Gender Equality

Photo credit: Lesotho's MMN Centre for Investigative Journalism.

Thirteen-Year-Old Defies Family, Escapes Forced Marriage

By Billy Ntaote

This report is part of a series on Human Trafficking by MNN Centre for Investigative Journalism in Lesotho.

MASERU (IDN) – For people living in the rural parts of the country, early child marriage doesn't exist – but when a teenager is impregnated, families rush to organise a traditional wedding ceremony and it's a deal done.

This common, yet cruel practice perpetrated on the girl child continues in rural parts of Lesotho with the unsuspecting victims – socialised to believe it is their only way out of poverty and hunger – married-off in exchange for either a herd of cattle or cash in bride-wealth.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 11 August 2018

Empower Indigenous Women, Strengthen Communities

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) - August 9 is International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. On this occasion, UN Women calls on each of us to commit to making the voices of indigenous peoples, and indigenous women, louder and more impactful than ever before: http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2018/8/statement-un-women-international-day-of-the-worlds-indigenous-peoples.

At a time of unprecedented human mobility, indigenous women are on the move too, often fleeing violence, environmental disasters and land encroachments that have eaten into their sources of food, water and way of life. The positive economic spin-offs of migration don’t always reach them. Theirs is a move also for justice, as they mobilize to make their voices heard, demand punishment for perpetrators and reparations to restore their dignity.

: Ramesh Jaura; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 09 August 2018

Photo: #TheTotalShutdown organisers said they were seeking legal advice after they were instructed to hand themselves over to the police. Credit: Alaister Russel | Times Live, South Africa's news website.

South African Women March Against Gender-Based Violence

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | PRETORIA (IDN) – Thousands of women and gender activists joined together on the first day of Women's Month to protest the rising incidence of gender-based violence across the country.

The movement's Brenda Madumise said the marchers, under the banner #TheTotalShutdown, were taking control of their destiny.

"We are saying that we had enough,” said Patience Mpani from the Center for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria. “We are dying every day and we cannot continue to live like this. It can't be business as usual in South Africa when women are dying every day."

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 07 August 2018

Photo: AIDS-2018-march. Credit: smugmug.com

AIDS 2018 Conference Trying To Break Barriers, Build Bridges

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | AMSTERDAM (IDN) – The International Conference on AIDS (AIDS 2018) – the largest gathering on any global health issue in the world – opened in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on July 23 under the title Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges.

With hundreds of scheduled talks and roundtables, the five-day 22nd International AIDS Conference has defined its goal as promoting human rights-based and evidence-informed HIV responses tailored to the needs of people living with HIV, displaced populations, gays, people who use drugs, sex workers, transgender people, women and girls and young people – and collaborating in fighting the disease beyond country borders.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 25 July 2018

Photo: The Aboghlou women’s cooperative meets outside in Ourika Valley, Morocco.

Education Isn't the Only Key to Female Employment in Morocco

Viewpoint by Katherine O’Neill*

MARRAKECH (IDN) – The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has the lowest female employment rate of anywhere in the world. Though most countries in the MENA region, including Libya and Iran, have seen gradually increasing rates of working women, Morocco’s female labour force participation (FLFP) rate has actually decreased since 1999, now sitting at 26 percent, according to Brookings.

This decline not only contradicts global and regional trends, but also comes despite significant efforts both by the Moroccan government and NGOs to increase women’s education, in hopes of improving their employment opportunities. The World Bank estimates that higher FLFP rates could result in a 25 percent average increase in household income, something which would dramatically improve the lives of men, women, and youth in the region.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Middle East & North Africa; 23 July 2018

Photo: The Nesjavellir Geothermal Power Plant in Þingvellir, Iceland. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

UN University Supports Iceland in Facilitating Developing Countries' Access To Geo-Energy

By Lowana Veal

REYKJAVIK (IDN) – 439 million Asians and 588 million sub-Saharan Africans lack access to electricity, according to the International Energy Authority’s Energy Access Outlook. The situation is worse for those living in rural areas: although 98 percent of urban Filipinos have access to electricity, this is only true for 84 percent of rural dwellers.

Aware of what millions have to forego and such wide gaps between the urban and rural populations, the Geothermal Training Programme of the United Nations University (UNU-GTP), the Government of Iceland and the National Energy Authority are assisting developing countries in capacity building for geothermal exploration and development.

: Lowana Veal; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 14 July 2018

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.