Discrimination and misunderstanding of the law are causing tensions between Malawi’s police and sex workers, who often accuse officers of abusing them. A local NGO is stepping in to help sex workers uphold their rights and teach police to look past the stigma.
South Africa is home to the biggest HIV epidemic in the world. It also has one of the world’s highest rates of rape. With the country’s legal system slow to recognize the issue of violence against women, local NGOs are working to break the link.
The proportion of women in U.N. peacekeeping operations has been slow to rise. But there might be a way to speed things up: Give financial incentives to troop-contributing countries, say Charles Kenny and Tanvi Jaluka of the Center for Global Development.
When governments in the global north provide aid to the global south, they rarely invest directly in the organizations that are already making a difference on the ground. Jessica Neuwirth of Donor Direct Action says that needs to change.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
A rising number of African women are heading to the Middle East for domestic work, driven abroad by the lack of jobs at home.
Source: unfpa.org
Three times, Abebech Kabla has given birth alone in the woods. Each time, she thought she might die. The first time, she was only 13 years old, a year into her marriage. “Even after giving birth, I didn't go back to my house for seven days until I became clean from blood,” she said.
Since entering politics, Kenyan lawmaker Sarah Korere has been insulted, shot at, slapped by a colleague and cursed by tribal elders - but she's still trying to take a man's parliamentary seat in one of Kenya's most violent regions. Korere's experiences are symptomatic of a wider hate campaign against female candidates in Kenyan politics, women representatives say, which helps give the east African nation the lowest representation of women in politics in its region.
The law on violence against women, including domestic violence, approved by the Tunisian parliament on July 26, 2017, is a landmark step for women’s rights, Human Rights Watch said today. Tunisian authorities should ensure that there is adequate funding and political will to put the law fully into effect and to eliminate discrimination against women.
The United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Ms. Amina Mohammed, joined by the Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, Dr. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Ms. Pramila Patten, and the African Union (AU) Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security Ms Bineta Diop, arrived in Abuja, Nigeria this week for a joint high-level mission themed: ‘Revitalizing Women's Participation and Leadership in Peace, Security and Development’, with particular emphasis on the situation of women and girls in northeast Nigeria.
Thousands of South Sudanese women and girls, and some men, who have been raped in ethnically-charged sexual attacks in the ongoing conflict are battling mental distress and stigma with nowhere to turn for help, Amnesty International revealed in a new report out today.
Abdia Gole, 33, is a recent graduate of Business Management from one of the leading universities in Kenya, and a candidate for the upcoming County Assembly elections for Gorbo Ward, Marsabit County, in Northern Kenya. “I am going door to door, campaigning to urge women and youth to vote for me. Our time is now or never,” says Gole.
Source: newsdeeply.com
Waiting for her turn to see the nurse, Juliet Chasamuka, 34, looked weary. “I woke up early today, prepared my children for school, cleaned the house and fetched water, all before going for my check-up,” she said.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Animated chatter spills out from a corner of tech giant Google's Nairobi offices as five Kenyan schoolgirls discuss their upcoming trip to California where they hope to win $15,000 for I-cut, an app to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
Source: newsdeeply.com
Twenty girls are dressed in freshly pressed Girl Guide uniforms, swaying from side to side in unison, singing a mournful tune. “South Sudan is crying. South Sudan is weeping,” they sing. Crowds of children are nestled under a big white tent, some perched on white plastic chairs, others peering from behind metal poles. Around the square, dozens of curious neighbors have clustered to watch the performances.
Source: newsdeeply.com
Shantel sits in a bar lit by TV screens. Wet bottles of Tusker beer line the shelves, low cushioned chairs crowd the floor. A client waits for her in a back room. Shantel’s parents died when she was 15, leaving her and her sister Magdari alone. “My parents died with HIV so I didn’t have anywhere to go. It’s when I started sex work,” she says.
Kenyans will vote for their new government on August 8, amid fears that violence will flare up around polling day, as it has in the past. But across the country, women candidates are already facing harassment, intimidation and abuse, both in person and online.
Source: newsdeeply.com
Under a tarpaulin tent pitched in the world’s largest refugee settlement, a pair of newborn twins is cause for celebration. “They will grow fat,” midwife Christine Ajidiru says, gushing over the mother, Maria Gire, who is breastfeeding one of her new baby girls.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Nearly 1,000 women struggling to put food on their tables in Boko Haram-hit northeast Nigeria have received goats as emergency assistance, the United Nations said on Thursday. The region is threatened with famine after the militants' eight-year insurgency to create an Islamic state, which has killed more than 20,000 people and forced some 2.7 million people to flee their homes.
Two decades of research compiled by the Council on Foreign Relations demonstrates that including more women in labor markets will strengthen the global economy.
Tourism to Africa is set to jump to 134 million visitors by 2030. But the majority of high-earning jobs in the industry are held by men, a new report from the U.N.’s trade and development body has found.