Emma Watson calls on universities to ensure women's safety in UN speech

NEW YORK, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Emma Watson spoke at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday calling on universities to ensure the safety of women on campus and correct the "double standards."

"As we leave home for the first time to study at the places that we have worked so hard to get, we must not see or experience double standards. We need to see equal respect, leadership, and pay," Watson said. "The university experience must tell women that their brain power is valued, and not just that, that they belong within the leadership of the university itself."

Watson also said that schools need to prioritize safety on campus and "make it clear that the safety of women, minorities and anyone who may be vulnerable, is a right, not a privilege."

"A university should be a place of refuge that takes action against all forms of violence," she said. "That's why, we believe, that students should leave university believing in, striving for, and expecting societies of true equality ... in every sense and that universities have the power to be a vital catalyst for that change."

Watson's speech comes two years after she first addressed the UN as an ambassador for HeForShe, UN Women's gender equality campaign.