“This simply doesn’t happen in Guinea,” a civilian in the capital, Conakry, said of the 8th February decision by judges to charge a top army official for alleged involvement in crimes against civilians. Guineans and rights experts say the move is an opening up to the rule of law, but the country must overcome forces that have long fed impunity.
Source: UN News Centre
United Nations Member States must boost economic empowerment for women to help them realize the global community’s common goals, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro urged today, warning that gender discrimination around the world was still too widespread.
Fifty years ago when Sierra Leone gained independence after 150 years of colonial rule, with it came a feeling of optimism that along with a newfound control of its governance, the country would profit from its ample endowment of natural resources, like timber, fish, minerals and oil. Instead, in the last 50 years, the country has had 13 military coups and an 11-year civil war that left the economy in ruins and the country heavily reliant on foreign donor funding.
When the world's rising population hit the historic seven billion milestone last October, the United Nations predicted that population growth will continue to increase, reaching an estimated 9.3 billion by the year 2050.
Source: Zimbabwean
Two journalists were arrested on Tuesday as riot police broke up a Valentines Day demonstration by the pressure group, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA).
“Men who abuse women misuse power,” says the sticker on the back of a boda boda taxi in Nairobi. The words point to imbalances in prevailing gender norms and to the role men need to play in changing power dynamics.
Source: Daily News
The role of a mother should never be underestimated and when a mother's mental health is strong, society benefits, says counselling psychologist Alison Rielly, a specialist in women's mental health and member of the Post-Natal Depression Support Association.
Source: Sowetan
The ANC Women's League today urged "all women who feel that the rate of women abuse in South Africa is too high", to join in a mini-skirt march this Friday, 17 February.
Egypt’s parliamentary majority, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) has condemned calls for a new National Council for Women (NCW) less than two full days after the military junta announced it was re-establishing the women’s council.
On December 2, 2011, the Malian parliament passed a Family Code, which threatens to set back women’s rights in Mali quite considerably. In 2009 the Parliament had passed a fairly progressive law, which didn’t quite bring women and men to equal status, but was a major step in that direction. Conservative, mostly religious, forces swung into action. The President quickly rejected the law, and sent it back to Parliament, where it has sat for two years.
Nine women entrepreneurs from Africa and the Caribbean secured orders from some of Europe's largest traders during their attendance at Spring Fair International from 5 to 9 February, in Birmingham, UK.
Health officials and women in Liberia say family planning options can empower girls and women to stay in school and concentrate on their businesses. But many fathers and husbands here don’t approve of the introduction of family planning. As a result, many young women are keeping their contraceptive choices secret.
An ultra-conservative Egyptian presidential hopeful has said that if he is elected as head of state he would force women to wear the hijab (veil) or “change creed,” adding that Islam provides no guarantees of personal freedom.
Hoda Ghaneya, the new Muslim Brotherhood MP for the district of Al-Qalyubiya in the Egyptian Delta, is being mobbed like a pop star.
SOURCE: Women E-News
A year after the toppling of Mubarak, women's rights activists confront a sobering landscape. With Islamist parties taking control, it's important to note the difference between ultra-conservative Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood.
The First Lady of Somaliland Amina Sheikh Mohamed Waris inaugurated an international conference on the theme of “Women’s Leadership for Peace and Security in the Greater Horn of Africa” on Friday in Hargeisa.
Hajia Hawawu Boya Gariba, Deputy Minister of Women and Children Affairs, has called on women to support the crusade for gender equality and empowerment in the bid to eliminate the obstacles they face in life.
Source: Health24
According to the latest South African Survey, one in two HIV+ people is a woman of child-bearing age.
The 40 women conference participants dubbed G40 will in the five days of their discussions come up with an action plan that strategizes on enhancing the status and role of women in the Horn of African region. The conference is funded by the Club of Madrid, an independent non-profit organization of more than 80
Source: The New Times
February 4, was World Cancer Day. Survival rates in high income countries like US are 90 percent for breast, prostate and testicular cancers. However, life giving progress is yet to reach low income countries like Rwanda. (Felecia Knaul 2012). As a cancer survivor, I have a strong bias against breast cancer.