By J Nastranis NEW YORK | 2 July 2025 (IDN) — As UN Women commemorates its 15th anniversary this year, the organisation is warning of a dangerous global backslide in gender equality. Founded in 2010 to accelerate progress on women’s rights and empowerment, UN Women has played a vital role in advancing gender justice worldwide. […]
UNFPA Attributes Decreasing Birth Rates to Living Costs, Sexist Norms, and Future Fears
Millions of people want children but are unable to have them By UNFPA NEW YORK | 18 June 2025 (IDN) — Millions of people are unable to have the number of children they want, but not because they are rejecting parenthood; economic and social barriers are stopping them. This is the central finding of UNFPA’s […]
Ending FGM Means Funding Grassroots African Activists
By Nimco Ali OBE and Baroness Helena Kennedy LT KC NAIROBI, Kenya | 17 April 2025 (IDN) — As two women who have spent our lives working for the human rights of women and girls, we are joining forces to highlight the ongoing failure to support grassroots activism to end the devastating practice of female […]
Urgent Need for South Africa to Improve Access to Justice for Rape Survivors
By Jean-Paul Murunga and Sylvia Obaga* NAIROBI Kenya | 12 April 2025 (IDN) — Nationwide outrage and public protests have erupted in South Africa after a mother began speaking out about the rape of her 7-year-old daughter, Cwecwe*. Frustration and anger over a lack of progress in the police investigation six months after initially reporting […]
A Momentous Occasion for Humanity
By Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury* NEW YORK | 9 March 2025 (IDN) — This year’s International Women’s Day has been celebrated by the world as we observe two major anniversaries — the 30th for the Beijing Platform for Action adopted in 1995 and the 25th for the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 adopted in 2000. […]
A Gender-equal World Free of Discrimination Remains a Pipedream
By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN, NEW YORK | 9 March 2025 (IDN) — In an inspiring song “Imagine” from his 1971 album, British musician John Lennon encouraged listeners to imagine a world of peace, without materialism, borders separating nations and religion. Much to our chagrin, that world has remained a pipedream. So has a gender-equal world […]
Entrenched Patriarchal Structures Hindering Women’s Political Participation’
Joseph Kayira interviews Oxfam Malawi country director, Lingalireni Mihowa LILONGWE, Malawi | 9 March 2025 (IDN) — The persistent challenge in increasing women’s participation in politics, decision-making, and the broader economy in Malawi stems from deeply entrenched patriarchal structures that have not been effectively dismantled, despite the existence of progressive policies and legal frameworks, said […]
Afghan Activists Honoured with 2025 International Women’s Rights Award
By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA | 22 February 2025 (IDN) — A cross-regional coalition of more than 30 human rights organizations announced today that Dr. Massouda Jalal and her daughter Husna Jalal will receive the 2025 Geneva Summit International Women’s Rights Award, on behalf of all Afghan women’s rights activists. Dr. Massouda Jalal, Afghanistan’s former Minister […]
Ukraine War Calls for A Scale-Up in Support to Women and Girls
By Caroline Mwanga NEW YORK | 19 February 2025 (IDN) — Ahead of 24 February marking the third anniversary of Russia’s all-out assault on Ukraine, the United Nations has warned that the war is having a devastating effect on women and girls, with 1,869,000 internally displaced, almost 6.7 million women in need of humanitarian assistance, […]
The Next UN Secretary-General — Must be the Turn of a Woman
By Dr Palitha Kohona Former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN and Former Ambassador to China COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 8 January 2025 (IDN) — With Antonio Guterres’s term of office tapering off, there is increasing chatter in the corridors of the United Nations in New York regarding his potential successor. The interest in […]