The collective impact of climate change, COVID-19, and conflict mean that well over 200 million people will likely need humanitarian assistance by 2022, the UN’s deputy rights chief said.
Nada Al-Nashif, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, told the UN Human Rights Council that the situation is especially worrying for women and girls. They face additional hardships from the pandemic – including sexual abuse, particularly those displaced by war.
“Experience demonstrates that insecurity and displacement fuel increases in sexual and gender-based violence, as well as other crimes and human rights violations such as child, early and forced marriages or denial of access to sexual and reproductive health services,” Ms. Al-Nashif warned.
According to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 212 million people may need humanitarian assistance by 2022.
This year, it’s believed that nearly 168 million people are in need of such protection, representing around one in 45 people in the world, the highest figure in decades.
At a discussion on how to improve accountability for women and girls in emergencies, the deputy rights chief urged Member States at the Geneva forum to consider adopting a new approach.
In addition to the current practice of ensuring criminal prosecution for abusers, she called for specific laws to be enacted that would prevent or eradicate a “continuum of human rights violations”, by addressing the root causes of the lack of accountability for women and girls.
This was the only way to restore their full equality and rights in dignity, she said.
Highlighting recent human rights Council investigations into Myanmar, Venezuela, and South Sudan, Ms. Al-Nashif noted that all countries shared systemic discrimination against women and girls that enabled violations to persist.
Original source: UN News
Published on 13 July 2020
