Source: Huffington Post
Margot Wallström and General Sir Richard Shirreff: For the first time ever, the declaration issued by participating Heads of State and Government at the NATO Summit in Chicago last month included a paragraph on sexual and gender-widespread violence. This is not only a recognition of the changing nature of conflict, but also an acknowledgement by NATO of the importance of the role of women and girls in building sustainable peace.
Source: Daily observer
In a bid to revive the long-delayed proposed legislation seeking to increase women’s participation in politics, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has challenged female legislators to re-introduce the ‘30% of Women Participation in Government’s Bill’ and guarantee its passage into law.
Uganda set up a national human trafficking task force in April, but a national action plan to combat trafficking - originally due in June - could be delayed for months as officials take stock of existing and fragmented law enforcement efforts.
Source: RNW
Last week, Uganda's Ethics and Integrity Minister Simon Lokodo announced plans to ban 38 NGOs for allegedly promoting homosexuality and actively recruiting homosexuals.
The government says it is committed to promoting and empowering women in the agricultural sector as a means of alleviating poverty in the country.
A new report released today by Namati and the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) details an effective and cost-efficient process to help rural communities work together to protect their lands and natural resources--a potential solution to the global land grab. The communities, located in Liberia, Mozambique, and Uganda, have all survived long years of violence and upheaval only to find their lands coveted by foreign investors and local elite.
Source: All Africa
The obstacles to the empowerment and equality of women and young girls in the tourism sector in Africa are being analyzed since Monday atthe 53rd meeting of the World Tourism Organization (WTO) Commission for Africa, underway since Monday in Cross River, Calabar State, Nigeria.
Source: All Africa
The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has commenced the training of female chauffeurs in collaboration with First Lady Patience Jonathan in Abuja.
The Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Mulikat Akande-Adeola, has expressed the resolve of female federal lawmakers to back proposals for constitutional amendments to increase women political participation in the country.
Women’s groups in Sierra Leone are hoping that at least 30 percent of seats in the West African nation’s parliament will be held by women after general elections due in November.
There are plenty of good yardsticks for the state of women’s rights around the world. Parliamentary representation isn’t one of them.
Source: RH Reality Check
During last year’s International Conference on Family Planning, IntraHealth promoted health worker empowerment with the slogan “Family Planning: It Takes a Health Worker.” We had the phrase printed on posters and buttons, proudly displayed at our booth and on our lapels. We posited that all of the contraceptive technologies in the world will not make a difference if there are not skilled health workers to deliver them. Visitors to our booth, seeing our theme, sometimes laughed and said, “Well, technically it doesn’t take a health worker to put on a condom or promote abstinence.”
Source: The Independent
Each year, more than 350,000 young women die after falling pregnant – one every two minutes. Now, a new international drive is under way to deliver contraception to poverty-stricken nations, and so slash mortality rates.
Source: Mail & Guardian
There has been a glaring absence of awareness and appropriate action internationally to address the link between intimate-partner dysfunctionality and HIV infection. Yet the reality is that intimate-partner violence is a hidden driver of the HIV epidemic, increasing psychosocial distress, risky sexual behaviour and sexually transmitted infections.
Source: WorldWatch
After days of negotiations, world leaders and the over 50,000 participants at Rio+20 will be presented with a draft outcome agreement, known as “The Future We Want.” The draft, which will be finalized on Friday, will be presented to heads of state at the end of the conference and will likely serve as the framework for future goals on economic, social, and environmental sustainability, including the Sustainable Development Goals, which could replace the Millennium Development Goals when they expire in 2015
Source: Global Post
The ladies, as they have come to be known, arrive to work by 9 a.m. each day.
Their office is an old minibus (taxi) station in the center of Langa township. The dilapidated white building is dark inside; a table lined with blue plastic chairs is set up by the window, and two men sit in a small office behind security glass. Resembling a YMCA-meets-doctor’s office, this station has housed the Langa Action Community AIDS Program (LACAP) for seven years.
With more and more reports of sexual violence against women in Egypt becoming public, an anti-sexual harassment and violence against women organization in the country has called for a mass demonstration in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Friday to battle the social pandemic.
Women empowerment took the spotlight in Parliament yesterday with a historic launch of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) Namibia branch.
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi will appoint a woman and a Christian respectively to be his two vice presidents, CNN reported today. The Muslim Brotherhood leader initially inspired fears of a strictly Islamist state but after just two days in office, Morsi has alleviated that fear — at least a little bit.
The top United Nations envoy in Libya today stressed the importance of the equal participation of women in rebuilding the country, as he commended the number of women who have registered to vote and to stand for election in the upcoming legislative polls.