Gender Equality

Photo: A weaver. Credit: Toung Eh Synuanchanh

Lao Women Village Weavers Pursue Moderate Livelihoods

By Toung Eh Synuanchanh

This article is the 24th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate.

BUNGSANTHUENG, Laos (IDN) – The consciousness of finite resource and traditional wisdom are inspiring a group of women in the Southeast Asian country to pursue business practices based on the Buddhist concept of Right Livelihood, the art of responsible and sustainable living.

The women weavers of Ban Bungsanthueng, Nongbok District, Khammouane Province of Laos – about 400 km south of the capital Vientiane – have formed a women handicraft group that draws upon longstanding traditional and cultural knowledge of sard-phue (reed mat) weaving.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 03 July 2018

Photo: Tadamichi Yamamoto, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, to be seen in the middle. Danielle Bell, head of UNAMA Human Rights, presenting the report.

UN Report Faults Access to Justice of Afghan Women

By Devinder Kumar

NEW DELHI | KABUL (IDN) – Though a law on the elimination of violence against women has been in place in Afghanistan since 2009, Afghan women’s access to justice remains severely inadequate, says a new report released by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

Entitled Injustice and Impunity: Mediation of Criminal Offences of Violence against Women, the report documents the individual experiences of Afghan women, survivors of violence across the country, between August 2015 and December 2017, and identifies the human rights implications of the widespread use of mediation in cases of violence against women.

: Devinder Kumar; UN INSIDER; 16 June 2018

Photo: María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ecuador and President-elect of the General Assembly’s 73rd session, speaks to journalists following her election by the Assembly. 5 June 2018. United Nations, New York. UN Photo/Manuel Elias.

UN General Assembly Elects Fourth Woman As President In More Than Seven Decades

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – In its more than seven-decades-long history, the UN General Assembly has elected only the fourth woman to helm the 193-member organ. Ecuador's María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, a former Minister for National Defence, is President of the 73rd session of the General Assembly, which opens on September 18.

Her woman predecessors as General Assembly presidents were: Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit of India (1953-1954), Angie Elisabeth Brooks of Liberia (1969-1970), and Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa of Bahrain (2006-2007).

Espinosa received 128 votes, surpassing the required simple majority of 96. The only other candidate, Mary Elizabeth Flores Flake of Honduras, received 62 votes.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 11 June 2018

Photo: Rwandan President Kagame with the President of Niger and Champion of the CFTA Process, Mahamadou Issoufou, and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat. Credit: The New Times Rwanda.

Me Too Movement Challenges African Halls Of Power

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | JOHANNESBURG (IDN) – A promised investigation into gender discrimination at the African Union appears to be idling on the back burner, according to the South African Mail & Guardian.

Some 37 women employees at the African Union Commission (AUC) have complained of “ill-treatment and humiliation”, investigators at the South African paper found.

The women, who work at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, appealed to Moussa Faki Mahamat, the new AUC chair, and Rwanda President Paul Kagame, the AU chair, in a signed letter obtained by the paper.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 29 May 2018

Photo: UNICEF's youngest Goodwill Ambassador Muzoon Almellehan in Chad. Credit: UNICEF UK.

Africa Committed To Gender Equality, Women's Empowerment

By Jeffrey Moyo

JOHANNESBURG (IDN) – Twenty-nine year old Ruramai Gwata had no reason to celebrate the International Women’s Day observed on March 8 every year. She lay in hospital nursing her wounds following a severe assault by her husband over a domestic dispute.

While licking her wounds two months later, as the world commemorated Mother's Day, Gwata was plagued by agonising memories of how her two children witnessed her abuse by her husband.

Jobless Gwata, though a qualified jobless teacher, is by no means a rare exception in Africa. Because of the fate of women like Gwata the continent’s bid to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 by accomplishing gender equality and empowering all women and girls by the year 2030, threatens to remain a pipe dream.

: Jeffrey Moyo; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 16 May 2018

UN Focuses Yet Again on Protecting Indigenous Peoples’ Rights

By UNDESA

Note: The following Feature appeared in April 2018 issue UN DESA VOICE, the newsletter published by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. It is being reproduced with slight modifications. – The Editor

NEW YORK (IDN) – Indigenous communities play a vital role as custodians of our planet, possessing vital knowledge that will support global efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But despite progress to protect their rights, many of the world’s 370 million indigenous peoples face discrimination and threats to their livelihoods and ancestral lands.

To tackle these challenges, more than 1,000 representatives of indigenous people’s organizations, Members States and UN agencies will gather for the 17th session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues taking place at UN Headquarters on April 16-27, 2018.

: UN Bureau; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; United Nations; 02 April 2018

Photo: Members of the women's cooperative use climate-resilient organic compost and biopesticides in their farm. Credit: UN Women

Women Farmers in Africa Fight Impact of Climate Change

By Ronald Joshua

NEW YORK | BAMAKO (IDN) – Fatou Dembele is a farmer in landlocked Mali, where half of the population engaged in agriculture are women. Agriculture is a key sector to lift women out of poverty. But the increasing degradation of land and natural resources caused by climate change is making women more vulnerable.

Therefore when Dembele’s plants first started dying, she thought the plot of land was ruined, and her livelihood was at risk. “We thought the land was sick. We didn’t know that there were live parasites that attacked the roots of the plants and could kill them,” says Dembele.

: Ronald Joshua; THE WORLD; Africa; 27 March 2018

Photo: Participants at the 62nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women rejoice as the Commission adopts Agreed Conclusions to ensure the rights and development of rural women and girls. Credit: UN Women/Ryan Brown.

UN Gathering Pledges to End Gender Injustice & Discrimination

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – A landmark global gathering at the United Nations headquarters in New York has come up with a blueprint to ensure the rights and development of rural women and girls around the world.

Convened on the heels of an unprecedented global activism and public clamour to end gender injustice and discrimination worldwide, the 62nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW62) concluded on March 23 reaching a robust agreement highlighting the urgency of empowering and supporting those who need it most and have, for too long, been left behind.

: J Nastranis; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 24 March 2018

Photo: A glimpse of the conference. Credit: WUNABN

Under-representation of Women in UN System is Mendable

By Fausia Abdoel*

VIENNA (IDN) – Women are under-represented at the managerial and leadership levels within the United Nations system. The world body intends to mend this situation and achieve gender parity at all levels by 2028.

But indications are that it's going be an uphill task. Statistics published by UN Women, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, show that at the current average annual increment from the P-3 to upper-managerial levels it would take on average 22 years to achieve gender parity in all United Nations agencies. In line with the status of gender parity at a global scale it will take 217 years.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 17 March 2018

Photo: Vocational training centre for women in Faizabad, Bakakshan province. Credit: UNAMA | Fardin Waezi

UN Pushes for Gender Equality in War-Torn Afghanistan

By Devinder Kumar

NEW DELHI | KABUL (IDN) – The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has documented that, in 2017, 359 women were killed – five per cent more than in the previous year – and 865 injured. Altogether about 10,000 civilians lost their lives or suffered injuries in 2017.

It is against this backdrop that the UN in Afghanistan marked International Women’s Day on March 8, recognizing the global movement for women's rights and the work of activists who have been central to the push for gender equality.

Afghanistan ranks 154th in the UN Gender Inequality Index, and this year’s Women's Day – under the theme 'Time Is Now: Rural and Urban Activists Transforming Women’s Lives' – sought to draw attention to rural and urban women who are left behind in many areas of development.