Source: Peace X Peace
Interview with Amany Mufta Ismail by Anna Therese Day. In late March, 29-year-old Libyan student Eman Al-Obeidy caught the world’s attention when she burst into a Tripoli hotel to inform Western media of her alleged detention, torture, and rape at the hands of Gaddafi’s forces.
Source: UNICEF
UNICEF is concerned about the situation of children and women in the southwestern province of Bas-Sassandra in Côte d'Ivoire. Weeks of clashes near the town of Soubré have triggered population displacements and prevented UN aid agencies from accessing affected people to deliver life-saving assistance.
Source: PlusNews
Rwanda is in the third and final phase of testing a vaginal ring containing antiretrovirals, which, if successful, could provide an important female-controlled method of HIV prevention.
What are the Millennium Development Goals?
Adopted by world leaders in the year 2000 and set to be achieved by 2015, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) provide concrete, numerical benchmarks for tackling extreme poverty in its many dimensions.United Nations agencies in Nigeria, including the UN Women and the United Nations Development Programme have pledged their support for Nigerian women in their quest for better representation in government ahead of the local government elections in the country.
The Nigerian government needs to increase its investment in the education of women if the country is to achieve its dream of development. The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Josephine Anenih, said at the weekend in Ilorin.
The systematic use of sexual violence along with torture, cruel and degrading treatment – such as the common use of flogging - continue to be one of the major security threats and tools of repression targeting women and communities all over Sudan. Amel Gorani reports on those who are daring to speak out.
Public lecture delivered by UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet at the London School of Economics, London, 17 May 2011.
"As an 18 year old woman I wanted to join what I saw as the coolest and toughest force - not the Air Force, not the Navy, but the Army. I was the first woman to join, and arrived full of ideas of what life would be like as a woman in the army. Things were not as I had imagined at all...."
Sixteen countries have announced concrete commitments aimed at drastically reducing current levels of maternal, newborn and child mortality, the United Nations reported today.
How far do our post-conflict reconstruction efforts go when it comes to addressing the trauma and loss that women and girls experience during conflict? Jessica Horn reports ahead of the Nobel Women’s Initiative conference on ending sexual violence in conflict.
The Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU), at its 279th meeting held on 18 May 2011, discussed the issue of the protection of civilian populations in armed conflicts, on the basis of the Progress Report of the Chairperson
Source: IRIN News
Maternal health will be the focus over the next week when Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon begins a four-nation trip that will take the United Nations chief to Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Ethiopia and France, his spokesperson said today. The trips to Nigeria and Ethiopia are part of the "Every Woman, Every Child" global health effort, which Mr. Ban launched in September last year during the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) summit at UN Headquarters in New York.
Source:IRIN News
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today commended the Nigerian Government for investing in women's and children's health, saying the United Nations would support efforts to make communities in the West African country healthier. "Health systems that work for women and children are health systems that work for all," Mr. Ban said when he visited the Maitama Hospital in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.
Source: New York Times
BENGHAZI, Libya — In recent days, after weeks of delays and closed-door meetings, rebel leaders here have announced a slate of new appointments, including a defense chief and a minister for reconstruction and infrastructure. They have added members to a national council, to represent areas in southern, central and western Libya, all in an effort to bolster the revolution, better represent the country as a whole and — in the event that Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi bolts — make civil war unlikely, the rebel leaders explained.
Source: FrenchTribune.com
A call for developing advanced techniques to meet the contraceptive needs of about of 215 million or 26 % of reproductive-age women across the developing world is being heard in the corners of the world. As per reports, one in four sub-Saharan African women is grappling to get hold of new contraceptives methods, replacing the existing methods.
Twenty-three out of the 64 women who contested the New Patriotic Party (NPP) primaries were elected as parliamentary candidates and would contest on the ticket of the NPP in the 2012 general elections.
Victoria Zanele KaMagwaza-Msibi admits she is no angel. But for 30 years she’s navigated through South Africa’s tough political landscape, mainly as a member of a male-dominated party, and now as the leader of her own political party.
Source: IPS
Come rain or shine, single mother of five, Sylvia Mathebula,* can be found selling fruit and cigarettes at the roadside because it is the only way her family can survive.
In Sierra Leone’s highly patriarchal society, where institutionalised gender inequalities are exacerbated by discriminatory customs, one group is singing its way towards changing this.