Gender Equality

25 Years on From Beijing, COVID-19 Highlights Profound Interconnectedness & Persisting Inequalities

Viewpoint by Anita Nayar and Aishu Balaji

Anita Nayar is Director and Aishu Balaji Program Coordinator of Regions Refocus. This article is based on the civil society statement delivered at the opening of CSW64/Beijing+25 by Anita Nayar, also Co-Chair of the Gender and Trade Coalition.

NEW YORK (IDN) – On March 9, 2020, New York-based government delegates met at the United Nations (UN) under very different circumstances than originally imagined: with a reduced interim program that excluded global civil society and country-based government representatives due to the postponement of the 64th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW64) under threat of COVID-19.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 11 March 2020

Photo: Speaking out about girls' rights in Rwanda in the House of Lords, UK. Credit: World Health Organization.

Too Few Women in Power 25 Years After Beijing Declaration

By UN Women

GENEVA | NEW YORK (IDN) — Women's representation in political decision-making continues to increase but at a dragging pace, with three-quarters of parliamentary seats still held by men, according to new data presented in the 2020 edition of the IPU‑UN Women map of Women in Politics. The data's publication coincides with the 25-year review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, which remains the world's most comprehensive agenda for gender equality.

: UN Women; UN INSIDER; 10 March 2020

Photo: Jardim Constantino in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. Credit: UN News/Ana Carmo.

From Coronavirus to Climate and Gender Equality

By J Nastranis with UN News in Brief

NEW YORK (IDN)— As the coronavirus continues to spread globally, the UN's top human rights official Michelle Bachelet appealed on March 6 to countries and businesses to put rights "front and centre" to protect their most vulnerable citizens. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that although the virus would likely have an impact on greenhouse gas emissions because of the expected global economic slowdown, it was too soon to say how great that impact might be.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 10 March 2020

Photo: Memorial bust of Clara Zetkin in Dresden, Germany. CC BY-SA 3.0

The Spiritual and Socialist Start of International Women's Day

Viewpoint by Rene Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens

GENEVA (IDN) – March 8 is the International Day of Women and thus a time to highlight the specific role of women in local, national and world society. International Women's Day was first proposed by Clara Zetlin (1857-1933) at the Second International Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen in 1911.

Later, she served as a socialist-communist member of the German Parliament during the Weimar Republic which existed from 1920 to 1933 when Hitler came to power. Zetlin went into exile in the Soviet Union shortly after Hitler came to power. She died there several months later in 1933.

: Rene Wadlow; UN INSIDER; 07 March 2020

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.