Source: The Independent
At a conference organised by the Federation for Women Lawyers at the FIDA offices in Kampala on March 29, women activists condemned the light sentence at which the Nakawa magistrate court handled the case against Emin Baro a 53 year old Turkish who was accused of molesting about 50 under aged girls and the pardoning of Sharma Kooky who has spent 12 years in jail for murdering his wife.
Source: Gender Links
Gender Based Violence (GBV) continues to be one of the foremost concerns in the struggle to achieve gender equality in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Source: The Herald
Zimbabwe joins Sadc countries in hosting the inaugural country level local government summits on gender and justice. In Zimbabwe, the summit gets underway in Kadoma as a precursor to the third regional summit to be held in South Africa next month.
Source: The Independent
Policy makers at the Women deliver summit in Munyonyo urged African governments to come up strong laws and policies to ensure that countries meet the millennium development goal 5 (maternal mortality) which is among the 8 MDGS that were arrived at in 2000 in New York.
Source: GenderLinks
Over two thirds of women in Botswana (67%) have experienced some form of gender violence in their lifetime including partner and non-partner violence. A smaller, but still high, proportion of men (44%) admit to perpetrating violence against women.
Source: Gender Links
Botswana's Minister of Labour and Home Affairs Honourable Minister Edwin Jenamiso Batshu will today launch The Gender Based Violence (GBV) Indicators Study Botswana (2012) report which reveals the high prevalence of GBV in the country. The research is a product of the partnership between Gender Links (GL) and the Women's Affairs Department (WAD) in the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs in Botswana.
Source: The Informer
The Representative of the Mano River Union (MRU) in Cote d' Ivoire, Angui T. Assouakon, has called on Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), particularly women of the subregion to work in unity and collaborate with one another if they which to make progress for the 30% quota of female representation in national decision-making and politics.
According to the World Health Organisation, 60 000 women and children in South Africa are victims of domestic violence every month.
A demographic survey has revealed that one of the reasons for the low women representation in the national and local governance system in the Northern Region is that husbands threaten their wives not to vote for women candidates contesting against men.
Nine out of 10 Nigerian women of child-bearing age are not using modern contraceptive methods. This is one of the startling revelations at a stakeholders’ dissemination on the Universal Access to female Condom programme aimed at increasing demand and access to female condoms in Nigeria.
Hand-dyed polished cotton — called bazin — is the mainstay of Malian fashion. The blind singers Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia extolled the fabric in a song released in 2005, “Beaux dimanches” (“Beautiful Sundays”). The song’s scintillating lyrics include the lines: “Sunday in Bamako is the wedding day / Men and women put on their best boubous / The bazins are waiting for you / This is the wedding day.”
It is rare for a head of government to be greeted with applause at the very beginning of a speech before the United Nations General Assembly. But that’s what happened last September when Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley of Bhutan took the podium and signalled his intention to talk about “happiness.” The prime minister’s seeming change of subject from the discussion of global crises immediately provoked the audience’s curiosity.
In an exclusive discussion with women’s organizations the day after he emerged as the winner of Senegal’s Presidential election on 25 March President-Elect Macky Sall outlined his vision for improving the lives of Senegalese women.
Young men and women socialise together at Tripoli University’s ‘campus B’ tarmac parking lot as they prepare to sit for examinations during this tumultuous school year.
For women, who have long been invisible during and after conflict, truth-seeking is an opportunity to have their experiences recognised and their roles understood, as survivors and agents of change.
Source: Gender Links
March is known to be human rights month in South Africa. Every year, 21 March is well marked on most South Africans' calendar, a day on which we celebrate human rights. The day is celebrated against the backdrop of a progressive Constitution that guarantees freedom of choice, equality and forbids discrimination on the basis of race, gender and sexual orientation among other things. As a woman in this South Africa, I am questioning myself about my identity and place in society.
Source: IPS
Political instability, civil strife and humanitarian crises in Africa have over the past decades reversed countless maternal health development gains on the continent, health experts warn.
Source: IPS
Martha Borete Angela's gaze sinks to the ground as she admits neither of her two children was delivered by a midwife or doctor. The 28-year-old South Sudanese woman shared this fact in front of her classmates: first-year students in a programme for midwives at the Catholic Health Training Institute in Wau, a city in the western part of the country.
Source: The New Dawn
Superintendent-designate, Etweda Cooper has promised empowering for the youths and women of Grand Bassa County, if confirmed by the Liberian Senate. Speaking during confirmation hearings at the Capitol Building on Monday, Miss Cooper said development for youths and women remain a concern in every quarter of the country and Grand Bassa is no exception.
Source: Daily Trust
Not fewer than 200 elderly women who suffer from various forms of eye diseases in Kuje were at the weekend given free eye glasses by Women in New Nigeria (WINN) to help them correct their sights.