Source: UNIOGBIS News
The law was unanimously voted by the 81 MPs present. The National Assembly (ANP) thus concluded two days of discussion under the leadership of the chairman of the Specialized Commission for Women and Children, Ms. Martina Moniz.
Source: AllAfrica
By Angela Oketch
The national rollout of free Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in Kenya has been pushed to next year due to what an official termed high demand from countries across the globe.
Source: Ghana Web
Research by the International Republican Institute (IRI) on females’ participation in politics in Ghana has shown that most women refuse to contest political positions for fear of being insulted and tagged as prostitutes.
Source: Journal du Cameroun.com
Women in Cameroon have staged a sit-down strike in Buea, head quarter of the South West Region of the country to appeal for a return of peace in the troubled Anglophone regions of the country.
Source: AllAfrica
Beirut — A statement by Egypt's highest religious authority denouncing sexual harassment could be a turning point in efforts to crack down on abuse against women, activists said on Tuesday.Al-Azhar, which has huge influence over Egypt's mostly Muslim population and trains most of the country's imams, took to Facebook and Twitter this week to denounce the practice of harassing women, including over their behaviour or clothing.
Source: The Economist
Diane Rwigara and the perils of dissent in Rwanda
Source: The New Arab
Source: Morocco World News
Rabat – Police have reportedly arrested 10 men involved in kidnapping, raping, torturing, tattooing, and holding captive a 17-year-old in central Morocco.The girl, named Khadija, was subjected to the worst forms of violence during the month she was held by more than 10 men in Oulad Ayad, a small town near Beni Mellal and 150 kilometers northeast of Marrakech.
Source: Voice of America
Born into slavery and kept as a servant for 30 years, Haby Mint Rabah is now running for parliament in Mauritania to fight for freedom in a nation with one of the world's worst slavery rates.Rabah's candidacy is a first for the West African country, where more than two in every 100 people — 90,000 in total — live as slaves, according to the 2018 Global Slavery Index.
Source: Reuters
Burundi’s rollback on banning pregnant girls and expectant teen fathers from attending school is a victory for child rights, but steps must be taken to curb sexual exploitation and teen pregnancies, campaigners said on Tuesday. Burundi’s education ministry on Friday reversed a month-old policy under which pregnant teens and young mothers, as well as the boys who made them pregnant, no longer had the right to be part of the formal education system.
Source: AllAfrica
Authorities in Malawi have expressed optimism that a new Termination of Pregnancy law will be enacted once Cabinet ministers complete reviewing recommendations which the Law Commission submitted.Speaking during a media workshop on abortion law reform, Ministry of Health Spokesperson Joshua Malango said the sequence was that after the Cabinet scrutinises the recommendations, the bill would be tabled in Parliament.
Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union News
Djibouti’s new legislature is making great efforts to become more representative of the country’s people. Elections in February changed the composition of the National Assembly with an intake of 60 per cent of new MPs. Women are better represented, making up 26 per cent of the intake, up from 11 per cent in the last legislature; the Assembly is also proactively reaching out to civil society and youth.
Source: AllAfrica
Namibia has one of the largest percentages of women in its police force in Southern Africa at 31 percent. This also means that more Namibian women are deployed as part of peacekeeping missions in the region and beyond, according to the recently launched SADC Gender Protocol 2018 barometer.
Source: AfroBarometer
Since its independence in 1968, Mauritius has taken pride in promoting its development based on democracy, good governance, human rights and freedoms, and the rule of law. Its Constitution affirms that all Mauritians should benefit from the right to equal protection and assistance of the law against any form of discrimination.
Source: UN News
Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka’s comments were made on Sunday in Baidoa, the interim capital of Somalia’s South West State (SWS), at the start of a three-day visit to the country, said UNSOM, the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia. Visiting as part of a delegation led by the Somalian Minister of Women and Human Rights Development, Deqa Yasin, Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka met with the acting president of South West State, Hassan Hussein Mohamed, cabinet ministers, female members of the SWS regional assembly and civil society representatives.
Source: New Telegraph
Against all odds, politics in Nigeria is no longer a men’s affair. In this report, WALE ELEGBEDE looks at the women who are after President Muhammadu Buhari’s job ahead of the 2019 election.
Source: City Press
All over the world, women outnumber male entrepreneurs. This has led to a renewed focus on gender entrepreneurship and the development of appropriate interventions for gender-specific groups across the globe. At the forefront of this effort in South Africa is the National Empowerment Fund (NEF).
Source: Equal Times
Daring to join the male-dominated world of Nigerian politics was a tough decision for Ladi Mamman Watila, particularly in the conservative north-eastern state of Borno. But in 2003, Watila ran for a seat in the House of Representatives (the lower house of the National Assembly of Nigeria) on behalf of the All Nigeria People’s Party. Most of her opponents were men who felt she was better suited to the kitchen than the rough and tumble of national politics.
Source: International Policy Digest
There is little doubt that Africa will witness rapid yet uneven economic and demographic growth in the next 20 years. Information from multiple sources indicates that its rise can positively affect the global economy by introducing a decisive regional economic force that must be reckoned with. The very steps that will enable this progress such as the Africa Free Trade Area, widespread investments in communications, transportation, and distribution infrastructures, a greater emphasis on advancing agro-industry, and broad changes in education systems to prepare market-ready graduates to fuel the continent’s rise, are lagging.
Source: The Daily Vox
On Wednesday, thousands of women and gender-nonconforming people took to the streets around Southern Africa. They were marching against the scourge of gender-based violence which has taken the lives of many women and gender nonconforming people. The action took place under the platform of a total shutdown with women and gender nonconforming people being asked to stay away from work. The Daily Vox team were at the Pretoria march.