Archive for the 'Government' Category
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Inspired by Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi’s brave promise last week to represent in court the family of Neda Agha-Soltan, murdered by Iranian militia during last weekend’s demonstrations in a rally in Tehran, the peace group CODEPINK has created a letter addressed to Ebadi for women worldwide to sign, a pledge of solidarity to [...]
Bhakti Shah is challenging her dismissal from the Nepal Army for “immoral activities”
Two years ago, 23-year-old Bhakti Shah, a cadet in the Nepal Army, was dismissed because she was seen to spend most of her free time with a fellow female cadet.
“They sacked me and my friend just because they thought we were having an [...]
Growing up in her native Viet Nam, Phan Thi Phuong Loan never gave a second’s thought to the rights her citizenship conferred. Not, that is, until she married abroad, lost her citizenship, came back home and entered the twilight world of the stateless.
Loan, 40, is one of thousands of Vietnamese women who became stateless in [...]
Rights groups in Slovakia have attacked new abortion legislation they say not only breaches women’s rights to privacy and regulations on medical confidentiality but could force some women into undergoing risky, illegal abortions.
Under the legislation, approved last week, women who want abortions will only be able to undergo the procedure two days after they have [...]
The heads of women’s organizations across the political spectrum joined forces in a letter to Kadima leader Tzipi Livni, protesting her appointment of outgoing MK Haim Ramon as chairman of the party’s governing council.
Ramon submitted his resignation from the parliament, after 26 years of service, to Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin. His resignation takes effect [...]
Hoping for the early passage of the long-pending Women’s Reservation Bill, women’s groups have expressed concern over the delay in submitting recommendations by the Parliamentary Standing Committee.
“It is necessary to overcome all possible impediments that may arise to sabotage the Bill, a joint press statement issued by women’s organisations said here on Thursday while asking [...]
About 1,000 Afghan Shi’ite Muslims rallied in Kabul last week to demand the ratification of a controversial law which contains harsh provisions on women some critics have called a step back towards Taliban-era rules.
The Shi’ite Personal Status Law applies to Shi’ites who make up about 15 percent of Afghanistan’s roughly 30 million people. It requires [...]
Months after the Conservatives announced new money for the Women’s Community Fund, women’s groups across the country still can’t access this funding because of the Harper government’s ongoing inability to keep its promises, Liberal Status of Women Critic Anita Neville said today.
“Nearly a month ago, Status of Women Minister Helena Guergis told the Parliamentary Status [...]
The U.S. government should reform immigration enforcement policies that inflict needless suffering on immigrant women and their families, a former immigration detention center nurse, a former detainee, and a group of leading human rights advocacy and research groups said at a Capitol Hill briefing.
Immigration detention is the fastest growing form of incarceration in the United [...]
Governments need to provide social protection and promote green jobs for women through alternative investments that provide decent employment, such as public-private and community-related partnerships, according to representatives from governments, the United Nations, civil society and academia, who met in New York today to discuss how to respond to the impacts of the economic crisis [...]
On 18 June 2009, the Human Rights Council appointed Rashida Manjoo Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Its Causes and Consequences. In her capacity as Special Rapporteur, Manjoo will investigate claims of violence against women, file reports on the status of women’s human rights in nations around the world, and call attention to nations that [...]
Female internally displaced persons (IDPs) will again be able to learn job skills, take literacy classes and receive awareness programmes on reproductive health after the joint African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) helped reactivate women’s centres at an IDP camp in the Sudanese region.
UNAMID’s Gender Advisory Unit has worked with the North Darfur state [...]
The African Union Commission’s Initiative against Trafficking (AU.COMMIT Campaign) was launched here in Addis Ababa on Tuesday 16 June 2009, at the headquarters of the AU.
At the ceremony, the AU.COMMIT Campaign Strategy Document was presented by Mehari Taddele, Program Coordinator for Migration at the AU.
Mehari began by observing that June 16 was The Day of [...]
Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré has launched a campaign to reduce female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) by 30 percent by 2013.
Burkina Faso has made more progress on reducing FGM/C than its neighbours, lowering the percentage of girls undergoing the procedure to 50 percent in 2005 from 77 percent in the 1990s.
But following a government outlaw of [...]
Recent postings- Murder of human rights activist Natalia Estemirova condemned
- Three publications from AWID’s Resisting and Challenging Religious Fundamentalisms
- Rabbanit? Rabbah? Maybe just plain Rabbi? What should be the title of an Orthodox woman who happens to also be a rabbi?
- Inquiry urged after Sudan women flogged for wearing trousers
- Accountability To Women Could Upset Business As Usual
- Fight Sexism to Help Young Mothers – South Africa
- Soldiers Who Rape, Commanders Who Condone: Sexual Violence and Military Reform in the Democratic Republic of Congo
- Worrying increase in gang rape say police in Angola
- Repatriation of Rwandan Women Refugees in Uganda could increase hardships
- HRW condemns Rwanda’s draft law on HIV tests and sterilisation
- Gender Wire
- Q&A: Defending Women's Rights Under New Land Policy
- RIGHTS-UGANDA : Women Press for Domestic Violence Bill
- AFRICA: Organic Farming Could be Answer to Food Insecurity
- EDUCATION: Mother Tongue Absent in Thousands of Classrooms
- Q&A: 'Farmers Can Gain From Crisis'
- DR-CONGO: Rape by Regular Army a Growing Problem, HRW Says
- PERU: Going to School Still a Feat for Rural Girls
- CUBA: What Schools Can and Cannot Do for Equality
- FILM: Graphically Condemning a "Barbaric and Horrific Punishment"
- ECONOMY: Accountability To Women Could Upset Business-As-Usual
- new on womensgrid
- Sense of Self – A weekly support group for women focusing on enhancing self-esteem and self-confidence! 20th July 2009
- Dogs Trust seeks dog foster carers to help women fleeing domestic violence
- Soroptimists give £500,000 and three houses to charity in Gravesend
- A report into the death of Baby P has revealed that only half of NHS staff have the required levels of training in child protection
- One in four in custody in Glasgow held for domestic abuse
- Royal Assent for Sexual Offences Bill Scotland
- Unionists and nationalists have joined forces to round on English politicians who called for abortion laws to be extended to Northern Ireland
- Human rights court will hear Irish abortion ban case
- Teenagers who are raped leave school at earlier age study in Ireland finds
- Two boys who raped a 14-year-old for insulting their gang leader’s partner have had their sentences upheld
- new on women in london
- 4 vacancies - Refuge - 28th July 2009
- Female Community Outreach Officer - Kiran - 14th August 2009
- Volunteer Co-ordinator - Jewish Women’s Aid - 10th August 2009
- 2 vacancies - Eaves - 17th and 22nd July 2009
- Public investment in childcare : who cares, who pays? - Daycare Trust - 17th November 2009
- Feminism in London - conference organised by London Feminist Network - 10th October 2009
- GLDVP Newsletter - July 2009
- GLDVP Stella Project advanced training for experienced workers - 6th August and 8th September 2009
- Being a mum has ‘devastating’ impact on earnings - new report - Fawcett
- The GLDVP response to: The Way Forward – A call for action to end violence against women
To Help Women, Leaders Should Dig Deeper than Religious Clothing
3 July 2009 in Equality, Faith, Government, North America, Opinion Comment
President Sarkozy of France has reignited the debate about how Muslim women in Europe should dress by calling for a ban on clothing that, as he puts it, imprisons women and undermines their dignity. But in this burqa debate the voices of Muslim women are strangely absent.
For many men and women, the burqa, the niqab, [...]