Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 4th Oct. UN Special Rapporteur on the gender issue Reem Alsalem on Ruesday briefed the media in New York said that violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread, persistent and devastating human rights violations,.
Reem Alsalem said “Women and girls continue to be killed on the basis of their sex and gender, rendered more vulnerable to femicide when being women and girls intersect with other grounds or identities,” who examined the causes and consequences of attacks.
She stated that “they continue to be unable to organize freely, believe and speak and suffer the consequences.”
Ms. Alsalem’s remarks followed the presentation of her report to the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly in New York.
“In some countries, we have witnessed concerning regressions in their ability to access education, to move freely and to access sexual and reproductive health.”
“These regressions are happening while the world navigates multiple crises of war, climate change, poverty and pandemics that clearly have a gendered impact and affect women and girls unequally,” Ms. Alsalem added.
She said “We are at the halfway point in the race to meet the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and “we have painfully realized that we are nowhere near to achieve gender equality and empowerment.
According to the WHO 736 million are subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence from a non-partner a number that has remained largely unchanged over the past decade.
Intimate partner violence is the most common form suffered by women, with around 641 million affected globally, the agency said.
WHO said younger women remain at risk of such violence, with one in four women aged 15 to 24 suffering violence at the hands of an intimate partner by the time they reached their mid-twenties.
Ms. Alsalem noted “Gender equality cannot be achieved without ensuring that women and girls can enjoy their fundamental human rights and can participate in society equally and without discrimination”.
She said today 50 countries continue to have nationality laws that contain gender-discriminatory provisions and in 24 of those countries, women are denied the right to confer nationality on their children on an equal basis with men.
She reiterated that sex and gender-based discrimination in nationality laws is one of the major causes of statelessness.
“Make no mistake: Statelessness and gender discriminatory nationality laws are tantamount to violence against women, as they constitute severe forms of discrimination against women and girls as defined by the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women.”
“They result in a vicious circle of human rights failures and violations, directly and indirectly exacerbating psychological, sexual, and physical violence,” Ms. Alsalem added.
She called on States to “uphold the objective, spirit and meaning of fundamental human rights obligations”.
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