GENEVA, Switzerland – The UN rights chief on Friday decried mounting threats to women’s rights worldwide, highlighting rampant femicide and horrific abuse exposed in cases like that of US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Volker Turk denounced “social systems that silence women and girls” allowing powerful men to abuse them with impunity.
“Violence against women, including femicide, is a global emergency,” the High Commissioner for Human Rights told the UN’s top rights body.
He highlighted the extreme situation in Afghanistan, warning that the “system of segregation imposed on women is reminiscent of apartheid, based on gender rather than race”.
He also pointed to two cases that have recently caused shock waves around the world: those of convicted Epstein and of French rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot.
Both cases “show the extent of the exploitation and abuse of women and girls”, Turk said. “Does anyone think there are not many more men like Dominique Pelicot or Jeffrey Epstein?”
Financier Epstein associated with the world’s rich, famous and powerful despite his conviction in 2008 to procuring a child for prostitution.
He died in a New York prison cell in 2019 while facing trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.
Gisèle Pelicot gave the public insight into her shocking case when she waived her right to anonymity during the 2024 trial in France of her ex-husband Dominique and dozens of strangers whom he brought in to rape her while she was drugged unconscious.
“Such horrific abuse is enabled by social systems that silence women and girls, and insulate powerful men from accountability,” said Turk.
“States must investigate all alleged crimes, protect survivors, and ensure justice without fear or favour,” he added.
A ‘global emergency’
Turk also said he was deeply concerned by the increasing attacks on women in public life, including online.
“Every woman politician I meet tells me they face constant misogyny and online hate,” he said.
He was also deeply concerned by widespread violence targeting women.
In 2024 alone, “around 50 000 women and girls worldwide were killed … most by family members”, he said.
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“Violence against women, including femicide, is a global emergency,” he told the council.
Richard Bennett, the UN’s special rapporteur on the rights situation in Afghanistan, focused on the Taliban authorities’ new criminal procedure code.
“In particular, these rules appear to endorse violence against women,” the independent expert told journalists in Geneva.
“They are creating a situation where, unless the violence reaches a particular threshold — described as broken bones or serious bruising — there are no penalties for husbands or family members carrying out that violence: really shocking in the 21st century.”
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