Vigdís Finnbogadóttir of Iceland was the world's first elected woman President and served from 1980 to 1996. Today, as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador she continues her tireless work for women’s rights, education and sustainability. She is convinced that women can save the planet. At a recent conference on girls’ and women’s education in UNESCO, she shared her infectious optimism with other speakers, the audience and afterwards with EduInfo.
The rite of female genital mutilation/cutting may be hard to end, but it is slowly happening in at least one corner of eastern Guinea, Guinée Forestière, in West Africa.
After completing the fourth grade at the top of her class, 13-year-old Ellen Mbedzi was forced to drop out of Mafeha Primary School in Bulilima, a district in south-western Zimbabwe. Her unemployed father did not see the value of spending the family’s limited resources on a girl.
Africa has been slow to tap investment through the U.N.'s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) carbon offset programme and stands to lose the most should talks to broker a continuation of the emission-reduction pact fall through.
The fight against AIDS risks being set back years by a global financial crisis, the head of the United Nations campaign against the disease warned on Wednesday.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, has called on Nigerians to sponsor private bills on violence against women.
Report gathered by this paper says over 2,000 cases of Gender Based Violence (GBV) have occurred nation-wide during the period January to October 2011. The report, which was compiled by the Ministry of Gender and Development, is released at a time the nation is joining other countries around the world to celebrate 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, which runs from November 25, 2011 through December 10, 2011.
At least 54 per cent of women and 38 per cent of men aged between 15 and 49 years believe that husbands are justified in beating their wives, according to a recent survey conducted by a Dar es Salaam-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), Champion.
Source: AWID
The role of women in various demonstrations across the Middle East and North Africa this spring provokes interesting reflections about mainstream initiatives to build capacity and train women leaders in the Global South.
Source: Foroyaa
In her first message for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, since UN Women became operational earlier this year, Executive Director of UN Women Michelle Bachelet outlines a comprehensive policy agenda to end violence against women globally.
The Islamist Ennahda Party’s election victory in Tunisia has come to mean many different things. For outside observers wary of how the “Arab Spring” might reshape regional politics, their victory signals a trend that will allow more conservative elements in Libya and Egypt to follow suit and succeed to power. For others, the victory is a positive sign that political Islam in the region has become “moderate” and will embrace democracy.
On day seven of "the 16 days of activism to end violence against women" campaign, women's rights organisations around the world are asking what the biggest international financial institutions (IFIs) are really doing to protect women's rights, which are under daily assault.
Chanting loudly, thousands of demonstrators marched through the streets to the venue of the 17th United Nations Climate Change Summit to demand that their voices be heard for “immediate and drastic” carbon emission reductions to save the planet.
Talata Nsor, a 54-year-old woman from Bolgatanga community in Northern Ghana, has been weaving the cultural Bolga baskets, which are named after her community, her entire life.
The Islamist party that won Tunisia's first post-revolution election said it would elevate a decades-old gender equality statute to a basic law.
Source: WomenWatch
This section is administered by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). The purpose and the role of evaluation in UN Women is to enhance accountability, inform decision-making and contribute to learning on the best ways to achieve women’s empowerment and gender equality through operational and normative work.
Source: Open Democracy
"It is only now we realise that female genital mutilation is child abuse, many people in our home country don’t realise that”. Nasheima Sheikh reports on working with women at grassroots in Birmingham to end this illegal practice.
Source: Mail&Guardian
The Islamist party that won Tunisia's first post-revolution election said on Tuesday it would elevate a decades-old gender equality statute to a basic law.
Source: Women E-News
Zambia has one of the world's worst cases of HIV, and women and girls suffer a higher rate of infection. Health activists say harmful cultural practices – such as the myth that having sex with a virgin can cure AIDS – must be targeted by prevention programmers.Zambia has one of the world's worst cases of HIV, and women and girls suffer a higher rate of infection. Health activists say harmful cultural practices – such as the myth that having sex with a virgin can cure AIDS – must be targeted by prevention programmers.
Durban, South Africa — "I remember when we didn't have rainfall and my mother had to pay my school fees, so when there was no yield from crops she had to sell her fridge in order for me to go to school", says Esther Agbarakwe, who grew up in the Niger Delta and heads the Nigerian Youth Climate Coalition.