In his message marking the day, the Secretary-General condemned the use of sexual violence as a tactic of ‘war, torture, and repression’ in the conflicts that affect hundreds of millions of people around the world.

“Harrowing reports from across the globe are a terrible reminder that this despicable crime persists despite international commitments to stamp it out. And many of those responsible never face justice. While stigma too often causes survivors to walk in shame, perpetrators walk free”, said Mr. Guterres. 

Mr. Guterres also emphasised that the United Nations stands “in solidarity with survivors” and everyone supporting them and is committed to “redoubling efforts” to prevent atrocities and hold those responsible to account.

Listen to survivors 

António Guterres also called on governments to adhere to international humanitarian law, building it into military codes of conduct and training – and most importantly, commit to listening to survivors.

“And it means holding perpetrators to account, so that they face justice – we must confront the belief that fighters can inflict horror with impunity,” said Mr. Guterres.

Technology and preventing harm

This year’s International Day focuses on technology and the digital divide.

“Accessible technology can alert people to danger, help them to reach sanctuary and support, and enable abuses to be documented and verified, as a first step towards accountability”, said Mr. Guterres.

“But it can also perpetuate violence, harm survivors, and inflame hate. We must ensure technology supports our efforts to prevent and end these crimes, including by increasing access and holding people to account for their actions online.”

Gender norms and sexual violence 

European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, and the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, also issued a statement, focusing on the impact conflict-related sexual violence on gender norms. 

They said they had joined forces to call for “more decisive action to prevent and eliminate sexual violence, and to advance gender equality as a political priority. We are alarmed by the growing use of sexual violence as a cruel tactic of war, torture, terror and political repression, and threat to collective security.”

Double edged sword 

The risk of becoming a target of sexual violence today is heightened by the fact that these crimes can also be facilitated and promoted online, utilizing digital channels. 

“At the same time, digital platforms can play an important role and be a powerful tool to improve gender equality and empower women and girls, contributing to building their resilience in times of crisis.

“They can also aid in the prevention of sexual and gender-based violence, and the needed response, through early warning and linking survivors with referral pathways for services, and facilitating reporting,” they said. 

The means to prevent sexual violence online are either “insufficient or non-existent”, which weakens the ability to respond and equality, they added.

“Therefore, we call for safe digital platforms compliant with international law, so that survivors of conflict-related sexual violence and those supporting them may use these platforms to fight impunity and demand improved accountability. It is critical to foster a protective environment, both online and offline, that deters and prevents sexual violence as well as enabling safe reporting and adequate response,” they said. 

International call

The international community must be as one “to confront the ever-increasing threat posed by digital technology and bridge the gender digital divide to allow survivors to access more resources and fight impunity”.

“By addressing the gender digital divide, we can create a world where women and children can live free from fear and violence,” Ms. Patten and Mr. Borrell said. 

Mr. Kőrösi was speaking at an event to commemorate the 2nd International Day for Countering Hate Speech, which is officially observed on 18 June. 

“It would be my wish that we would not have to observe this day. It would be my wish that hate speech were a thing of the past,” he said. 

Rising violence 

Hate speech is most often directed at women and girls, ethnic and religious minorities, and migrants and refugees. 

Mr. Kőrösi noted that it is spreading on social media and online, “feeding a global rise in violence”. Some companies are also profiting from advertisements interspersed with online manifestations of hate speech. 

“As new channels reach wider audiences, tech companies are struggling to take action,” he said. “How can we, the international community, step up our response? This is a question of responsibilities. Shared responsibilities.”  

Identify and confront 

Mr. Kőrösi said the International Day encourages everyone to do their part by identifying hate speech early, confronting it directly and halting it immediately. 

Furthermore, a UN Strategy and Plan of Action on the issue “offer us a firm step in the right direction.” 

Launched three years ago by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, these initiatives recognize hate speech as a precursor to atrocity crimes, including genocide and crimes against humanity. They also call for addressing the root causes and drivers. 

