{"id":202004,"date":"2026-03-01T15:27:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T15:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/world-news-in-brief-epstein-scandal-highlights-silencing-of-women-danish-breakthrough-on-hiv-transmission-belarus-rights-update-un-news\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T15:27:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T15:27:38","slug":"world-news-in-brief-epstein-scandal-highlights-silencing-of-women-danish-breakthrough-on-hiv-transmission-belarus-rights-update-un-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/world-news-in-brief-epstein-scandal-highlights-silencing-of-women-danish-breakthrough-on-hiv-transmission-belarus-rights-update-un-news\/","title":{"rendered":"World News in Brief: Epstein scandal highlights \u2018silencing\u2019 of women, Danish breakthrough on HIV transmission, Belarus rights update – UN News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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UN human rights chief Volker T\u00fcrk warned on Friday that the Epstein and Gis\u00e8le Pellicot scandals are an illustration of intensifying threats to women and girls forced to suffer in silence.<\/span>
Speaking at the Human Rights Council<\/a> in Geneva, Mr. T\u00fcrk stressed that violence against women – including femicide \u2013 had become a global emergency.
 Around 50,000 women and girls worldwide were killed in 2024, most by family members, he said, amid ongoing hearings in the United States Congress into child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s circle and following the shocking case of French woman Gis\u00e8le Pelicot, who was drugged by her husband and raped by dozens of men while unconscious over a nine-year period:
\u201c<\/strong>Does anyone think there are not many more men like Dominique Pelicot, or Jeffrey Epstein?\u201d, the UN rights chief questioned.
\u201cSuch horrific abuse is enabled by social systems that silence women and girls and insulate powerful men from accountability.\u201d 
The UN High Commissioner noted his deep concern at the growing number of attacks against women in public life. 
\u201cEvery woman politician I meet tells me they face constant misogyny and online hate,\u201d he told the council, which is the UN\u2019s top human rights forum.
A significant health advance has been made by Denmark with news onn Friday that the country has eradicated mother-to-child transmission of syphilis and HIV.
Without treatment, the risk of HIV transmission is 15 to 45 per cent, while untreated syphilis can cause half of all pregnancies to end in stillbirth or neonatal death, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO<\/a>).
Welcoming the announcement by Denmark, the UN agency described it as a milestone owing to the Scandanavian country\u2019s \u201csustained commitment\u201d to tackling the problem, which is a major global health challenge.
WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus identified strong political commitment and consistent investment in primary care as key factors in Denmark eradicating transmission of the two diseases from mother to baby. 
With integrated maternal and child health services, \u201ccountries can protect every pregnant woman and newborn from these diseases\u201d, Tedros insisted.
The group of UN independent human rights experts<\/a> on Friday who monitor Belarus welcomed the release of over a hundred political prisoners there but issued a warning over \u201calarming\u201d conditions for release that include forced expulsion.
More than a thousand remain in prison for politically motivated reasons, said the UN Human Rights Council-appointed experts, who receive no salary for their work and are not UN staff. 
Forced expulsion and arbitrary deportation constitute a clear violation of international human rights standards, they continued.
\u201cWe urge the Government of Belarus to abide by its human rights obligations and immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners detained for politically-motivated reasons,\u201d said Karinna Moskalenko, chair of the Group of Independent Experts. 
Their report<\/a>, which documented violations perpetuated by Belarusian authorities since May 2020, highlights a State-led strategy to silence dissent through arbitrary arrest, detention and subjecting detainees to torture, ill-treatment and inhumane conditions.
The death of at least eight individuals in detention was also reported \u201cshowcasing the harsh conditions of confinement and the denial of adequate medical care\u201d.
The report warned that \u201ca culture of impunity allows these violations to persist and citied \u201ca total lack of accountability within the domestic legal system.\u201d
\u201cIn the absence of domestic justice, it called upon the international community to take decisive action…ensuring that those responsible for these systematic violations are eventually brought to justice,\u201d the experts\u2019 statement said.
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Facebook Twitter Print Email UN human rights chief Volker T\u00fcrk warned on Friday that the Epstein and Gis\u00e8le Pellicot scandals are an illustration of intensifying threats to women and girls forced to suffer in silence.Speaking at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Mr. T\u00fcrk stressed that violence against women – including femicide \u2013 had become […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":202005,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-202004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}