France has called for a United Nations inquiry into violence in Côte d’Ivoire, as the military denied responsibility for Thursday’s killing of six women in Abidjan. Five African leaders are to return to the divided country in an attempt to broker peace between outgoing president Laurent Gbagbo and his rival, Alassane Ouattara.
Source: ReliefWeb
UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet today announced a new initiative to boost women's roles in conflict resolution. In an address at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute, she described how UN Women will create an international roster of gender experts who can be rapidly deployed to work on issues such as constitutional law, electoral and party law, and legal aid, all of which are critical to post-conflict reconstruction processes.
Source: AllAfrica
Burundi will put U.N. Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security into practice with a National Action Plan (NAP) that is ready to be signed within the coming months.
Source: AlertNet
The Democratic Republic of Congo must prosecute soldiers and armed groups who have raped on an unprecedented scale and should set up a meaningful fund to compensate victims, the United Nations said on Thursday.
Source: IPS
It is short sighted to dismiss the benefits or potential of engaging the private sector in human rights matters, says Sara Lulo, director of the Avon Global Center for Women and Justice at Cornell Law School.
In their 2010 book "Half the Sky", Pulitzer Prize-winners Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn write about a disturbing but not uncommon problem in Southern Africa - male teachers who trade good grades for sex with students.
Source: IPS
Picture a mother, hunching over a field with a Medieval-style hoe in hand, spending day after day tilling the soil under a beating hot sun - only to retire home to care for her family without electricity or running water.
Source: IPS
Five years since Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was elected president in Liberia, it appears there is a systematic campaign to remind African women that their place is still in the kitchen. And advertisers of detergent powders and other cleaning products appear to be the main culprits.
Source: Pambazuka
The future of many girls in Malawi is in jeopardy. Poverty-stricken parents are marrying their daughters off at a tender age, robbing young girls of their right to education and exposing them to gender-based violence and HIV and AIDS in a country with one of the world’s highest prevalence rates, says this article from the Gender Links Opinion and Commentary Service.
Source: Angola Press
Luanda – Angola's ruling MPLA party vice-president, Roberto de Almeida, Sunday in Luanda said Angolan women play a crucial role within the family as mother, wife, adviser and educator and contribute in a efficacious way to the wellbeing of the society and its development.
Source: The Huffington Post
The launch of UN Women in the UN General Assembly Hall this week, February 24th, felt like a celebration. There was indeed a reason to celebrate. Who wouldn't celebrate the vision set forth by the United Nations for global gender equality and the empowerment of women? The leaders and celebrities participating in the program were impressive.
Source: Ghana News Agency
The 55th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) has opened in New York with a call on member states not to postpone action for the promotion of gender equality and women empowerment until better conditions prevailed.
Source: IPS
UNITED NATIONS, 1325. It's a combination of digits that might not mean much to the majority of the world's population, but these four numbers are a crucial tool in the global struggle for gender equality.
Source: Business Day
The world of international criminal justice has offered lots of theatrics in recent weeks. Courtenay Griffiths, lead defence counsel for Charles Taylor on trial in The Hague before the Special Court for Sierra Leone, stormed out of court, refusing to reappear. His client took the opportunity to excuse himself too.
Source: UNFPA
OSLO — No woman should die giving life, yet almost 1,000 women die every day from pregnancy-related causes, 99 per cent of them in developing countries.
Source: Wilton Villager
A delegation of 15 women with diverse backgrounds but a common mindset to improve the lives of women around the world met Monday, Feb. 21, at the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Wilton. Their mission: to map out their participation in the United Nations' 55th session of the Commission on the Status of Women.
Source: Vanguard
Despite huge contributions of women, there yet remains a lot more to be done in giving women a more balanced access to opportunities and removing practices that harm and put women at disproportionate risks.
Source: AllAfrica
A passionate comment from a Cameroonian woman, appealing to the African Women's Caucus that gender advocacy must begin at home and address ordinary women, reminded me of two things yesterday.
Source: Pambazuka
Egyptian women describe the spirit of Tahrir and their hope that the equality they found there will live on.
Source: UNESCO
To mark the official launch of UN Women on 24 February 2011, the UNESCO Courier presents an interview with Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of the new UN agency. Conducted by Jasmina Šopova, the interview will be published in the Courier's April-June 2011 issue.