Amnesty International says the rights of millions of women and girls were badly treated over the past year.

“Events in 2021 and in the early months of 2022 have conspired to crush the rights and dignity of millions of women and girls,’’ Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary-General, said on Tuesday. “The world’s crises do not impact equally, let alone fairly.’’

In a statement to commemorate International Women’s Day, she said the COVID-19 pandemic and the rollback on women’s rights in Afghanistan were among the events that disproportionately impacted women’s and girls’ rights over the past 12 months.

“Each is a grave erosion of rights in its own terms but taken together? We must stand up to and stare down this global assault on women’s and girls’ dignity,’’ she added.

The secretary-general also listed the widespread sexual violence characterising the conflict in Ethiopia and attacked abortion access in the U.S. and Turkey’s withdrawal from the landmark Istanbul Convention on Gender-Based Violence among the events.

She called on governments that took decisions that worsened the situation of women and girls to revoke them.

(dpa/NAN)