-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) says has left at least 476 people dead, while several thousand people have been arrested.
Mr. Türk was particularly alarmed by the death sentences imposed on demonstrators. Two men have already been hanged.
Social networks
Beyond the measures taken by the States, Mr. Türk points the finger at social networks, “where misogynistic and sexist comments seem to be authorized […]and prosper”.
He stressed the need to put in place “safeguards” so that these social networks “are responsible and do not throw oil on the fire” in particular “on gender issues”.
The algorithms used by the platforms can “very quickly cause hate speech to be amplified in a very dangerous way”, he said.
Shortly after his arrival at the head of the High Commission, the Austrian had written an open letter to the new owner of Twitter Elon Musk, urging him to ensure that human rights are respected on the social network.
He had originally planned to contact the team that worked on human rights issues at Twitter, but, he told AFP, “we couldn’t reach any of them because they were coming. all to be made redundant”.
Although alarmed by the current attacks on women’s rights, Mr. Türk sees this “as a last attempt by the patriarchy to show its strength”: “It is the old world that is dying”.