Archive for the 'Government' Category
Survivors of human trafficking spoke at the U.N. recently as part of a new institutional effort to have their input on policymaking. Panelists said a major problem was not being seen as trafficking victims when they suffered their ordeals.
The U.N. has held hearings and sessions on human trafficking many times before, where professional advocates and [...]
The Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives has passed a health care bill backed by President Barack Obama that includes a far-reaching attack on abortion rights.
The Affordable Health Care for America Act includes a measure, the Stupak-Pitts amendment, that would ban insurance companies participating in health care “exchanges” from covering abortion procedures in plans subsidized by [...]
Taking an active part in politics in Bolivia can be a hazardous undertaking. Hundreds of reports of violence against women participating in politics attest to the risk. And while attacks go unpunished, a bill designed to protect the rights of women occupying public office has spent almost a decade in Congress waiting to be approved.
María [...]
The Libyan government should investigate allegations of sexual harassment in a state-run residence for women who had been orphaned instead of charging the journalist who reported the story with criminal defamation – Human Rights Watch
Mohamed al-Sareet, a Libyan journalist, wrote on Jeel Libya, an independent news website based in London, about a rare demonstration in [...]
Some governments’ broad counter-terrorism laws are punishing women and gays and suppressing groups pushing gender equality, a U.N. envoy of human rights and counter-terrorism said on Monday.
Many of these people are caught between being victims of extremist groups and victims of counter-terrorism measures, said Martin Scheinin, a U.N. special rapporteur on promotion and protection of [...]
Something is stirring in the home of western European chauvinism. Italian womanhood is rising up. An online petition decrying the way female politicians are treated by Silvio Berlusconi, prime minister and billionaire businessman, has gathered 100,000 signatures.
A slogan – “I am not a woman at your disposal” – is catching on. It is aimed [...]
US defence firms are to be barred from lucrative government contracts if they refuse to allow employees access to the courts, after a woman working for a Halliburton subsidiary in Iraq was prevented from taking legal action over an alleged gang rape by fellow workers.
Al Franken, the Senate’s newest member, has won an amendment to [...]
In early September, most abortions performed in Queensland health facilities came to a halt. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists had passed on a legal opinion to their members that said doctors were still at risk of prosecution while abortion remained in the criminal code.
Meanwhile, the ALP state government [...]
Peru’s Congressional Commission last week issued a proposal to allow decriminalise abortion in certain circumstances, including when a woman or girl is pregnant as a result of rape.
“The removal of criminal sanctions will hopefully contribute to preventing women and girls suffering the anguish and serious health risks of seeking an unsafe, illegal backstreet treatment with [...]
Several dozen centre-right opposition party joined the demonstration, which was backed by Roman Catholic bishops.
Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero wants to introduce abortion on demand.
At present, a pregnancy can only be terminated in mainly Catholic Spain under specific circumstances.
The government wants the procedure to be available to all women up [...]
Passing AIDS from mother to child is a human rights violation and soon all pregnant women in India will have to undergo a mandatory HIV test, the parliamentary forum on HIV and AIDS said last week.
“We want a HIV free generation. We are for testing all pregnant women for HIV so that no children [...]
The ministry of women and child development, government of India, has formulated ‘Ujjawala’, a new comprehensive scheme for the prevention of trafficking and rescue, rehabilitation and re-integration of victims of trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation (CSE).
The object of the scheme is to prevent trafficking of women and children for CSE, to facilitate rescue of [...]
Judges rejected an appeal by the democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi against her extended house arrest, lawyers and officials said.
A divisional court in Rangoon upheld the Nobel laureate’s conviction in August over an incident in which an American man swam uninvited to her home, earning her an extra 18 months in detention.
”The appeal was [...]
Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip say safety concerns and social traditions, not Islamic religious values, are the main reason behind a decision to ban women from riding motorbikes and scooters.
