The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today requested $1.4 billion in its annual appeal to assist children and women caught in crises, with the bulk of that needed for Pakistan and Haiti.
The uprisings sweeping the Arab world have been provoked by long injustice, low income, police brutality, and lack of social security.
Source:Women Deliver
The West African country of Liberia is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be pregnant - 1 in 20 women will die during pregnancy or childbirth. This high statistic is the result of a protracted civil war that has damaged the country’s health infrastructure
Source: IPS
Mount Elgon in Western Kenya is one of the most marginalised regions in the country. It is so marginalised that it is the only area where not even an inch of tarmac road has been constructed.
Source: Pambazuka
This week marks 100 years of International Women’s Day with a theme that mentions the need for a pathway to decent work for women. Despite the fact women cross-border traders make huge contributions to African economies, their path to decent work is still strewn with difficulty and danger.
Speech delivered by Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet during the International Women’s Day Celebration held at Antoinette Tubman Stadium in Monrovia, Liberia on 8 March 2011.
Source: UN Women
UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet commemorated the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day (IWD) with a visit to Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, 7–8 March 2011, where she engaged with women demonstrating leadership in rebuilding the country from the conflict that dominated its recent history.
Source: UNICEF
UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake today visited Goma in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo to advocate for greater protection of children as conflict continues to undermine their well-being.
France has called for a United Nations inquiry into violence in Côte d’Ivoire, as the military denied responsibility for Thursday’s killing of six women in Abidjan. Five African leaders are to return to the divided country in an attempt to broker peace between outgoing president Laurent Gbagbo and his rival, Alassane Ouattara.
Source: ReliefWeb
UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet today announced a new initiative to boost women's roles in conflict resolution. In an address at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute, she described how UN Women will create an international roster of gender experts who can be rapidly deployed to work on issues such as constitutional law, electoral and party law, and legal aid, all of which are critical to post-conflict reconstruction processes.
Source: AllAfrica
Burundi will put U.N. Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security into practice with a National Action Plan (NAP) that is ready to be signed within the coming months.
Source: AlertNet
The Democratic Republic of Congo must prosecute soldiers and armed groups who have raped on an unprecedented scale and should set up a meaningful fund to compensate victims, the United Nations said on Thursday.
Source: IPS
It is short sighted to dismiss the benefits or potential of engaging the private sector in human rights matters, says Sara Lulo, director of the Avon Global Center for Women and Justice at Cornell Law School.
In their 2010 book "Half the Sky", Pulitzer Prize-winners Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn write about a disturbing but not uncommon problem in Southern Africa - male teachers who trade good grades for sex with students.
Source: IPS
Picture a mother, hunching over a field with a Medieval-style hoe in hand, spending day after day tilling the soil under a beating hot sun - only to retire home to care for her family without electricity or running water.
Source: IPS
Five years since Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was elected president in Liberia, it appears there is a systematic campaign to remind African women that their place is still in the kitchen. And advertisers of detergent powders and other cleaning products appear to be the main culprits.
Source: Pambazuka
The future of many girls in Malawi is in jeopardy. Poverty-stricken parents are marrying their daughters off at a tender age, robbing young girls of their right to education and exposing them to gender-based violence and HIV and AIDS in a country with one of the world’s highest prevalence rates, says this article from the Gender Links Opinion and Commentary Service.
Source: Angola Press
Luanda – Angola's ruling MPLA party vice-president, Roberto de Almeida, Sunday in Luanda said Angolan women play a crucial role within the family as mother, wife, adviser and educator and contribute in a efficacious way to the wellbeing of the society and its development.
Source: The Huffington Post
The launch of UN Women in the UN General Assembly Hall this week, February 24th, felt like a celebration. There was indeed a reason to celebrate. Who wouldn't celebrate the vision set forth by the United Nations for global gender equality and the empowerment of women? The leaders and celebrities participating in the program were impressive.
Source: Ghana News Agency
The 55th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) has opened in New York with a call on member states not to postpone action for the promotion of gender equality and women empowerment until better conditions prevailed.