Gender Equality

New UN Women Report Warns That Gender Equality Is Under Threat — Major Women Conference Falls Prey to Coronavirus

By Caroline Mwanga

NEW YORK (IDN) —While a new UN Women report warns that progress towards gender equality is faltering and hard-won advances are being reversed, the 64th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) has fallen prey to concerns regarding coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

CSW is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. A functional commission of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), it was established by ECOSOC resolution 11(II) of 21 June 1946.

: Caroline Mwanga; UN INSIDER; 05 March 2020

Photo: Some 90 young women took to the streets in a silent march through Lilongwe, Malawi's capital, on March 2. Credit: AllAfrica | Alice McCool/Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Women In Malawi In Day of Action for 'She Decides Day'

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — It's a day of action and global solidarity.

SheDecides Day takes place annually on March 2 as feminist activism is on the rise in Malawi and around the world.

This year, wearing red t-shirts, some 90 young women took to the streets in a silent march through Lilongwe, Malawi's capital. This year's theme was ending sexual violence after a series of alleged police assaults on women last year.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 03 March 2020

Photo: De. Stella Nyanzi. Source: Global News.

Ugandan Court Frees Radical Advocate for Girls' Health

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — She's one medical anthropologist, activist and poet you don't want to wrestle with.

Dr. Stella Nyanzi is apt to say exactly what's on her mind – even if the object of her verbal dart is the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, or his wife Janet, the First Lady.

What set off the rockets this time was an exchange between the First Lady and Members of Parliament on a presidential pledge to provide free sanitary pads to school-going girls.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 26 February 2020

Photo: Baxter with her kids before they fell victim to the brutality of her husband. Source: Internet.

Epidemic of Domestic Violence Shocks Australia

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) —The gruesome murder of a 31-year-old mother Hannah Clarke and her three small children aged 6, 4 and 3 years, by her estranged 42-year-old husband Rowan Baxter, a former footballer, has shocked the nation and brought into the spotlight an epidemic of domestic violence in Australia that has gone largely unchecked for years. It has also got Australians questioning the attitude of men towards women with their greater tendency towards violence against women.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 22 February 2020

Photo: An adolescent girl conducts an experiment during a chemistry class in Kamulanga Secondary School in Lusaka, Zambia. Credit: UNICEF Photo/UN0145554/Karin Schermbrucker

Strengthening Women & Girls Participation in Ocean Science

Viewpoint by Michael W. Lodge

The writer is Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), an autonomous international organization established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the 1994 Agreement relating to the Implementation of Part XI of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. ISA headquarters are in Kingston, Jamaica.

KINGSTON (IDN) – As we celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on 11 February 2020, we are reminded of the need to renew our commitments to improve access for women from developing States to education and training, and ensure their increased participation in the field of ocean science, particularly in deep-sea scientific research.

: Opinion Editor; UN INSIDER; 10 February 2020

Image credit: Arrupe Tribal Cultural Center

Accelerating Actions Towards Zero Female Genital Mutilation

By Caroline Mwanga

NEW YORK (IDN) – While significant progress in eliminating the practice has been made in the last 30 years, approximately 200 million girls and women alive today have had their genitals mutilated. This can lead to long-term physical, psychological and social consequences, warns a joint statement by UN Women, UNFPA, UNICEF and WHO.

: Caroline Mwanga; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 08 February 2020

Photo: Tanzanian President John Magufuli. Courtesy of Region Week

Emergency World Bank Meeting on Tanzania Focuses on Women’s Rights

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) –The World Bank’s executive board cancelled expected action on a $500 million loan to Tanzania where teenage girls can be expelled from school because they are pregnant.

The Bank had been under pressure from rights activists and held a last-minute emergency meeting on January 27 with Tanzanian and international human rights organizations.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 30 January 2020

Photo: Mairam Bibi, a victim of bride kidnapping, with her sons. Credit: Mairam Bibi

The Story of a Kyrgyz Mother Bride Kidnapped as A Teenager

By Aqila Hassanzada*

NARYN, Kyrgyzstan (IDN) – Mairam Bibi says her sons will not follow in their father’s footsteps – an abductor who kidnapped a teenage girl and forced her into a violent marriage.

At the age of 41, Mairam is sitting in her small straw house telling the story so many women in Kyrgyzstan could tell.

One morning when she was a teenager, Mairam was going to school when an old car stopped in front of her. Two men ran out of the car and headed towards her. She was terrified.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Central Asia; 11 December 2019

Chilean Women Fight for Genuine Gender Equality

By Pía Figueroa

The writer is Co-Director of Pressenza, humanist, author of several monographs and books. This feature appeared first in www.pressenza.com.

SANTIAGO DE CHILE (IDN) – The hashtag #lastesissenior was broadcast on Twitter December 6. It had not been communicated before by social networks. It quickly became a trending topic in Chile. And this came as a surprise, though everything had been organized with a lot of discretion.

: PRESSENZA; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 08 December 2019

Photo: Collage of portraits of ESCAP Executive Secretary Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana (left) and UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (right). Photos by ESCAP.

A Lot More Needs Be Done to Achieve Gender Parity

By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

Government Ministers and senior officials from the Ministries of Women, National Planning, and Finance, representatives of civil society and other key stakeholders from across the Asia-Pacific region have gathered at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok, Thailand for a three-day Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+25 Review concluding on 29 November. The following is a joint viewpoint of Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of ESCAP, and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UN Women.