Ongoing violence in the Middle East and North Africa, from Libya and Yemen to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, is taking a heavy toll on the lives of young people, the head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today, urging all parties to do more to ensure the protection of children in the region.
(Geneva) - Dozens of Ivorian refugee women and girls recently arrived in eastern Liberia say they have had to engage in sex to get adequate food, shelter, or money, Human Rights Watch said today.
In October 2010, in Nairobi Kenya, the Decade of the African Woman was launched recognized by the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN), and supported by the Maputo Protocol Manifesto. The decade theme is a “grassroots approach to gender equality and women’s empowerment.”
Source: allAfrica.com
Abuja — With the African fight for the implementation of affirmative action, it has been revealed that three hundred mining claims have been issued to women miners, with a total of 2,000 hectares from Guruve for gold claim.
Source: THE HERALD
WOMEN attending the international conference on economic and political empowerment and peace building in Harare have backed the quota system that enables them to take up decision making positions.Globally women have been living on the periphery of the political, economic and social landscape but with changing times they gradually began to claim their stake in the important positions in their respective countries. Speaking on political empowerment during a plenary session, at the on-going conference yesterday, Mrs Rumbidzai Kandawasvika-Nhundu, a gender activist, said many countries have increased women's participation in decision-making positions. This, she said, was done through implementation of the quota system.
SOURCE: Pambazuka
To what extent do South Africa's municipal participation mechanisms enable meaningful engagement in development planning and local governance by poor or marginalised women? What interventions or alternative approaches are required? This article finds a disconnect between women's experience and knowledge and state policy and programmatic responses. It proposes two, formally linked, strategies to address this problem: 1) the creation of women-only forums, supported by training, to enable women to develop recommendations; and 2) the input of those recommendations into formal participation structures and processes.
Source: AEGiS-UNAIDS
"I learnt that you need money or a business to generate enough income to be able to travel to town for regular check-ups and to collect antiretroviral drugs. We do not have these services at our village dispensary."
Source: AEGiS-UNAIDS
President Alpha Conde and the First Lady, Ms Djene Kaba Conde, will participate in this year's UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS. The announcement came during a two-day official visit by UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe to the West African nation of Guinea Conakry.
Source:Health-e
A controversial US project that pays drug users and alcoholics to undergo sterilisation or long-term contraception, is setting its sights on women living with HIV in South Africa.
Source: Open Democracy
"The essential problem in relation to our predicament as women, but also with our world, is the architecture of human relations - a system of social organization that is based on hierarchy. This architecture is all pervasive from the family to the state and it holds across the world.
Source: IRIN
Failure to diagnose and treat syphilis and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among pregnant women in Kenya means thousands of mothers risk losing their children or passing on the infections to their unborn children.
Source: The New Vision Newspaper
A PRIMARY three child in Mamba Primary School, Kucwiny sub-county, Nebbi district has given birth to a baby under very distressing circumstances.
Source: The Zimbabwean
Women must learn to put their money where their mouth is and not just talk continuously at major international conferences, says Dr Utete-Masango, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development.
Source: IRIN
At the Catholic mission in the western Ivoirian town of Duékoué, women with shaved heads are everywhere – one mourning ritual people taking refuge at the site continue to observe. They have had to abandon many others, even proper burials, for fear of violent attacks like those that forced them from their homes in the town or surrounding villages.
Source: IRIN
Every school morning, Geoffrey Ocira stops his lessons for half an hour, rushing to his office to give his HIV-positive students their antiretroviral (ARV) medication.
Women in agriculture generally work longer and harder than men for less reward. In developing countries, more than 60% of women are directly involved in agricultural work, but very few gain access to information, training or supplies.
SOURCE: Sudan Tribune
March 9, 2011 (BOR) - While celebrating International Women’s Day on March 9, a day late due to logistical problems, Jonglei governor Kuol Manyang Juuk strongly condemned the abuse and mistreatment of women in his state.
- Jonglei governor Kuol Manyang speaking at Freedom Square in Bor to celebrate international women’s day. March 9, 2011 (ST)
The governor said that incidents, such as the killing of a girl killed by parents for eloping with a man against the will of her family, must be stopped.
The Egyptian Center for Women's Rights and the Egyptian Coalition for Civil Education and Women's Participation received the news of the reformation of the National Council for Human Rights with great satisfaction:
Source: MADRE
Ongoing drought in Kenya has put millions of people at risk of hunger and starvation. For women who play a primary role in securing clean water for their families, these severe droughts create new burdens.
The human rights organisation Front Line launched its second Annual Report on Human Rights Defenders which highlights global trends and developments in the situation of human rights defenders in 2010 and analyses the situation in each region of the world.