Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is a traditional practice that ranges from nicking to total removal of the external female genitalia. An estimated 100 to 145 million women have undergone this procedure and at least 3 million girls are at risk of being cut each year, about 8,000 girls a day.
The young man from Sudan holds his arms close to his sides, as if still at the mercy of smugglers who he says poured hot melted plastic over his back, whipped him with wires and beat him with sticks as he lay face down and naked. He pulls up his shirt to reveal scars that crisscross his arms, back and stomach.
Nkoranza South District Directorate of Education in collaboration with Ghana Health Service, has organised a forum to educate students and staff of Nkoranza Technical Institute on adolescent reproductive issues.
Source: AllAfrica
Much has changed since Faye's early Senegalese films. The emergence of the Internet, social media and crowd-funding platforms such as Kickstarter now offer a new generation of African women documentary filmmakers the tools to realize their visions
Hundreds of women wearing miniskirts have marched through downtown Johannesburg to protest sexual harassment. A handful of men also donned miniskirts in support during Friday’s march organized by the women’s league of the African National Congress.
While the African Union (AU) warmly welcomed the election of Gambian born Fatou Bensouda as Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in December 2011, it has not changed its negative stance against the ICC.
Fashion brands Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent are discovering that empowering women through sustainability initiatives is good business.
Following decades of civil strife and insurgency in northern Uganda, there has been much discussion on how to achieve lasting reconciliation. High on this agenda is reparations for its victims. Reparations can acknowledge the rights and dignity of those harmed by conflict by providing some justice, and the resources to rebuild lives and communities. Yet any such programmes and frameworks must respond to the particular needs of all its victims, including those considered especially vulnerable.
Source: AlertNet
What do we know about women caught up in conflicts?
Sunday Monitor of February 12, refers to a new report that has revealed that 20 per cent of city students are in the sex trade. Girls down to pre-teens are recruited into transactional sex. This comes on top of the survey published three-and- half years ago which showed that 40,000 girls in upper primary school were defiled annually by their teachers.
At least 600 Ugandan girls have been forced into Malaysia's sex trade in what has become a human trafficking epidemic, a foreign diplomat has said.
Sexual violence is rampant in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The UN estimates that over 200,000 women and girls have been raped since 1998, but the true extent is not known. Missing from these figures are women and girls held as sex slaves or forced wives and men who are also victimized. The world has never known such extreme levels of sexual violence. Yet this crisis is largely ignored by the global community.
The United Nations reiterated today the need to provide women with access to both hormonal contraceptives and condoms to prevent unwanted pregnancies and HIV infection, after a renewed consultation with health experts on the issue.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed today the need to empower women and youth, who have been at the centre of recent social protest movements worldwide, and warned countries against ignoring their voices as they are critical to countries’ development.
Today’s global food insecurity destabilizes rural communities all over the world, impeding their access to food and affecting their ability to earn a livelihood. In partnership with the Huairou Commission and WOCAN, FAO held a series of twenty one consultations with hundreds of women and men in Africa, Asia and Latin America to better understand the direct impacts of food security on their lives and those of their families.
Source: US Department of State
I greatly appreciate this opportunity and want to thank Spelman College and its Department of International Studies for hosting this event and the very warm welcome. I want to thank the students and faculty from Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse College for joining us today.
Three weeks ago I was at a meeting in Accra, Ghana, in preparation for the biennial African Feminist Forum, which is convened by the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF), an Africa-wide grant-making foundation for African women which I co-founded twelve years ago.
Source: the Star
Domestic violence can be defined as a pattern of behavior in any relationship that is used to gain or maintain power and control over an intimate partner. Abuse can take very many forms. It can be physical, sexual, emotional, economic or psychological. The unwanted actions or threats of actions are usually meted out with a view to influence the other person.
Source: Politics Web
The Congress of South African Trade Unions wholeheartedly supports the ANC Women's League's Mini-Skirt March Against Women Abuse on Friday 17 February 2012. We congratulate them on this brilliant initiative and urge all our members to join the march.