Speaking at the Council’s annual meeting in Geneva on the protection of the rights of women and girls, the UN High Commissioner said it was an urgent task and zero tolerance for gender-based violence was needed.
She highlighted the alarming reality that women human rights defenders, women journalists and people in public office and political decision-making positions are routinely subject to “vicious” attacks.
Atrocious statistics
“These acts are deliberate, targeting those who are seen as challenging traditional notions of family and gender or harmful traditional social norms,” said Mr. Turk.
“Their purpose is clear”, he added, “to exercise control, perpetuate subordination and do crush activism and political aspirations of women and girls”.
To illustrate, Mr. Türk pointed to a recent study conducted by UN Women in 39 countries. was found that 81.8% of women parliamentarians had suffered psychological violencewhile 44.4% declared having been threatened with death, rape, beatings and kidnapping.
In addition, 25.5% had suffered some form of physical violence.
Another study, by UNESCOhe loves it 73% of female journalists have faced online violenceincluding through the spread of fake news, manipulated images and threats and direct verbal attacks.
zero tolerance
Tackling deep structural discrimination requires global and systemic change. High Commissioner Türk called for strengthening national legal frameworks to ensure gender equality and protect women from violence, both online and offline.
“We must adopt codes of conduct with Zero tolerance for male violence and establish effective reporting mechanisms for those who experience it”, said the High Commissioner.
Concrete measures, both temporary and permanent, are urgently needed. Mr. Türk emphasized the need for quotas for women in public and political life. He believes that women should be given more chance of being elected to serve in public bodies. This requires awareness campaigns and other forms of assistance for women who want to dedicate their time to politics.
Supporting this point, Reem Alsalem, special rapporteur on violence against women and girlswho also addressed the Council on Friday, said: “We must stem the tide of violence against women and girls in the private, public and political spheres of life and we have to do it now.”
Challenging archaic notions
Increasing participation must start with a change in habitual behaviour, said the UN rights office (OHCHR) no.
“We must too challenge archaic notions that limit domestic and care work only to women and girls,” she urged, adding that economic incentives, social protection measures and gender equality campaigns can be drivers to promote greater equality in general.
Mr. Türk said getting better education it was an essential precondition for the equal participation of women in public affairs. She highlighted the importance of boosting participation in traditionally male-dominated fields such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Education systems and curricula should include women as role models and highlight their contributions throughout history address the lack of visibility and recognition.
“Women make up half of humanity. Gender equality it is not a matter of isolated gains only for women, but it is a collective task that benefits entire societies” said Mr. Türk, asking Member States and the Council “to commit to taking concrete and transformative actions to deal with gender-based violence against women and girls in public and political life, and promote their participation and leadership”.