Addressing hate online 

In his message for the Day, Mr. Guterres said UN offices and teams across the world are confronting hate speech by implementing local action plans, based on the strategy. 

“The United Nations is consulting governments, technology companies and others on a voluntary Code of Conduct for information integrity on digital platforms, aimed at reducing the spread of mis and disinformation and hate speech, while protecting freedom of expression,” he added. 

The commemorative event was organized by Morocco and the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect. 

The Secretary-General’s message was read by Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide.   

She said that as the Organization’s “global focal point for hate speech”, her Office will continue to prioritize UN response efforts, both online and off. 

Preventive action 

“We need action that addresses the impact hate speech has on those targeted and more broadly on society from a prevention perspective. We also need to ensure that we address its root causes by promoting inclusion, non-discrimination and protecting civil space,” she said. 

Some of the crucial work carried out so far has involved strengthening partnerships, including with the sports world, tech and social media companies, traditional religious leaders, civil society and young people.  

Ms. Nderitu also highlighted the value of country-led efforts, including through regional initiatives, which “continues to be crucial if we are to turn the tide on (hate speech).”  

Coexistence, dialogue and respect 

Morocco spearheaded efforts that led to the 2021 UN General Assembly resolution that established the International Day. 

For Nasser Bourita, the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, it represents “a real call to action to face up to this insidious scourge, which undermines peace, stability and development and undermines human dignity and human rights.” 

He said Morocco has always prioritized the values of coexistence, dialogue, respect for religions and beliefs, pluralism, and diversity. 

Mr. Bourita also highlighted some of the Government’s initiatives in this regard.  

For example, he said amid a surge in anti-immigrant and anti-refugee hate speech elsewhere, his country has instead endorsed the values of acceptance, coexistence and integration “which have earned Morocco its status as a welcoming land for many African, European, Asian and Middle Eastern nationals.” 

Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed similar concerns on the opening day of the Council’s summer session, adding that the de facto authorities had “dismantled the most fundamental principles of human rights, particularly for women and girls”. 

In a joint report presented to the Council by the Special Rapporteur for Afghanistan and the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls, the experts, Richard Bennett and Dorothy Estrada-Tanck, said that their plight was among the worst in the world. 

Their report calls on the de facto authorities to respect and restore women’s and girls’ human rights. It also urges the international community and the UN to pay greater attention to widespread discrimination against women and girls in Afghanistan.

Ideological bias

“We also draw to the Council’s attention our deep concern that these serious deprivations of women’s and girls’ fundamental human rights and the harsh enforcement by the de facto authorities of their restrictive measures may constitute the crime against humanity of gender persecution,” said Mr. Bennett.

“Grave, systematic and institutionalized discrimination against women and girls is at the heart of Taliban ideology and rule, which also gives rise to concerns that they may be responsible for gender apartheid.”

Echoing those concerns, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nada Al-Nashif insisted that despite repeated assertions to the contrary by the de-facto authorities, “over the past 22 months, every aspect of women’s and girls’ lives has been restricted. They are discriminated against in every way.”

Mr. Bennett, who visited Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan to fulfil his Special Rapporteur mandate, confirmed that he was unable to report improvements in the human rights situation “certainly not for women and girls whose predicament has only worsened, nor for others in the population who are marginalized, associated with the former Islamic Republic, or who resist or even disagree with the Taliban’s ideology”.

Feeling ‘buried alive’

Offering searing insight about the mindset of women and girls in Afghanistan, Shaharzad Akbar, Executive Director of Afghan NGO Rawadari, told the Council that they talk about “being buried alive, breathing but not being able to do much else without facing restrictions and punishments, their lives held still while the lives of the men around them, their male children, their brothers, their husbands, move forward.”

Ms. Akbar also highlighted the gulf between Taliban rule and other neighbouring Muslim countries where women are allowed to seek education, pursue their dreams, travel to space, and participate in politics.

But not in Afghanistan, where the “Taliban have turned Afghanistan to a mass graveyard of Afghan women and girls’ ambitions, dreams and potential”.

