Source: UNHCHR
A UN report released today into mass rapes and other human rights violations committed in North Kivu has brought into stark focus the need to reinforce the justice system and accountability mechanisms in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
A United Nations investigation into mass rapes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) seven months ago identifies the rapists as Congolese army soldiers, demands their prosecution and asks the Government to protect the victims from reprisals from the perpetrators.
Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women 991st & 992nd Meetings (AM & PM) Experts Warn of Staggering Prevalence of Female Genital Mutilation, Sluggish Pace of Women’s Economic Development, Lenient Penalties for Trafficking.
As Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf reshuffles his cabinet, trying to placate the boiling Egyptian street with a more representative government, women have started to speak up, demanding greater representation in politics.
Ever since independence from colonial rule in 1980, the ruling party and government have determined what democracy can be in Zimbabwe. In the pre-independence period, democracy was simply defined as "one man, one vote." The issue of gender parity in decision-making was never on the agenda, and women were not organized in those days.
Source: All Africa
While Zimbabwe joined the rest of the World in Commemorating 26 June International Day in Support of Victims of Torture not much is being done to support the most affected victims who are women.
Source: IRIN
While other children head home after school, some pupils in Uganda's northern Amuru and Gulu regions stay behind to make sanitary pads using cheap, locally available materials, to ensure girls do not miss school during menstruation.
This written statement was submitted to CEDAW on the occasion of the General Discussion on Women in Conflict and Post-conflict Situations, July 18, 2011, United Nations, New York.
Source: AWID
No for Military Trials group, El Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, Nazra for Feminist Studies, New Women Foundation and Hisham Mubarak Law Center filed a law suit before of the Administrative Court against the Commander in Chief of the Military Forces and the Minister of Defense and others appealing the decision of forcing women to examine their virginity in military prisons and detention places for Armed Forces.
Even at the best of times, obtaining a title deed from the ministry of lands is a difficult process. But as the minister of lands admitted on Jul. 13 that his office is rife with corruption, the disorganisation of this office means Kenyan women are no closer to owning land.
Source: NYT
The paramedic’s eyes were bloodshot, his features drawn. Pregnant women jammed into the darkened concrete bunker, just as they had yesterday and would tomorrow. The increase in patients had been fivefold, or tenfold. The exhausted paramedic had lost count in a blur of uninterrupted examinations and deliveries.
Source:UN News Centre
Public voting is under way in a United Nations contest aimed at finding the best advertising campaign to promote awareness in Europe about the battle to defeat gender-based violence, which affects more than two out of every three women worldwide.
Source: Gender Links
While HIV prevalence rates are dropping in many parts of Africa they are on the rise within African communities in other parts of the world and experts think gender roles and harmful cultural practices are to blame.
Source: CAI
In 1994, the Government of Ghana decided to reduce the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) from the then 5.5 children per woman to 3.0 in 2020 (2) as part of an overall plan to reduce poverty and create sustainable development in Ghana.
Source: Mail&Guardian
After being raped by government troops, women in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo face the further pain and humiliation of being repudiated by their husbands.
Source: Daily Monitor
Women from minority and indigenous communities are targeted for rape and other forms of sexual violence, torture and killings, a new report has shown.
Source: Leadership
Thousands of trafficked Nigerian girls are trapped under dehumanising conditions as sex slaves in Mali. And for over one year that their condition was brought to the notice of the Federal Government,
Source: EGJustice
The government of Equatorial Guinea’s ratification of the African Union Protocol on the Rights of Women is a potentially important step toward gender equality in Equatorial Guinea,
Source: UNHCR
Somalia has been plagued by decades of woes – persistent conflict, waves of natural disasters and drought. While these crises make headlines, the country's embattled people – a quarter of whom have been uprooted – also face personal tragedies that are no less devastating.
Source: IPS
Violence against women is rampant, devastating and tolerated in South Sudan and the new country needs to address these gross human rights violations and train people, especially soldiers, to respect women's rights.