News
16 Days of Activism (2009) news
Tired of the U.S. government's refusal to ratify CEDAW, women's activists pushed the city government to adopt the convention’s principles, in an effort to improve local women's lives.
Marking the 10th anniversary of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on Nov. 25, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched a Network of Men Leaders to battle violence against women and girls here Tuesday.
An unprecedented 28 percent of seats in Bolivia's new parliament will soon be occupied by women. Female lawmakers have already launched a battle for women to serve in half the posts in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.
While poor, native women in Bolivia have gained access to power, they are still largely marginalised from any real decision-making, despite their instrumental role in the 2005 election of leftist President Evo Morales, the country's first-ever indigenous president, and his re-election on Sunday.
IPS interviewed women's studies expert Carmen Deere.
According to IPS News, Zimbabwe’s ruling political party has been accused of launching a "widespread and systematic campaign of rape and sexual terror" aimed at intimidating opponents and voters in the troubled African nation, according to a new report released here.
The S A Institute for Traumatic Stress is urgently calling for support for a petition for the S A government to make the required resources available to address the levels of trauma and the impact of trauma on all our citizens.
Lao women express their equality by being as mobile as men. The numbers astride motorbikes in particular, are the same as those of men. But there is a cost.
The Indian Government should consider providing mobile phones at a subsidy to women from the bottom of the pyramid since it helps improve their status and welfare, says a recent report.
For the past two days, 3-4 December 2009, Women'sNet hosted communications practitioners to come together and reclaim ICTs to combat violence against women and children. This workshop is part of the take back the tech campaign. Some of the activities that the practitioners were involved in include creating e-Cards, Digital story telling and creating an online dictionary.
IPS News interviewed Saadia Zahidi, co-author of Global Gender Gap report.
"It is clear that there are huge discrepancies within Sub-Saharan Africa, but overall the region is doing extremely well in terms of political empowerment," says Saadia Zahidi, head of the Women Leaders and Gender Parity Programme at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in a telephone interview from Geneva.
Umbassil* is unlike other engaged women. Instead of planning her wedding she is wondering where she will have her baby. She is not pregnant but she knows that Bahrain's maternity hospitals will not admit her because she is HIV positive.
Dominican organisations focused on the rights of women are bringing in assistance from all over Latin America to aid them in their fight against Article 30 in the recently approved constitution which states that the right to life is inviolable from conception until death.
In Peru, 51 percent of all jobs are generated by the informal economy, a sector that has a female face, as more than 60 percent of the women workers in the country are forced into informality, with only 15 percent having health coverage and a mere four percent enjoying retirement benefits.
The 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) this month has brought women's rights champions from around the world to the United Nations to share their success stories. One is Sujata Manohar, who helped create a national law in India that bars sexual harassment in the workplace.
IPS spoke with Justice Manohar, CEDAW's national partner for India to ensure gender equality and outlaw sexual harassment in workplaces, about the importance of legal mechanisms to enforce women's rights.
Insecurity in many parts of northwestern Pakistan, where the military have been fighting militants for several months, is making women health workers think twice about trying to access internally displaced persons (IDPs).
