Current Issues

Victoria is one step closer to a more liberal abortion regime after landmark legislation was passed early this morning after a marathon session in the Legislative Assembly.

The Bill was passed 48-28 after 41 admendments were moved and defeated in a marathon sitting that ended at 12.48am.

The next hurdle is the upper house, where debate is due to begin next month and a tighter vote is expected.

After it was passed, Health Minister Daniel Andrews told Parliament that the debate had been "complex and challenging".

"But I think it has been conducted in a spirit that I think does every member and this institution great credit," he said.

Nationals leader Peter Ryan, who opposed the Bill, said the debate was conducted in the right spirit.

HOPES that greater competition and lower prices would finally stir up the long-stifled telecommunications sector have been quashed unexpectedly by Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri.

The minister has chosen to challenge a judgment giving hundreds of companies the right to build their own networks instead of having to rent from Telkom, Neotel or a cellular operator. That ruling, on an application by Altech, had been hailed as a massive but belated leap towards liberalisation.

This is the speech made by Viviane Reding, Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media about "Social Networking in Europe: success and challenges", at the Safer Internet Forum in Luxembourg, on 26th September 2008.

As women's groups and political activists intensify their global campaign for gender empowerment, there is a growing trend towards "gender budgeting" both among developed and developing nations.

Rawwida Baksh, team leader of Women's Rights and Citizenship at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada, told IPS the concept of "gender-responsive budgeting" has been in currency since the mid-1980s.

The Australian government was the first to introduce gender budgeting in 1984, followed by Canada in 1993 and South Africa in 1994. Since then, some 50 countries worldwide have adopted some form of gender-responsive budgeting, she said.

According to some estimates, the figure may be over 60 to 70 countries which have specifically earmarked gender-related funds in their respective national budgets.

30 vulnerable women from Tombo Village and its environs over the weekend received their certificates including start up kits and seed money, to embark on self reliance projects in their respective communities, after completing six weeks of training at the Lumtubum skills training center in Tombo.

The skills training program was organized by the Society for Women and Aids in Africa Sierra Leone Chapter (SWAASL) in collaboration with their funding partners Global Fund for Aids that focuses on vulnerable women who need empowerment to control and prevent the spread of HIV/ AIDS in Sierra Leone.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony Sister Monica Green of the Marie Stopes Society who chaired the program expressed thanks and appreciation to SWAASL, the funding agency Global Fund for Aids and the trainees for completing 6 weeks of skills training in Gara tie dying, Batik, and soap making.

She highlighted the role of women in fighting to alleviate hunger and poverty which is a recipe to get infected with HIV/ AIDS; she noted that it was against this backdrop that SWAASL deemed it fit, to identify with the vulnerable women of Tombo so that they can be empowered with skills to generate income.

The Spanish government has appointed a group of experts to advise on liberalizing abortion law by the end of 2009 or early 2010, the equality minister said on Thursday.

"We can't have a situation where a woman who needs to terminate a pregnancy can have legal problems," Bibiana Aido said.

"That's why we need a serious, calm and high-level debate which contributes to the drawing up of the best law possible."

Spain decriminalized abortion in 1985, 10 years after the death of right-wing dictator Francisco Franco, but while the number of abortions has doubled in the past decade, the practice is controversial in the traditionally Catholic country.

Abortion is permitted in certain cases, for example up to 12 weeks for women who have been raped or up to 22 weeks if a fetus is malformed. It is also available if a birth poses a psychological risk to the mother.

More than half a million women still die each year in pregnancy and childbirth, often bleeding to death because no emergency obstetrical care is available, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.

Despite modest progress, particularly in Asia, the global maternal mortality toll remains stubbornly stable due to a lack of financial resources and political will, it said.

More than 99 percent of the estimated 536,000 maternal deaths worldwide in 2005 occurred in developing countries, half of them in sub-Saharan Africa, it said in a report entitled "Progress for Children: A Report Card on Maternal Maternity".

"One of the critical bottlenecks has always been access to highly skilled health workers required to deliver emergency obstetrical care, particularly caesarian sections," Peter Salama UNICEF's chief of health, told a news briefing.

Around 50 million births in the developing world, or about 4 in 10 of all births worldwide, are not attended by trained personnel, according to the report.

Rwanda is the first nation in the world where women outnumber men in parliament after legislative elections Sept. 18. Women now account for at least 55 percent of the lower chamber in Rwanda, according to provisional results. Previously, they held 48 percent of seats.

"The role of the elected females is double: They must on the one hand concern themselves with the implementation of government decisions, and on the other be a voice for the grassroots," said Bellancilla Nyonawankusi, a Kigali election official.

Female lawmakers earned 20 seats in direct elections, Reuters reported. Another 24 were already secured in an indirect vote. Rwanda now has a higher number of female lawmakers than Sweden, where 47 percent of parliamentarians are women.

This is the second election since the 1994 genocide that cost 800,000 lives. Women have staked a strong role in rebuilding the country under President Paul Kagame's leadership and represent 55 percent of the 4.7 million registered voters.

The media are awash with news of defilement. Defilers traumatise and predispose their victims to the risk of HIV infection. Last year 12,230 defilement cases were reported to the Police, while in 2006, 15,385 cases were reported. Many more cases go unreported for fear of shame.

Much as the Government should be applauded for the Presidential Initiative for AIDS Strategy Communication to Youth programme which has expanded HIV prevention education to primary schools, more needs to be done to eliminate defilement in schools and other predisposing factors like exposure to pornography.

It is cynical that a nation whose motto is For God and my country has its print media flooded with tabloids. Furthermore, the advertising media industry has exposed the nation to unprecedented levels of pornography and obscenity.

Pornography refers to any graphic (pictorial) or any other forms of communication that is intended to incite sexual feelings. It has spread to schools, universities and offices.

In rural areas, video shacks operating battery-controlled equipment show pornographic movies.

Rising food prices around the world are likely to drive poor women to trade sex for basic goods like fish and cooking oil, raising the risk of new AIDS infections, U.N officials said on Monday.

Delegates at a major AIDS conference in Mexico cited the cases of fisherwomen in the Pacific and women in Kenya desperate for food being forced to sell their bodies, adding to concerns of a new twist in the spread of the deadly pandemic.

"Food is such a basic need that you can see people really going to great lengths," said Fadzai Mukonoweshuro of the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization in southern Africa.

Climbing food prices -- due to increased use of biofuels, the growing demand for grains to feed a booming Asia, droughts and market speculation -- caused 50 million more people to go hungry last year compared to the year before, the United Nations said.