Source: WorldWatch
After days of negotiations, world leaders and the over 50,000 participants at Rio+20 will be presented with a draft outcome agreement, known as “The Future We Want.” The draft, which will be finalized on Friday, will be presented to heads of state at the end of the conference and will likely serve as the framework for future goals on economic, social, and environmental sustainability, including the Sustainable Development Goals, which could replace the Millennium Development Goals when they expire in 2015
Source: Global Post
The ladies, as they have come to be known, arrive to work by 9 a.m. each day.
Their office is an old minibus (taxi) station in the center of Langa township. The dilapidated white building is dark inside; a table lined with blue plastic chairs is set up by the window, and two men sit in a small office behind security glass. Resembling a YMCA-meets-doctor’s office, this station has housed the Langa Action Community AIDS Program (LACAP) for seven years.
With more and more reports of sexual violence against women in Egypt becoming public, an anti-sexual harassment and violence against women organization in the country has called for a mass demonstration in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Friday to battle the social pandemic.
Women empowerment took the spotlight in Parliament yesterday with a historic launch of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) Namibia branch.
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi will appoint a woman and a Christian respectively to be his two vice presidents, CNN reported today. The Muslim Brotherhood leader initially inspired fears of a strictly Islamist state but after just two days in office, Morsi has alleviated that fear — at least a little bit.
The top United Nations envoy in Libya today stressed the importance of the equal participation of women in rebuilding the country, as he commended the number of women who have registered to vote and to stand for election in the upcoming legislative polls.
Source: Deutsche Welle
This year's Deutsche Welle Blog Awards - "the BOBs" - were presented on Tuesday at the Global Media Forum 2012. The first prize went to an Iranian blogger repeatedly arrested for his critical articles.
Source: Womens News Network
The nation of Zambia has started the process of domesticating legal protective and reporting mechanisms that may increase help to women inside the country revealed the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Gender and Development in Zambia, Mr. Edwidge Mutale recently.
Source: Vibe Ghana
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM ) is the practice that involves the complete removal or partial removal or alteration of the genital for non-medical reasons.
Source: Forbes
As a young woman working in public policy in Washington, D.C., who has also lived in Egypt for many years, I impart words of hope for my Egyptian female friends:
Be steadfast:
Source: IPS
When I was still at school I was abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army, along with 139 other girls,” says Grace Akallo. “I spent seven months in captivity, but I survived, I escaped and I went back home.”
Women’s Major Group Releases Final Statement on the Outcomes of Rio+20: "We believe that the governments of the world have failed women, future generations and our beautiful but fragile planet earth"
In the obstetrics and gynaecology ward of St Mary's Hospital Lacor in northern Uganda's Gulu District, Apilli Kilara lies on the floor under a blood-stained sheet, staring at the ceiling.
Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF-Ghana), a Pan -African women rights network, and Farmers Organisation Network in Ghana (FONG) have launched a project that seeks to reduce poverty among women farmers in rural areas.
Source: IPS
Four figures bend intently over their work in one corner of the large vegetable garden near the western Niger village of Dioga. Months after the village’s main harvest has been brought in – and eaten up – the irrigated green of the garden is welcome relief in a part of the country where hunger never seems far away.
Source: Libya Herald
The event was held to celebrate the role of women in Libyan society
More than 350 female candidates for the National Conference elections gathered in Tripoli this afternoon for an event to honour the role of women during the revolution. The event, entitled “My Voice for Her”, was also attended by Prime Minister Abdurrahman El-Kib, NTC Deputy Chairman Salim Ganaiyen, UN envoy to Libya Ian Martin and Minister of Health Fatima Hamroush amongst others. More than 500 guests were present in total.
Source: Tripoli Post
The much awaited Libyan election is now finally coming to materialize, hopefully without any change in schedule, on July 7, 2012, the first of its kind in almost half-a century. It is indeed a memorable event… a moment of celebration.
Source: The New Times
The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development ended at the weekend in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with the commitment to establish universal sustainable development goals to create a stronger international architecture needed to support sustainable development.
This year’s International Widows Day has been marked in Bolgatanga with a call on government to enact the legislative instrument on Domestic Violence Act to eliminate violence against women.
In accepting the Nobel Peace Prize last year, Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman thanked women of the Arab world for her medal. Without their struggle to win equal rights, she would not be there, she said.