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08Mar/22

UN: Groups Urge Rights Chief to Report on Chinese Government Abuses

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High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet attends a meeting of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, June 17, 2020.
© Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP, Pool

(Geneva) – The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights should urgently release her office’s report on Chinese government rights violations targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic communities, almost 200 human rights groups including Human Rights Watch said in an open letter released today.

March 8, 2022

Open letter to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: OHCHR report on grave human rights violations in Xinjiang can wait no longer

“Human rights groups have become increasingly concerned that the UN human rights office has still not published its long-awaited report on Xinjiang, even as the atrocity crimes pile up,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “It defies credibility to believe that China will allow meaningful unfettered access that will enable human rights defenders, or victims and their families, to speak to the High Commissioner safely, unsupervised and without fear of reprisal. Today’s announcement of a planned visit by the High Commissioner should not provide an excuse for her to avoid publishing her report on Xinjiang abuses without further delay, as she has repeatedly promised.”

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet first indicated her intent to report on Chinese government abuses across Xinjiang, the Uyghur region, in 2018. Since that time, she has offered procedural updates on the status of negotiations to gain meaningful access to the region. In September 2021, Bachelet confirmed that her office was “finalising its assessment of the available information on allegations of serious human rights violations in [Xinjiang] with a view to making it public.” In December, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said the report would be released in a matter of weeks.

Since 2018, Human Rights Watch and other nongovernmental organizations have published information detailing the arbitrary detention of approximately one million Uyghurs and others, the Orwellian criminalization of lawful behavior tracked through surveillance technology, and the commission of apparent crimes against humanity, including torture, family separations, and cultural persecution.

“Uyghurs and other oppressed peoples in China should be able to look to the UN’s top human rights official for genuine leadership.” Roth said. “The high commissioner should – today – release her Xinjiang report, brief Human Rights Council members on its findings, and set out next steps for holding Chinese officials accountable for atrocities.”

 

08Mar/22

Nigeria Risks Falling Further Behind on Women’s Equality

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Women march during a protest to challenge impunity and gender-based discrimination raids on women in Abuja, Nigeria, May 10, 2019.
© 2019 Kola Sulaimon/AFP via Getty Images

On this International Women’s Day, women are taking to the streets in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, to call on lawmakers to reconsider their decision to reject plans which would help to foster  women’s equality and political participation in the country.

The proposed amendments to the country’s constitution which were rejected by federal lawmakers on March 1 included a move to grant citizenship to foreign husbands of Nigerian women, a right currently granted to Nigerian men with foreign wives, and the inclusion of affirmative actions to ensure that more women can participate in politics and government leadership.

The authorities should honor the essence of the day by listening to, and engaging with, the protesters to ensure that Nigeria’s Constitution can more effectively counter the damaging societal norms that exclude women from full participation in the nation’s affairs.

Nigeria ranks a lowly 139 out of 156 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index and civil society groups have raised concerns that the country may be regressing in female representation in leadership.

While the Nigerian Constitution provides for gender equality and nondiscrimination, women continue to suffer injustices and marginalization. This is often as a result of discriminatory laws, religious and cultural norms, gender stereotypes, low levels of education, and the disproportionate effect of poverty on women.

Despite these obstacles, some individual women have pushed through to hold key leadership positions in Nigeria, often to great acclaim and to the benefit of society at large. But the playing field should be leveled to maximize the development of women in all spheres where they have been historically excluded and discriminated against.

The authorities and lawmakers alike should recognize the barriers that women face and ensure that Nigeria’s laws and policies help dismantle these barriers and pave a way for women to thrive in society.

08Mar/22

Standing with Afghan Women and Girls on International Women’s Day

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A Taliban fighter talks with a woman at the government passport office in Kabul, Afghanistan, October 17, 2021.
© 2021 AP Photo/Ahmad Halabisaz

“While it feels as though the world has given up on Afghan women, we have not.…We need you to stand by us.”—Afghan women’s rights activist Mahbouba Seraj, to the United Nations Security Council, January 26, 2022

On International Women’s Day, we should remember Afghanistan, and consider what the state of women’s rights there means for the struggle for gender equality worldwide.

The Taliban were notorious for violating women’s rights when they ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. So, when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan again on August 15 last year, Afghan women’s rights defenders were deeply skeptical that the new rulers would be any different from the Taliban that controlled the country before, despite their pledges to respect women’s rights.

The activists warned that the Taliban would crack down hard again on women and girls, and the oppression would intensify over time.

They were right.

In less than seven months since taking over, the Taliban have:

closed most girls’ secondary schools;
created barriers to women and girls pursuing higher education;
banned women from most paid employment;
abolished the Ministry of Women’s Affairs;
restricted women’s movement including blocking them from leaving the country alone;
dismantled Afghanistan’s system that provided protection from gender-based violence;
created barriers to women and girls accessing health care;
beaten and abducted women’s rights protesters;
silenced female journalists;
banned women’s sports; and
appointed a men-only administration.

Yet, the world’s response has been muted. Several countries proudly claim a “feminist foreign policy.” But the international response to these developments has lacked urgency, and there is little sign of an effective coordinated plan to protect the rights of Afghan women and girls. On the contrary, governments pandered to the Taliban by sending all-male delegations to meet them.

Afghanistan is not the only country where women’s rights are under attack this International Women’s Day. But the speed and extent of the obliteration of women’s rights in Afghanistan is a warning to women around the world about the fragility of progress toward equality, how quickly it can vanish, and how few will defend it. We should all be in solidarity with Afghan women; their fight is a fight for women’s rights everywhere.