Archive for May, 2009
Burma’s democracy leader and Nobel Peace prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been locked up on new trumped up charges, just days before her 13 years of detention was due to expire. She and thousands of fellow monks and students have been imprisoned for bravely challenging the brutal military regime with peaceful calls for [...]
Amira Hass of Israel is Lifetime Achievement Award winner A Belarusian journalist who is frequently detained and subjected to all-night interrogations by police, a Cameroonian radio journalist whose broadcasts on human rights and press freedom have put her life at risk and an Iranian journalist whose reports about sensitive social and political issues have led [...]
The condition of victims of forced labour worldwide may be unrecognised because many states and organisations see it only in the light of a fight against prostitution. The relation between prostitution and trafficking was one of the most controversial subjects debated at an international conference on trafficking called by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) [...]
The Spanish government approved a plan Friday to ease its abortion law and allow the procedure without restrictions up to 14 weeks of pregnancy, pressing ahead with a sweeping social reform agenda that has irked conservatives and the Catholic church. The proposal needs approval from Parliament, where Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero lacks [...]
In the last 13 months, 12 of Mexico’s 32 states have approved amendments to their state constitutions defining a fertilised human egg as a person with a right to legal protection, and seven other state parliaments are taking steps in the same direction. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) say it is a massive conservative reaction to a [...]
Also, fewer think abortion should be legal “under any circumstances” A new Gallup Poll, conducted May 7-10, finds 51% of Americans calling themselves “pro-life” on the issue of abortion and 42% “pro-choice.” This is the first time a majority of U.S. adults have identified themselves as pro-life since Gallup began asking this question in 1995. [...]
The Los Angeles City Council voted Monday to approve funds to test the city’s enormous backlog of untested rape kits. Once the mayor approves the budget that authorizes these funds, up to 26 additional employees could be hired to process the kits and some testing could be outsourced to private labs, according to Human Rights [...]
Calls for government to ban RapeLay, a computer game where players can earn points for raping schoolgirls Japan has come under renewed pressure to clamp down on its huge market in child pornography following the launch of a campaign to ban a video game in which players earn points by raping schoolgirls and forcing them [...]
Women’s organizations and the Rabbinical Courts Administration squared off in the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women yesterday over a bill to expand the rabbinical courts’ authority. The proposal has not yet been formally submitted to the Knesset as a bill, since Justice Minister Yaakov Ne’eman is still studying it. However, the committee discussed [...]
A report prepared by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in an attempt to tackle the increasing rate of ’honor crimes’ across Europe says the problem has worsened in Europe and cooperation among countries is needed to deny safe harbor to guilty individuals As rates of “honor crimes” are on the rise throughout [...]
Fiji, a multi-racial, multi-cultural country of 300 islands in the South Pacific, has undergone another coup – the fourth in 22 years. The women of Fiji want their voices to be heard as they work on ways to bring peace back to their country, and they are asking for the United Nations to support their [...]
Do you think that women and men should be equally represented in all European Union institutions? Join the 50/50 Campaign! SIGN THE PETITION http://www.womenlobby.org/site/form_3.asp and TAKE ACTION! http://www.5050democracy.eu/ In 2009, Europeans will elect a new European Parliament. We will see a new European Commission led by its President, and a new president for the European [...]
Dalia Grybauskaite was elected to be Lithuania’s first woman president yesterday in an overwhelming victory. According to Agence France Presse, with 99.46 percent of votes counted, Grybauskaite held an overwhelming 69.05 percent of the vote. Grybauskaite ran as an independent and is a former finance minister in Lithuania who currently serves as European Union budget [...]
When Margaret Mensah-Williams walked down the steps after presiding over the Namibian parliament for the first time, male parliamentarians rushed to ask her how she became so good at chairing the house. “I told them women are born leaders,” says Mensah, Vice Chairperson of the National Council. A teacher by profession, Mensah was the first [...]