In his annual review presented to the Human Rights Council, which opened its 53rd regular session on Monday, Mr. Türk insisted that such cooperation was “vital” in a world plagued by conflict, climate disasters and development setbacks.

Rights monitoring ‘in the interest of all Malians’

Human rights “must always be above the fray of politics”, Mr. Türk said, following a request from Mali on Friday to the Security Council for the UN to immediately withdraw its peacekeeping mission, known as MINUSMA, from the country.

“When serious human rights violations or abuses occur, irrespective of the perpetrator, we need to monitor, document and report on them, in the interest of all Malians, in addition to working on prevention and delivering support to national institutions,” he said, while reiterating his Office’s commitment to continuing its work in Mali.

Call on Russia to cooperate with Ukraine inquiry

Mr. Türk called on Russia to cooperate with the Council-appointed Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine. He stressed the need for human rights monitors to have access to both Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia, and to Russia itself, “not least, to visit civilian detainees, prisoners of war and Ukrainian children and people with disabilities who have been taken to these areas”.

Iran: surge in executions

Turning to Iran, Mr. Türk expressed concern over the “massive” recent increase in executions of prisoners – mostly for drug-related offences and a disproportionately high number representing minorities – as well as continuing discrimination against women and girls.

Human rights system a ‘lifeline’

Countries and civil society organizations will have the opportunity to respond to the UN human rights chief’s comments during an interactive dialogue scheduled on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Mr. Türk’s statement highlighted the main points of his report to the Human Rights Council, which reviews the cooperation of Member States with the international human rights ecosystem, which includes the 10 Treaty bodies, the Council itself, with its Universal Periodic Review process, investigations and Special Procedures, as well as the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR).

The High Commissioner called this ecosystem a “lifeline” and warned that selective cooperation weakens its force.

Afghanistan: rights principles dismantled

Regarding Afghanistan, Mr. Türk deplored the dismantling of “the most fundamental principles of human rights”, particularly for women and girls, by the country’s de facto authorities, while noting that some “openings for engagement” have been possible, notably by experts including the Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan, Richard Bennett.

Women in the country are prohibited from attending school above sixth grade, can only be provided care by women doctors, and are barred from working for the UN and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

‘Gender apartheid’

Mr. Bennett himself took the floor on Monday to present his latest report compiled jointly with the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls. He warned that the “serious” deprivations of women’s and girls’ fundamental human rights at the hands of the Taliban may constitute the crime against humanity of gender persecution.

“Grave, systematic and institutionalised discrimination against women and girls is at the heart of Taliban ideology and rule, which also gives rise to concerns that they may be responsible for gender apartheid, a serious human rights violation, which although not yet an explicit international crime, requires further study in our view,” he said.

Mr. Bennett urged the UN system to take a “unified and principled” approach based on human rights in Afghanistan and to maintain its commitment to the employment of Afghan women without conditions.

Special Rapporteurs and other independent experts appointed by the Human Rights Council serve in their individual capacity; they are not UN staff and do not receive payment for their work. 

‘Buried alive’

The Council also heard from women representing civil society organizations from Afghanistan, who bore witness to the dramatic crackdown on their rights.

Shaharzad Akbar, an Afghan human rights activist currently in exile, who leads the NGO Rawadari, said that the Taliban have turned Afghanistan into “a mass graveyard of Afghan women and girls’ ambitions, dreams and potential” while the international community looked on.

“Afghan women often talk about being buried alive, breathing but not being able to do much else without facing restrictions and punishments, their lives held still while the lives of the men around them, their male children, their brothers, their husbands, move forward,” she said.

Sudan crisis in focus

During its 53^rd session, which will run until 14 July, the Human Rights Council will hold close to 30 interactive dialogues with independent human rights experts focusing on thematic and country-specific situations, as well as investigative mechanisms.

On Monday afternoon, the Council was expected to focus on the crisis in Sudan, just as a high-level pledging conference was being convened in Geneva by the UN together with Egypt, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the African Union and the European Union, with the objective of stepping up support for the humanitarian response in Sudan and the region.