The rise of religious fundamentalism and the far right poses a serious risk to global gender equality, according to a new United Nations report.

Based on 54 submissions from governments, academics and non-government organisations, the report asserts that religious and non-religious extremist agendas are undermining women's liberties around the world, including in Australia.

In a submission to the report, the NGO Australian Lawyers for Human Rights said the mainstreaming of extremist ideas in the nation's public discourse was a threat to women.

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Professor Karima Bennoune, UN Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights and author of the report, said Australian Lawyers for Human Rights had raised particular concerns over a rise in "populist ultra-nationalism".

"In its view, [the far right] was trying to impose so-called 'authentic Australian culture' on women, especially those from diverse ethnic backgrounds," she said.

Professor Bennoune said the abuse of women's human rights by ISIS was the impetus for the report.

"But also … the backlash against people speaking foreign languages in the United Kingdom after the Brexit vote, and the rise of hateful discourse after the elections in the United States last fall," she said.

Dressing up gender discrimination

The report notes that fundamentalist and extremist movements of all stripes reject notions of equality and the universality of human rights.

For women, it states, this can translate to "modest dress" requirements, a lack of reproductive rights, threats of discrimination, or demonisation for failing to conform to gender stereotypes.

"In the report, I talk about how every year thousands of Iranian women are reprimanded, arrested or prosecuted for the so-called crime of not wearing the hijab," she said.

"In Sudan, women have been whipped for not being sufficiently covered, [and] in Saudi Arabia … a woman who posted a photograph of herself on social media without a headscarf was arrested."

Women in Saudi Arabia can be arrested for not covering their heads. ( Getty images: AFP PHOTO/Fayez Nureldine )

According to Professor Bennoune, who is also the author of Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here, fundamentalist groups aren't the only ones who enforce discrimination — governments, educators and social networks are also complicit.

The report notes that governments and human rights organisations accept human rights violations or forms of discrimination in the name of cultural relativism.

"It really undermines the struggle for women's equal cultural rights when people give in to the argument that the fundamentalists make — that they are the 'authentic' voice," Professor Bennoune said.

Governments that cite cultural practices while objecting to women's rights defenders, are "aiding and abetting extremism", the report states.

The political practice of partnering with non-violent extremist groups are also marked as a cause of concern.

Professor Bennoune says fundamentalist ideologies — not just abuses — must be tackled. ( Supplied )

"In many places where governments have strategies for what is called combatting violent extremism or CVE, they sometimes base strategies on partnering with what they deem to be 'moderate extremists' or fundamentalists of various stripes — and I think this is a terrible mistake," Professor Bennoune said.

"Often these so-called non-violent extremists espouse a discourse of discrimination against women that, in fact, ends up producing a great deal of violence against women."

Professor Bennoune said that fundamentalist ideologies, not just instances of abuse, need to be addressed.

"The international community recognised back in the era of Apartheid that the problem wasn't just the abuses, it was the ideology of racial superiority itself that had to be defeated — and I think that's what we're seeing here," she explained.

The report's findings were presented to the General Assembly in New York on Wednesday.