In a decision which would raise eyebrows in Rome or Rio de Janeiro, the Interior Ministry said it was banning women from riding two-wheelers or [...]
With US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the chair, the UN Security Council on 30th September 2009 unanimously adopted a resolution to halt the use of sexual violence as a tactic of war.
Resolution 1888, sponsored by 61 countries, reiterated the 15-member body’s “demand for the complete cessation by all parties to armed conflict of [...]
The UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution last week urging all countries to increase the ranks of women with a seat at the table when negotiations take place to resolve conflicts and start building peace.
Nine years after the adoption of a landmark U.N. resolution calling for women be included in decision-making positions at every [...]
Spain’s Socialist government approved controversial reforms to the country’s abortion law which would allow women as young as 16 to undergo the procedure without parental consent.
The proposal was passed at a cabinet meeting despite strong opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, the conservative opposition Popular Party and even many supporters of Prime Minister Jose Luis [...]
‘All kinds of trade-offs go on behind the scenes, which is the way they’ve done politics for the last three decades’
An in-depth investigation into the murky process that led to the enactment of Afghanistan’s controversial “rape” law reveals a porous, dysfunctional and corruptible parliamentary system.
But the system is at least functioning, it shows, a fact [...]
In 2003, the African nation of Liberia was in turmoil; its president Charles Taylor was involved in a vicious civil war with war lords who wanted to take his place. Caught in the middle were innocent civilians who bore the brunt of the violence.
One woman, Leymah Gbowee, had had enough and she and her [...]
Recent postings- Trafficking Victims at UN Highlight Need for Recognition
- END FGM European Campaign launches web site
- Rid the world of female genital mutilation
- Lifting Silence on Menstruation to Keep Girls in School in Uganda
- Obama’s attack on abortion rights
- Differences between men’s and women’s health
- WHO calls for action beyond the health sector to improve the health of girls and women
- Malaysian Women’s Groups say Abolish Section 498
- Politics can be a Risky Business for Women in Bolivia
- Somali rebels close women’s organisations
- new on womensgrid
- Rape Crisis Centres Westminster Hall debate 10 November 2009 at 12:30 pm
- Grassroots Co-ordinator – Women for Refugee Women – 23rd November 2009
- Jenny Okojie is doing a 7.2km sponsored walk for CRASAC – Please sponsor her!
- 16 days of action event Greater Manchester
- Football teams needed for special tournament against domestic violence in Barnet
- Be a judge for a day in Truro as part of Domestic Violence Awareness Week
- The right of murder suspects to use their partner’s sexual infidelity as a partial defence in court is set to end
- 100 rapists are let off with a caution: The serious offences that never come to court
- Scotland Yard has instructed officers not to use the phrase ‘gang rape’ to describe such crimes because it is too ‘emotive’ a term
- Government Shelves Measures To Restrict Paedophiles On Facebook because of Human Rights concerns
- new on women in london
- Information added to website September 2009
- Information added to website August 2009
- Information added to website July 2009
- GLDVP January-April 2010 open training programme is now available
- Prostitution Clauses Policing And Crime Bill 2009 – ECP
- Head of Communications – Women’s Resource Centre – 23rd November 2009
- Mrs Goundo’s Daughter – Free Event – Forward – 7th December 2009
- New European Campaign on FGM – Forward
- FORWARD releases an Information Services and Support Guide for Young People in the UK
- FGM is always with us – experiences perceptions and beliefs of women affected by female genital mutilation in London – Forward
“Women Will Benefit From Secularism” – Nawal El-Saadawi
28 October 2009 in Equality, Faith, Feminism, Government, Middle East, Opinion Comment
Controversy stalks dissident writer Nawal El-Saadawi, whose views on women and religion have put her at odds with Egyptian conservatives.
Recently she returned to Cairo after nearly three years in exile, and has already created a stir with the launch of a local chapter of her global campaign for the separation of religion and state.
“God has [...]