Category Archives: Women’s Rights

Updates and news about women’s rights.

Why Birth and Death are Simultaneous for Women in South Africa

December 3, 2014 at 12:20 PM
Young mother with child, Ermole

Poor infrastructure, lack of privacy and limited access to health services are only a few of the factors contributing to the devastating maternal mortality rate in South Africa.

There is a rural area in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa where the maternal mortality rate more than doubled from 2011 to 2012. Why are women so at risk for dying during childbirth in this province? The reasons are complex and inter-related but many factors can be addressed by the provincial Minister of Health. And we are demanding that he does. SEE THE REST OF THIS POST

How Tunisia is Taking Big Steps Towards Ending Sexual Violence

December 2, 2014 at 9:27 AM

VAWTunisia

By: Jihane Bergaoui, Amnesty International USA, Country Specialist for Morocco and the Western Sahara

This past week I traveled to Tunisia to watch my colleagues from Amnesty Tunisia hand deliver over 198,000 signed petitions from Amnesty International members worldwide, calling on the Tunisian authorities to end discrimination against women and girl survivors of sexual violence. SEE THE REST OF THIS POST

Let’s put the 16 Days campaign out of business

December 1, 2014 at 5:09 PM
(FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images)

(FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images)

We all know how unfortunately easy it is to find innumerable instances of violence against women occurring on a daily basis in every part of the world. A three-year old rape survivor in Afghanistan, hundreds of abducted schoolgirls in Nigeria, the unsolved murder of 15 year-old María Isabel Veliz Franco in Guatemala, and astonishing rates of sexual violence in Egypt, to name a few.

Violence is horrific wherever it occurs and in whatever context. It is particularly abhorrent in the devastating impact it has on the lives of 1 in 3 women around the world.   SEE THE REST OF THIS POST

Discrimination is not natural; it is learned: Ending violence against women

November 25, 2014 at 12:08 PM

VAW3

Sometimes when I’m in a group of women, I find myself silently ticking us off by sets of three: one, two, three; one, two, three.  Statistically, I know, 1 in 3 of us will be raped, beaten, or otherwise abused in her lifetime.  Such statistics can often ring hollow, but when I count off in my head, I’m thinking of real women; real lives; real suffering. SEE THE REST OF THIS POST

Good News! Afghan Authorities Commit to Ensure Brishna’s Safety

November 22, 2014 at 11:29 AM
(FARSHAD USYAN/AFP/Getty Images)

(FARSHAD USYAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Victory! Following the sentencing of Brishna’s rapist, Afghan authorities have now committed to ensuring Brishna’s protection.

In May 2014, Brishna, a 10-year-old girl from Kunduz province, was raped by a local mullah.  She was able to receive medical treatment and protection thanks to the assistance of the organization Women for Afghan Women, but members of her family and community threatened to kill her and “dump her in the river” simply because she was a victim of this crime. SEE THE REST OF THIS POST

It’s time to ensure support for Indigenous women after sexual violence in the US

November 12, 2014 at 5:16 PM

US-ENERGY-PIPELINE-PROTESTBy Cindy Ko and Adotei Akwei

It is time for the Obama administration to ensure implementation of standardized sexual assault policies aimed at helping ensure that Indigenous survivors of sexual violence can access medical treatment and support services. Indigenous women face disproportionately high levels of rape and sexual violence.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) compiled statistics that show over one in three Native American and Alaska Native women will be raped during their lifetimes. They are also 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than women in the USA in general.

Tell President Obama to Adopt and Enforce Promised Sexual Assault Policies

SEE THE REST OF THIS POST

Israel/Palestine Conflict: Why now is the time to change to a human rights approach

October 21, 2014 at 1:34 PM

Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City
The same day Ban Ki Moon, UN Secretary General, visited the Gaza Strip saying, “a restrictive occupation that has lasted almost half a century, the continued denial of Palestinian rights and the lack of tangible progress in peace negotiations” was the root cause of latest escalation in violence, the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People hosted a lecture by Noam Chomsky in the UN General Assembly Hall on resolving the Israel/Palestine conflict.

It couldn’t have happened at a more pivotal time. Significant movement is happening globally and with Secretary of State John Kerry’s announcement that the Quartet (the U.S., the U.N., Russia and European Union) are meeting this Friday in Brussels, it’s time for the international community to finally end the status quo.

SEE THE REST OF THIS POST

It is past time for El Salvador to rescind its total abortion ban

October 1, 2014 at 1:47 PM
El Salvador: Marlene was accused and charged with having an abortion after she had a miscarriage when she was 18 years old.

El Salvador: Marlene was accused and charged with having an abortion after she had a miscarriage when she was 18 years old.

I was on a plane coming back from Mexico when I first encountered the stories of children and young women in El Salvador suffering from the country’s universal criminalization of abortion, a law that is now more than a decade old. SEE THE REST OF THIS POST

No Bigger Fish to Fry? Why Iran is Imprisoning a Sports Fan

September 24, 2014 at 10:52 AM

Going to watch a volleyball game shouldn’t mean having to make a major political statement. It certainly shouldn’t mean arrest and indefinite detention in solitary confinement. But that is exactly what happened to dual British-Iranian Ghoncheh Ghavami, a 25-year-old woman who went to Tehran’s Azadi Stadium in June to watch a match during the International Federation of Volleyball World League games. SEE THE REST OF THIS POST