Posted by sabina on February 19, 2010
Nelly Cooper, director of the West Point Women's Action Group, says that many people still refuse to report or talk about rape. Credit: Rebecca Murray/IPS
Violence against women and girls is found in all countries, and it is growing alarmingly.
This and many other issues will come up before the 45-member Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the U.N.’s primary policy-making body on gender-related issues, at its two-week-long meeting in New York.
Read IPS Thalif Deen’s story, anticipating some of the hottest issues. More »
Posted by sabina on February 15, 2010
Credit: Foundation of Human Rights
Feb 15, 2010 - In this Podcast you will hear of:
Hurdles still standing in the way of South African women in accessing justice and eliminating sexual harassment in the work place.
Posted by sabina on December 23, 2009
IPS has long sought to support and strengthen informed reporting on gender across the world, also through the production of media tools for effective gender reporting.
Since the Beijing World Conference on Women in 1995 and the production of the first edition of the “Fighting Violence Against Women” manual, coverage has improved and there has been a drop in reporting that stereotypes women, but challenges remain.
More »
Posted by sabina on December 14, 2009
Credit: Samantha Smit/IPS
Dec 14, 2009 - In this week’s podcast you will hear of:
* a young girl’s daily struggle to survive…
* how South Africa’s progressive gender laws only live on paper
* and how changes to the law in Egypt are slowly empowering women.
Posted by sabina on December 3, 2009
Sujata Manohar Credit:Bomoon Lee/IPS
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 2 (IPS) - The 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) this month has brought women’s rights champions from around the world to the United Nations to share their success stories. One is Sujata Manohar, who helped create a national law in India that bars sexual harassment in the workplace.
“Some people believe the traditional way of life is better, but they are not in the majority and there is a clear move towards elimination of all kinds of discrimination,” says Manohar, a Supreme Court justice.
CEDAW, adopted in December 1979 by the U.N. General Assembly, is an international human rights treaty exclusively devoted to gender equality and is often described as an international bill of rights for women.
The Convention consists of 30 articles defining discrimination against women and an agenda for national action to end such discrimination. More »
Posted by sabina on November 29, 2009
Representatives of Media and Civil Society Organisations Attended the IPS Seminar in Rome
The IPS Support Group Meeting was held on 26 November in Rome, Italy. As part of the IPS programme of work ‘Communicating for Change: Voice, Visibility and Impact for Gender Equality‘, this year’meeting analysed the role of media in covering issues related to MDG3: Promote gender equality and empower women.
The seminar was celebrated during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence (25 November - 10 December) giving voice to journalists and gender experts from around the world who debated on how information and communication contributes to stop violence.
Robert Dijksterhuis of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, introduced the key themes of the seminar addressing the responsibility of the media when covering gender issues. The Dutch Ministry set up the MDG3 Fund: Investing in Equality to raise awareness about the third development goal’s priorities. More »
Posted by sabina on November 28, 2009
Salma Ahmad Kano
KANO, Nov 28 (IPS) - Nigeria ratified the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1985 without reservations. But few of its citizens have ever heard of the document. Day-to-day life for women in Nigeria is shaped less by international conventions than it is by the diverse cultures, traditions and religions found in the country.
Hauwa Usman* is a recently-widowed woman from Fanisau village near the northern Nigerian city of Kano. Slim and dark-skinned, this young woman’s face carries signs of long, exhausting emotional strain. She says she was born during the Murtala Muhammed regime, making her 33 or 34 - a little older than CEDAW.
Article 16 of CEDAW confirms that men and women have the same right to choose a spouse and to enter into marriage; it also says that the marriage of a child has no legal force - instead requiring that laws specifying a minimum age for marriage be passed. More »
Posted by sabina on November 27, 2009
During the conference on MDG3 and the role of the media, IPS launched in Rome its new media handbook “Reporting Gender-Based Violence”.
The handbook deals with issues such as religious and harmful traditional practices, domestic violence, sexual gender-based violence, femicide, sex work and trafficking, sexual harassment, armed conflicts, HIV and AIDS, child abuse, the role of men, the criminal justice system, and the costs of gender-based violence, with real stories illustrating how these issues and trends can be tackled by the media, discussion points, fact checks and additional resources.
Download Pdf
Read about the IPS Conference:
MEDIA: The Untold Stories of Violence Against Women
GENDER-SOUTH AFRICA: ‘There Is A Sense Of Vindication’
Posted by sabina on
Ebrima Sillah interviews OUMOULKHAIRY KANE, head of the Association for the Defence of Women’s Rights in Mauritania
NOUAKCHOTT, Nov 27 (IPS) - Mauritania formally adopted the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in 2001, but in the eight years since, it has had limited effect on the status of women.
Human rights lawyer Oumoulkhairy Kane spoke to IPS by phone from Nouakchott about conservative resistance, politicians fearful of crossing powerful clerics, and the work that lies ahead in achieving women’s empowerment and gender equality in Mauritania. More »
Posted by sabina on November 25, 2009
(From left) Emily Murase, Commission on the Status of Women, Tina Tchen, executive director of the White House Council on Women, Ann Lehman and (back) Andrea Shorter, president. Credit:Department on the Status of Women
By Andrew Stelzer
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 25 (IPS) - In 1998, San Francisco stepped up and joined the world.
Tired of the U.S. government’s refusal to ratify CEDAW, women’s activists pushed the city government to adopt the convention’s principles, in an effort to improve local women’s lives.
An ordinance was passed, and now, more than a decade later, San Francisco is reflecting on their success in reforming the city’s government agencies, and taking on a push for change in the local private sector.
The original ordinance created a dedicated staff person; soon after, a task force was established, and ‘Guidelines for a Gender Analysis’, emerged: a tool for city departments to evaluate where and how discrimination was taking place.
“We knew that the city departments on their own, didn’t have the mechanism or the understanding just to take the ordinance and say ‘here’s where we are failing’,” says Krishanti Dharmaraj, a member of the task force until 2004.
“(City departments) had to report their findings to the CEDAW task force, and had to tell (the task force) what they were hoping to do to eliminate discrimination,” she says. More »
AFRICAN UNION SUMMIT: A CRITICAL MOMENT TO SUPPORT SUDAN 
THE PRIVATISATION OF LIVELIHOOD
WOMEN'S HEALTH - A SMART INVESTMENT IN TROUBLED TIMES
POOR COUNTRIES RAILROADED INTO WEAK COMPROMISE AT UN FINANCIAL SUMMIT
LET THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT DO ITS WORK
WORLD MUST KEEP UP PRESSURE ON AFGHAN LAW AGAINST WOMEN
GLOBAL CRISIS: WOMEN WORKERS WILL BE HIT HARDEST
HEALTH-SWAZILAND: 'Role Models in the Community'
GLOBAL HEALTH SYSTEM IN STATE OF ALARM
