International Women's Day: Amnesty urges rollback of ‘dramatic deterioration’ in women's rights

Amnesty International has urged that a “dramatic deterioration” in women’s rights be reversed in a statement issued on Tuesday to mark International Women’s Day.

The rights watchdog called for “bold action” to be taken after moves by governments had placed women at "unprecedented risk."

"Events in 2021 and in the early months of 2022 have conspired to crush the rights and dignity of millions of women and girls,"  Amnesty Secretary-General Agnes Callamard said in the statement. "No society can afford or should ever tolerate such erosions of dignity for more than half its population.”

Amnesty said that the last year has seen women’s rights curbed in Afghanistan, where the Taliban’s takeover and the coronavirus pandemic had severely negative impacts.

The rights group also highlighted the use of sexual violence in Ethiopia’s conflict, Turkey’s withdrawal from then Convention on Gender Based Violence and anti-abortion movements in the United States.

With Russia continuing its invasion of Ukraine, the rights group also warned that women will once again be in "grave risk".

"This year International Women’s Day falls as armed conflict in Europe plunges the world into renewed crisis. Images of women giving birth while sheltering from airstrikes; of women fleeing the bombs – children in their arms; of grieving mothers; of newly orphaned children, underscore just what conflict and humanitarian crisis mean for women and children," Amnesty said in the statement. "The women and girls caught up in the conflict in Ukraine now join the ranks of millions more who have suffered the unrelenting human costs of armed conflict from Syria to Yemen and Afghanistan and far beyond."