The Taliban takeover, the corona pandemic or cuts in abortion rights: the crises in the world last year had negative effects, especially for women.
According to the human rights organization Amnesty International, the rights of women and girls have suffered significant cuts in the past twelve months.
“The world’s crises do not have an equal or equitable impact,” Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnès Callamard said on International Women’s Day. “The disproportionate impact on the rights of women and girls is well documented, even if it remains neglected or even ignored.”
As a particularly drastic example, the organization cites the Taliban’s takeover of power in Afghanistan, where, despite courageous protests across the country, women and girls are now being treated as “second-class citizens” who, for example, are being deprived of the right to education.
More domestic violence during pandemic
The corona pandemic has also had a negative impact: the number of cases of domestic violence has increased, and the insecurity on the job market has affected women disproportionately. There were further deteriorations in the United States, where there were more restrictions on abortion rights in 2021 than in any previous year. Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention for the Protection of Women has also worsened the rights of women and girls in Turkey.
In recent years, Amnesty International has documented that there have been increasing cases of violence against women in the conflict zones in eastern Ukraine. It is expected that this pattern will now spread to the entire country in view of the war.
“No society can afford or tolerate more than half the population having their dignity diminished,” Callamard said. “There can be no excuse for not making just and fair policies for women and girls. dpa
