Archive for the '*** ISSUE ***' Category
Tribute paid to ‘courageous and inspiring woman’
Amnesty International has strongly condemned today’s murder of Natalia Estemirova, a leading human rights activist working in the North Caucasus region.
Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan said:
‘Natalia Estemirova’s murder is a consequence of the impunity that has been allowed to persist by the Russian and Chechen authorities.
‘Human rights violations [...]
The three recent publications (links below) are also available in Spanish and French translations are just being produced. A further two publications are slated for release later this year.
1. Shared Insights: Women’s Rights Activists Define Religious Fundamentalisms
http://www.awid.org/eng/About-AWID/AWID-News/Shared-Insights-Women-s-rights-activists-define-religious-fundamentalisms
2. Religious Fundamentalisms on the Rise: A Case for Action
http://www.awid.org/eng/About-AWID/AWID-News/Religious-Fundamentalisms-on-the-Rise-A-case-for-action
3. Exposed: Ten Myths about Religious Fundamentalisms
http://www.awid.org/eng/About-AWID/AWID-News/Ten-myths-about-religious-fundamentalisms
i. Miradas Compartidas: Las [...]
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of women who took part in a conference Monday organized by Kolech, an Orthodox feminist movement, were asked precisely that question.
The vote is a milestone. The very fact that women self-defined as committed to Orthodox Jewish law are deliberating the proper title for a female rabbi – the most powerful figure [...]
A senior Sudanese politician called on Tuesday for an enquiry into reports young women from Sudan’s Christian south had been flogged for defying Islamic law by wearing trousers in Khartoum.
Police arrested 13 young women earlier this month, accusing them of wearing indecent clothes in a Khartoum cafe, and later flogged 10 of them, one of [...]
Many more women than men are in vulnerable employment, working without pay for a member of their household or self-employed.
A public presentation of the “Progress of the World’s Women” report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in Pretoria, South Africa this week suggests that one of the most powerful constraints on realising [...]
“My mother was surprised that my breasts were getting bigger, and told me to go to the clinic to take a pregnancy test. The nurses told me I was pregnant and so I cried. I cried because I thought I was too young to have a baby and I thought I wouldn’t manage.”
Asanda*, from a [...]
Government Should Enforce Its ‘Zero-Tolerance’ Policy on Sexual Violence
The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo should urgently investigate and prosecute senior army officials allegedly involved or complicit in rampant sexual crimes against women and girls, as part of its efforts to combat sexual violence, Human Rights Watch said in a [...]
Police in Angola, one of Africa’s biggest oil producers, are struggling to contain a surge in gang-related crime and rape cases in a nation where the majority of the population is young and poor, a senior police official was quoted as saying.
“What has worried us is that lately crimes have become repulsive, violent. We are [...]
Rwandan refugee women in Uganda face particular hardships under a repatriation push that started in April, with a July 31 target date for completion, a local advocacy group finds. Second of three stories on women and the repatriation turmoil.
Rwanda’s post-conflict recovery has a number of impressive signposts.
One is the economy, which grew at an annual [...]
Rwanda’s draft law that would make compulsory HIV testing and require the sterilisation of all people with intellectual disabilities, has been contested by the Human Rights Watch.
The organisation, one of the world’s leading independent ones in defending and protecting human rights, says provisions of the draft are deeply flawed and should be expunged.
The draft’s provisions [...]
Also Causes Delays for Many Who Do Obtain the Procedure
Approximately one-fourth of women who would obtain a Medicaid-funded abortion if given the option are instead forced to carry their pregnancy to term when state laws restrict Medicaid funding for abortion, because they lack the money to pay for the procedure themselves. According to a [...]
A dramatic plunge in international donor funding for family planning is threatening to undermine other humanitarian goals such as fighting poverty and hunger, as well as efforts to counter global warming, according to the UN and other specialists.
An estimated 200 million women lack contraception; the potential surge in the world’s population could well reverse humanitarian [...]
A new maternal mortality study names HIV and AIDS as the cause of one in four maternal deaths in Zimbabwe.
The first comprehensive assessment of deaths resulting from pregnancy or childbirth revealed that 725 Zimbabwean women out of every 100,000 who deliver, die due to complications.
“The study findings have confirmed our worst fears: that indeed the [...]
The well-being of millions of people could be put at risk as HIV prevention and treatment programmes fall victim to funding cutbacks as a result of the global economic crisis, warns a new report released today by the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Bank.
The report, “The Global Economic Crisis and HIV [...]
A law will be passed banning female genital mutilation (FGM) in Uganda, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni announced Friday. In his announcement, Museveni referenced a resolution passed last year by the United Nations that declared FGM a violation of women’s rights.
President Museveni said in his announcement, “The way God made it, there is no part of [...]
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad issued a decree last week that increased the penalty for honor killing to a minimum prison sentence of two years. The law previously limited the maximum sentence to one year. According to the BBC, activists believe about 200 women are the victims of honor killings every year, murdered by male family [...]
Afghanistan’s Justice Ministry released a revision of the controversial Shia law that legalized rape within marriage, among other provisions. The Associated Press reports that the new version omits original provisions that allowed men to demand sex from their wives and that required women to ask their husbands’ permission to leave their home.
The law sparked international [...]
Rapists in Afghanistan too often get away with their crime, whilst rape victims lack access to justice and experience stigma and shame, according to a report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
“In some areas, alleged or convicted rapists are, or have links to, powerful commanders, members of illegal armed [...]
The Wellington Sexual Abuse Network (WSAN), a.k.a. the joined forces of Wellington Rape Crisis, Wellington Sexual Abuse HELP and WellStop vote ‘Yes’ have a plan to prevent sexual violence among young people.
WSAN, with support from the Ministry of Justice, will pilot a revolutionary six-week Sex & Ethics programme at Victoria University over the next [...]
Calls to the rape crisis line have more than doubled as courageous victims taking on their attackers and winning have helped remove the stigma attached to sex assault.
But disturbingly, new figures show that up to four women a week are being gang raped.
Brave young women like Tegan Wagner – who gave up her right to [...]