Child marriage tradition turns into trafficking in Mauritania

30 January 2009 in Africa, Children Parenting, Family Marriage Partnership, Violence Against Women

Marrying off Mauritanian girls as young as six years old to men in Gulf states is turning into a profitable trafficking enterprise as a typically rural marriage practice migrates to the city, according to urban families. “It used to be widespread in the rural milieu, but now child marriages are more developed in urban areas [...]

Traditional And Religious Practices Frustrate HIV/Aids Prevention in Ghana

30 January 2009 in Africa, Faith, HIV/AIDS, Publication

A new study has revealed that religious and traditional challenges are a hindrance to dealing with HIV/AIDS and violence against women (VAW). It states that in Northern Ghana, women continue to suffer violence in spite of existing laws due to negligence and ignorance about women and people’s rights, and misinterpretation of religious and cultural practices. [...]

UN prize winner from Congo laments world hypocrisy

30 January 2009 in Africa, Rape and Sexual Assault, War Conflict

Denis Mukwege, a Congolese doctor who runs a hospital for abused women and children in eastern Congo, says the youngest rape victim he has treated was just three years old. After being honored with a U.N. human rights prize in New York last month, Mukwege said the world should do more to end the conflict [...]

War Taking Everything From Women in Uganda

30 January 2009 in Africa, Publication, Violence Against Women, War Conflict

Book: Today You Will Understand Author: Femrite Publisher: Femrite Volume: 66 pages The greatest tragedy of the twenty-two year old war in northern Uganda is the human victims, especially girls and women who are especially vulnerable. Femrite, the Uganda Women Writers’ Association, in conjunction with IRIN Radio, which provides news and analysis about sub-Saharan Africa [...]

Kenya’s Rape Probe Falters After Lawyers Drop Out

30 January 2009 in Africa, Rape and Sexual Assault, War Conflict

Kenya’s investigation of rapes committed during post-election violence is foundering. Rights groups question whether an all-women police task force set up to investigate the violence is little more than a ruse, and female lawyers have dropped out. Hundreds of Kenyan women have reported being raped during ethnic clashes that left more than 1,300 people dead [...]

Sweden Steps Up DNA Collection for Rape Cases

30 January 2009 in Europe, Rape and Sexual Assault

Sweden is responding to its low rate of prosecuting and convicting rapists by helping victims and clinicians collect DNA evidence. It’s also adding street lighting, to the frowns of critics who point out that most rapes are committed indoors. A simple cardboard box is one way Sweden, with its high rate of reported rape, is [...]

Police refuse to work on domestic violence project Holland

30 January 2009 in Domestic Violence, Europe, Legal Police

The police are refusing to implement a new government initiative designed to combat domestic violence. From the New Year, officers will be expected to impose a house ban on men guilty of or threatening their partners with physical abuse. The men will be barred from contact with their partners and children for ten days and [...]

RU486 abortion pill to be made available in Italy despite Vatican’s objections

30 January 2009 in Abortion Contraception, Europe, Faith

The RU486 abortion pill is to be made available in Italy next month despite objections from the Vatican and the ruling centre Right, which described it as “legal back door abortion”. The pill, which blocks the action of hormones needed to keep a fertilized egg implanted in the uterus, was censured by the Vatican in [...]

Congenital anomalies account for four in 10 of newborn deaths in Malta

30 January 2009 in Abortion Contraception, Childbirth Pregnancy, Europe

Malta and Ireland have the highest percentage of newborn deaths due to congenital anomalies, a pan-European report has found, pointing out that this could be due to abortion being illegal in both countries. Figures released last month as part of the comprehensive European Perinatal Health Report (EPHR), which compares data on maternal and infant health [...]

Abortion … it’s your choice – but still a taboo subject in Portugal

30 January 2009 in Abortion Contraception, Europe

It is possibly one of the toughest, life-changing decisions a woman may ever be asked to make, yet the subject of abortion in conservative and predominantly-Catholic Portugal still remains very much a taboo. Most people will know – or know of – someone who has had a termination, though will rarely find themselves openly discussing [...]