Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Zainab Hawa Bangura, currently the Minister of Health and Sanitation of Sierra Leone, as his new Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict.
Shortly after her father died, Sia Bona’s husband’s family took over her father’s oil-palm plantation and rice paddies, and drove her and her mother from their home. “I came from riches, but now I am poor,” said the 45-year-old teacher from Koidu town in eastern Sierra Leone.
Strict Sharia, or Islamic religious laws, imposed by the Islamist rebels controlling vast swathes of northern Mali are driving thousands of students out of schools. Dress codes have been imposed, boys and girls are forced to learn separately, and subjects deemed to promote “infidelity” have been struck off the curriculum.
Source: Pambazuka News
The life and work of Thomas Sankara can be taken as a reminder of both the power and potential for human agency to enact transformation.
Source: Libya Herald
In the lead-up to the forthcoming National Assembly elections on 7 July, female candidates will have the support of a national campaign entitled ‘My Voice for Her.’
Source: AllAfrica
The Minister of Works and Transport, Erkki Nghimtina, has called on the youth to condemn acts of violence against women and children, and passion killings.
Addressing youth at the Swapo Party Youth League Ohangwena Regional Conference at Eenhana last Saturday, Nghimtina said it was disappointing that cases of passion killings, particularly among young people, were on the increase.
Source: GhanaWeb
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Sampson Agbeko, Brong Ahafo Regional Director of Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), on Tuesday appealed to the government to pass the Legislative Instrument (LI) on Domestic Violence Act.
He said the LI would take care of some of the problems that victims of domestic violence and other stakeholders go through in their endeavor of seeking justice.
The regional director was addressing a press conference on the passage of the LI in Sunyani, which was jointly organised by two NGO’s: ActionAid Ghana and Centre for Maternal Health and Community Empowerment.
DSP Agbeko, said lack of training for some of the staff of DOVVSU in regard to knowledge about domestic violence- related issues, lack of privacy of victims during counseling sessions and the fees demanded from them are some of the things affecting the fight against fighting injustice in the society.
Mrs Olivia Avudzega of the Department of Social Welfare said the introduction of the Domestic Violence Act brought relief to stakeholders working for victims of domestic violence.
She said the Act alone could not be fully effective without the support of the LI to regulate how the law should operate.
Mrs Avudzega said the law would ensure free access to medical care, as well as shelter for victims. She asked the public to desist from stigmatizing victims of domestic violence and rather encourage them to report cases on time to avoid tampering with evidence.
Mrs Avudzega appealed to family members to avoid the settlement of domestic cases at home and rather allow the law to take its course. Mr. George Ankamah, Acting Regional Director of the Department of Children, emphasised that the LI would help to promote and protect the development of women and children.
He expressed regret about the low number of women in decision making due to the continued existence of some harmful socio-cultural practices in some communities.
The acting regional director noted that some husbands maltreat their wives and get away with it because after all it would be settled at home.
Mr. Ankamah said his outfit would intensify advocacy and awareness creation about women issues to the public “to ensure violence against women and children are... minimised or eradicated from the society”.
Mr. John Abaa of ActionAid Ghana entreated the media to help in the sensitisation of people on domestic violence issues.
Egypt is in full protest mode once again. Tens of thousands are packing Cairo’s Tahrir Square to once more demand an end to the military control over the country. As anger and uncertainty reign in the country, women remain on the outside looking in, fearful of heading down to the square to show their support. The reason is simple: they are attacked, assaulted, groped and harassed throughout the square.
Source: Trinidad Express Newspaper
At a high-level event yesterday at the Rio+20 Conference, women heads of state and government signed a Call to Action with concrete policy recommendations on integrating gender equality and women's empowerment in all sustainable development frameworks.
Source: Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA)
21st June 2012: The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) has been informed to today by the legal team representing Intisar Sharif Abdullah, that she has been released unconditionally and without further charge.
Source: Tunis Afrique Press
Some twenty experts attended here today the first two-day-meeting of experts on "the State responsibility in eliminating violence against women" in the Middle East and North Africa.
Source: Concord Times
The Chairperson of the National Commission for Democracy NCD has called on women to activelyparticipate in the politics of the country.
Source: Women's eNews
If the Islamists in parliament hold power, they could erase years of legal gains for women. But if the military has its way, a police state could re-emerge.
Source: WomensLawProject
Hillary Clinton Launches the Women in Public Service ProjectMolly Duerig, WLP Intern
Monday, June 11th, marked the official launch of the Women in Public Service Project (WPSP), a program created by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that aims to mentor emerging female leaders from all over the world in public policy and social justice.
