Archive for April, 2010
Nigerian women’s groups say they’ll take legal action against a politician who married a 13-year-old Egyptian girl at Nigeria’s national mosque. Female members of the country’s senate have promised to support a petition to reprimand Senator Ahmad Sani Yerima, 49, the BBC reported Wednesday. Sani married the girl at the mosque in Abuja several weeks [...]
Investing in women smallholder farmers is the key to halving hunger and results in twice as much growth as investment in any other sector, a new ActionAid report reveals. Less than one per cent of the agriculture budget is targeted at women in the three countries researched by ActionAid in its new report Fertile Ground [...]
The UN refugee agency has expressed concern about the lack of justice for the thousands of women who are raped in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) every year, and prevailing impunity for rapists. “Sexual violence constitutes among the most serious of crimes and should be treated as such,” UNHCR spokesperson Melissa Fleming told [...]
Haitian women have been increasingly vocal and active in social, political, and economic issues since the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship in 1986. Though it has not come easily, their progress in changing gender relations of power within the home, within social movements, and within the nation has been steady. Women’s organizations have been key [...]
The justice minister, Francisco Camaño, managed today, despite opposition from the European Commission, supported by a sufficient majority of Member States to adopt the European order of protection for battered women, one of the priorities of the Spanish presidency. His goal now is to conclude in the coming weeks the details of the new standard [...]
On April 9th 2010, Amnesty International issued the following statement: Due to irreconcilable differences of view over policy between Gita Sahgal and Amnesty International regarding Amnesty International’s relationship with Moazzam Begg and Cageprisoners, it has been agreed that Gita will leave Amnesty International on 9 April 2010. Gita has most recently held the position of [...]
Writer Nawal El Saadawi has braved prison, exile and death threats in her fight against female oppression. And she isn’t about to give up now ‘I am becoming more radical with age,” says Nawal El Saadawi, laughing. “I have noticed that writers, when they are old, become milder. But for me it is the opposite. [...]
The attorneys representing Chilean Judge Karen Atala, a lesbian who brought her case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights claiming discrimination in the loss of custody of her three daughters, accused the Chilean state of sending out “unequivocal” signals of a lack of will to implement the regional body’s recommendations. The Inter-American Commission on [...]
Under a new Utah law, women who miscarry under certain conditions are open to murder charges and life sentences. Feticide laws in other states focus on abusive boyfriends and husbands, but this one targets the woman herself. Utah’s new law, in which women who miscarry could face charges of murder and life sentences in prison, [...]
The state of Nebraska has opened a new front in America’s war over abortion, passing a law that shifts the emphasis away from the viability of the unborn baby to survive outside the womb and on to a previously legally untested concept of foetal pain. Two laws signed by the governor of Nebraska, Dave Heineman, [...]
We have continued to receive news, from civil society organizations and the Algerian media, of terrible atrocities perpetrated against women workers in Hassi Messaoud, in recent weeks. These events remind us of the tragic days of July 2001 which saw hundreds of women, “tortured, stoned, raped and buried alive”, as recalled by the Algerian press. [...]
Survey reveals that sixty percent of rape victims gang raped, more than half in their own homes, appalling increase in number of civilian rapists. An extensive study of rape victims in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) commissioned by Oxfam and conducted by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, shows that 60 percent of rape victims surveyed [...]
Even though I turned into Autumn I am more beautiful now A letter of suffering by Bahareh, victim of rape arrested in July 2009 at Ghoba Mosque “My name is Bahar (Spring in Persian). It’s Spring and I write to you of flowers but flowers with scattered petals. I write to you of the green [...]
Women’s civil society groups were noticeable by their absence from the landmark Haiti donor conference on 31 March, which secured pledges of US$5.3 billion over the next two years to support the country’s post-quake recovery. Their lack of a presence at the meeting was indicative of a broader missing voice in Haiti’s long-term reconstruction prospects, [...]
Sex workers in Bangladesh, some as young as 12, are putting their health in danger by taking a drug to make them fatter so they are more attractive to clients. ActionAid has started a campaign in brothels in Bangladesh to raise awareness of the dangers of the drug and help the women who are addicted [...]
They work like stepping stones to pave a major fresh path in women’s history: First 1325, then 1820, now 1888. These are U.N. resolutions that in the past 15 or so years have put wartime sexual violence on the international policy map. At the start of Women’s History Month in March, Margot Wallström began her [...]
The Philippine Supreme Court last week overturned a decision barring a gay rights group from contesting national elections in May and recognized it as a legitimate political party for the first time. Voting 13-2, the court threw out decisions by the Elections Commission denying accreditation to Ang Ladlad (Out of the Closet) on grounds that [...]
The Chinese government’s current efforts to tighten control over nongovernmental organizations is threatening to roll back hard-earned advances made by civil society groups over the past decade, Human Rights Watch said today. On March 25, China’s leading independent women’s rights organization – the Women’s Legal Research and Services Center – was abruptly notified that its [...]
* Rates down the most in Egypt, Bolivia, Maldives * Maternal death rates in Canada, U.S., Norway high * Successes can point to policy changes Deaths of women in and around childbirth have gone down by an average of 35 percent globally, according to a study using new methods, but are surprisingly high in 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
- Where are the Women? Free cross university student led Women’s conference ~ 18th February 2012
- Louder Now! Launch Event – Feminism on Film season – Newcastle ~ 29th February 2012
- 6 February: An evening with Sister Fa – A celebration of progress made to end Female Genital Cutting
- Stalking consultation – closes 5th February 2012
- Woman who suffered years of domestic violence jailed because too terrified to testify
- I feel like as a woman I’m not welcome – Asylum Aid’s new research report combines legal and qualitative research in a gender analysis of the UK asylum system
- New report challenges social sector to smash the glass ceiling once and for all
- Leveson must back ban on sexualised images in media say women’s groups
- Ministers press on with controversial abortion changes
- Abolishing social fund will hit women and children hardest
- new on women in london
- Advocacy & Support Advisor – Complex Needs (Female*) – Solace – 9th February 2012
- 4 vacancies – Refuge – 3rd and 6th February 2012
- OBJECT present evidence at the Leveson Inquiry to end Page 3
- Support for women who have experienced sexual violence – Amina Scheme – Eaves
- Women Involved with the Criminal Justice System: One Day Training – Women in Prison – 29 March 2012
- Quiz Night – Womans Trust – 27th January 2012
- Development Manager – Clean Break ~ 6th February 2012
- Volunteer Bookkeeper – RASASC ~ 16th February 2012
- New Report – Silenced Voices Speak: Strategies for protecting migrant women from violence and abuse – ROW
- Hidden Value: Demonstrating the extraordinary impact of women’s voluntary and community organisations – WRC
UN Security Council: Act Now to Protect Women
29 April 2010 in Global, Opinion Comment, Publication, Rape and Sexual Assault, War Conflict
Reject Delay in Steps to End Rape in War and Include Women in Peace Talks The United Nations Security Council should immediately begin using measurable benchmarks to protect women caught in conflicts around the world and to ensure that women are included in peace negotiations, rather than delaying this step, Human Rights Watch said today. [...]