Thuraya Judi Alwazir is one of few women judges sitting on the Palestinian Authority’s Judicial Authority. Alwazir speaks here to IPS about her experiences in a largely male-dominated environment, on the rights of women in regard to honour killings and domestic violence, and on the death penalty as applied in the West Bank. Alwazir was [...]
Women’s rights groups have urged the establishment of a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission in Zimbabwe as part of bringing to justice people who committed human rights violations – including sexual abuse against women – during the run-up to a second-round presidential vote in June 2008. Zimbabwe witnessed some of its worst-ever political violence after [...]
… but to talk about it might upset our new president warns Lindiwe Mazibuko* The article by Jackie May (The Times, May 18 2009) shows why women remain so oppressed in our society. May implies that we should respect the taboos that prevent women from criticising the sexual examples set by male leaders — despite [...]
Interview with Susana Chiarotti, coordinator of CEVI Counting cases of machista or sexist violence separately shows that “what is happening is practically a genocide, and a hidden one at that,” says Susana Chiarotti, coordinator of the Committee of Experts on Violence (CEVI) which is following up on implementation of the Convention of Belém do Pará. [...]
Afghan men are illegally collecting voter cards in the names of women, raising worries about fraud in the upcoming presidential election, the head of Afghanistan’s human rights commission said on Sunday. In Logar province which borders Kabul, nearly three-quarters of those who registered as voters were women, a suspiciously high ratio, said Sima Samar, chairwoman [...]
“To cover or not to cover?” – that is the question now gripping Islamist politicians in Kuwait. It is a debate that has become increasingly heated in this Arab Gulf state since the parliamentary elections on May 16, which saw the country’s first ever female deputies elected. However, it is not a question that the [...]
Recent postings- Towards a Future without Fundamentalisms: New Report Analyzes Religious Fundamentalist Strategies and Feminist Responses
- Statement on the Murder of Marisela Escobedo Ortiz, women’s human rights defender of Ciudad Juarez
- Sudan police arrest women protesting at flogging video
- UN Chief Leaves Women out of Year-End Summing Up
- Sex education is expelled from Egyptian schools
- Kurdish Parliament Turns Blind Eye to Prostitution
- Sexual harassment cases in Israel’s civil service rose 40% in 2010
- Women in south Sudan have been targeted in a string of abusive attacks by police cracking down on Western clothes
- Women and girls living in Haiti’s makeshift camps face an increasing risk of rape and sexual violence says Amnesty International new report
- Stand up against hatred and threats against LGBT in Malaysia
- new on womensgrid
- Tower Hamlets Residents Solidarity Campaign – Solidarity with women involved in prostitution in east London
- East London Fawcett: Free Gallery Tour ~ 12 May & Pay Gap Talk ~ 23rd May 2012
- The Light Bulb Moment and future of feminism Book launch and panel – Bristol ~ 15th May 2012
- Hollaback! Portsmouth launch event – Tuesday 22nd May 2012
- Run for Congo Women – Deadline extended to 25th May 2012!
- Fast fall in number of male-only FTSE 100 boards
- Why has the UK got so few women scientists?
- The Haven Wolverhampton E Bulletin May 2012
- 2 vacancies – Shakti Women’s Aid (Edinburgh) ~ 28th May 2012
- Volunteering for Dorset Rape Crisis Centre
- new on women in london
- Information added in March 2012
- Information added in February 2012
- Information added in January 2012
- Pro-Choice Public Meeting – Abortion Rights ~16th May 2012
- Fawcett on Queen’s speech: flexible parental leave / red tape challenge
- Policy and Campaigns Internship – Power and Agency campaign – Fawcett ~ 22nd May 2012
- Administration and Finance Worker – Women in Prison ~ 18th May 2012
- A Women’s Agenda for the Local Elections May 2012 – Survey Results
- Friends of the Women’s Library update on the future of the Library
- Women in Black, vigils and Facebook page