Forty-nine women from 21 different countries were selected through an application process to participate in the project. WPSP kicked off its first annual two-week series of intensive seminars, which will focus on how women can successfully lead and influence the governments and societies in which they live. Participants will also have the opportunity to network with global political leaders.
The project is sponsored by The U.S State Department and the five remaining “Seven-Sister” schools, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Barnard, Smith, and Mount Holyoke. The first summer institute will take place at Wellesley College, which is the alma mater of both Clinton and Madeline Albright, the first female Secretary of State. The other sponsoring colleges, all leading liberal arts colleges, will host the event in the future.
Clinton’s ambitious project will further the pro-women initiative President Obama undertook when he issued the National Action Plan (NAP) on Women, Peace and Security this past December. The Women’s Media Center explained that NAP mandated increased participation of women in the negotiation of peace treaties, as well as a promotion of women’s role in conflict prevention. This program is one that was greatly needed: only 8% of all peace treaties negotiated during the last several years involved women at all.
Furthermore, as State Department ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues Melanne Verveer pointed out, almost half of all peace agreements negotiated during the 1990s failed within five years of their passage. “Peace won’t happen if we leave out half of those who are affected by conflict and will benefit from peace,” said Verveer in support of the NAP.
Her sentiment, crucial to the birth of the WPSP, is shared by many leaders urging increased participation by women in politics. As women continue to be underrepresented in politics, we fail to hear the opinion of half of the population. This leads to a plethora of problems, including imbalanced decisions and a narrow range of expertise and perspective.
Gender equality efforts are underway worldwide. Newly-elected French president Francois Hollande appointed an equal number of women and men to the country’s 34-member cabinet for the first time in history.
Clinton’s hopes are that the WPSP will help this trend to continue on an international level. The project’s ultimate goal is for at least 50% of the world’s elected leaders to be women by the year 2050. Currently, that number is at only 17.5%. According to a Women’s Media Center article, the proportion of women to men in the U.S Congress is only 17%, even lower than the international average of 20% of parliamentary seats held by women. Clinton was quoted as saying she was embarrassed by this statistic. She also stated that, “The World Bank has found that women tend to invest more of their earnings in their families and communities than men do,” adding that “those are the kinds of instincts and priorities we would all like to see” at the government level.
If half of a society’s population fails to have proper representation in politics, the desires and goals of that society cannot be properly met. The WPSP aims to broaden the range of perspectives at the political forefront to include more women, as well as give women the resources and contacts to become effective leaders. Here at the Women’s Law Project, we support and applaud this endeavor. This is a bold and innovative approach to international policy that aims to drastically alter global leadership.
Rio +20, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, is renewing international conversations about how to simultaneously address poverty, protect the environment, and maintain balanced economic growth. If progress is to be made, the agenda must reflect that achieving gender equality is intimately tied to achieving these other goals, as well as being a goal in and of itself.
Source: All Africa
Women entrepreneurs from 37 African nations convened in Washington for the third meeting of the African Women's Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP), which runs from June 3 to 23. Representing a colorful variety of cultures, customs and languages, the nearly 50 AWEP delegates all had two things in common: entrepreneurial experience, and a dedication to improving communities through business.
Population growth and women’s right to choose when to have children could become hot issues again. Gro Harlem Brundtland, the former prime minister of Norway, has warned against “backsliding” in the draft outcome document being negotiated at the Rio+20 conference, which opens on 20 June. The new text might not recognize the advances made in ensuring that women have reproductive rights alongside other major multilateral agreements on development and the environment.
Source: Alaska Dispatch
Margaret Hans, 25, shuffles to the door of her simple but immaculate two-room township home. Thin with drawn facial features, she is still weak from tuberculosis — the all-too-familiar scourge that piggy-backs on the South African HIV epidemic.
Source: Health 24
In response to the virtual removal of the right to family planning services from the agenda of Rio+20 negotiators, a high-profile group of former presidents and prime ministers, and leaders in global health and philanthropy today encouraged negotiators at the Rio+20 sustainability conference to stand up to the Vatican’s efforts to block reproductive health services as a fundamental strategy for attaining the goals of sustainable development.
Source: Health-e
With maternal health being one of the priority areas for health improvement, it’s important for primary health care facilities to improve care for pregnant mothers. The Witkoppen Health and Welfare Centre in Fourways, north of Johannesburg, says it’s trying to improve on these health indicators.