“You need to be circumcised to be married, so that if you get pregnant you don’t bring shame to your family,” explains Nengai, a proud, 26-year-old school teacher. In Gelai, the rural village where she grew up, all of the girls she knew were circumcised, usually after they completed primary school.Her own mother came from a poor family and was married at just 9 years of age to a man with four wives — the man who would become Nengai’s father.
United Nations Member States have approved the first-ever draft resolution aimed at ending the harmful practice of female genital mutilation, in a move hailed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as a major step forward in protecting millions of women and girls.
Source: UN News Centre
Countries have a responsibility to implement national policies to end violence against women, United Nations officials stressed today, adding that urgent action is needed to stop one of the most pervasive human rights violations worldwide.
African women lawmakers on Wednesday robustly pushed for strategies that will see more women supported to assume leadership roles on the continent.
Source: UNESCO
Many people all over the world use the occasion of World AIDS Day (WAD), 1 December, to raise awareness about the disease and reflect on progress in the response. The theme for this WAD, and all others until 2015, is Getting to Zero: zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths.
UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, addressed the Conference entitled “Trafficking of women: exploring effective policies and mechanisms to prevent it through education”, held on 26 November at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. This event, organized on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, celebrated every year on 25 November, seeks to raise awareness and build stronger international and national action against the
Against the backdrop of an upcoming U.N. Security Council (UNSC) meeting on women, peace and security, a coalition of some 63 international women’s groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) has decried the absence of women during peace negotiations in post-conflict situations.
Sustained by institutional, cultural and structural discrimination, violence against women continues, with Africa particularly badly affected.
When the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) adopted a landmark resolution numbered 1325 back in 2000, it was supposed to integrate gender into its core mandate: the establishment and maintenance of international peace and security.
In Uganda, only 38% of midwives are fully qualified, leaving the majority ill-equipped to deal with complicated births. But a pioneering project is using online study to fill the training gap.
Landmark resolution calls on member states to condemn FGM and pass laws to protect girls and women 'from this violence'.
As the UN marks International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, statistics show that 70 per cent of women and girls will experience some form of violence during their lifetime. Pictured, in Cambodia, an acid attack survivor who was assaulted by her brother-in-law when she threatened to report him for selling his two year-old daughter to traffickers.
Many countries have ratified ILO conventions on maternity protection, but pregnant women still face workplace discrimination. Marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (November 25), the ILO publishes guidelines on how to implement maternity protection policies.
From a stallholder earning up to £16 profit a day selling fish, to a farmer buying more land, a village finance scheme is giving Ghanaian women the chance to fulfil their ambitions.
NINETEEN motorcyclists are riding across nine Southern African countries to mobilise men and the private sector for action against gender-based violence.
Source: The Observer
Alex Kiwanuka says that emergency contraceptives, often referred to as morning-after pills, are the most commonly used contraceptive (as compared to non-emergency contraceptives). Kiwanuka works with the youth at Reproductive Health Uganda, and his observation could be representative of this demography. However, when he talks about the ways in which we abuse or misuse contraceptives, it isn't only the youth he talks about.
A care centre founded by four men in South Africa's KwaThema township offers health and psychological support to vulnerable women and children.
Source: The Namibian
GENDER equality and inner party governance within Swapo will not be on the agenda of this week's congress.
Source: Aswat Masriya
A Facebook page that goes by the name "The Uprising of Women in the Arab World" launched a two-week campaign on Sunday to expose the suffering of women.
Source: MSF
A report released today from Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) highlights the devastating impact of violence on the lives and health of civilians in South Sudan's Jonglei state. Women and children as young as four months old are among the victims. Healthcare is threatened as medical facilities are targeted and destroyed.