09 February 2016 - NPWJ News Digest on Gender and Human Rights

NPWJ press release

APEDH and NPWJ organise a national workshop on "BANFGM: towards the elimination of female genital mutilation" in Mauritania
By NPWJ, 09 Feb 2016

On the occasion of the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation, APEDH (Association pour la promotion de l'égalité de genre et des droits humains) and No Peace Without Justice, in partnership with the Inter-African Committee for Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC), and with the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, is organising a national workshop entitled “BANFGM: towards the elimination of female genital mutilation”, to be held in Nouakchott, Mauritania, on 8-9 February 2016. Participants to the national workshop will include representatives of the government and local authorities, civil society activists and women’s rights groups, traditional and religious leaders, health practinoners as well as the public at large.

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CPTAFE and NPWJ organise a national workshop on "BANFGM: towards the elimination of female genital mutilation" in Guinea
By NPWJ, 06 Feb 2016

On the occasion of the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation, CPTAFE (Cellule de coordination sur les Pratiques Traditionnelles Affectant la Santé des Femmes et des Enfants) and No Peace Without Justice, in partnership with the Inter-African Committee for Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC), and with the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, is organising a national workshop entitled “BANFGM: towards the elimination of female genital mutilation”, to be held in Gueckédou, Guinea.   On the proposal of the Minister of Social Action and for the Promotion of Women and Children of the Republic of Guinea, the event as well as other activities aimed at commemorating the International Day Zero Tolerance to FGM will be held in Gueckedou, where a young teenage girl named Koumba Tonguino died as a result of female genital mutilation in December 2015. This tragedy awakened consciences in the country and spurred a massive mobilisation for the elimination of the practice. In Guinea, despite the practice being outlawed, it is estimated that 97% of girls aged 15 to 49 are FGM victims.

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“International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation”: NPWJ appeals to all States to enact and enforce legislation banning this human rights violation
By NPWJ, 06 Feb 2016

Today marks the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation, a day when we reaffirm our strong commitment to bring an end to one of the most serious and wide-scale violation of the rights of women and girls. On this occasion, No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ) and the Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty (NRPTT), in partnership with local NGOs and the Inter-African Committee for Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC), and with the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, are organising a series of events in the Gambia, Guinea and Mauritania, targeting youth, communities, parliaments, governments and the public at large. The purpose of these events is to provide support to all activists working from the grass-roots to the policy level and advocating for clear and effective national legislation to unequivocally ban FGM in their respective countries.

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GAMCOTRAP and NPWJ organise a national workshop to foster implementation of the law banning FGM in The Gambia
By NPWJ, 06 Feb 2016

On the occasion of the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation, GAMCOTRAP and No Peace Without Justice, in partnership with the Inter-African Committee for Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC) and the Gambian Women’s Bureau, and with the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, is organising a national workshop entitled “Ban FGM: A Law Ending FGM in The Gambia”.   The event, which will be held in Bakau Stadium in The Greater Banjul Area, will comprise representatives of the government as well as the general population, including 80 community-based facilitators, 80 ex-circumcisers, 20 women leaders and 30 young people drawn from the seven administrative regions of the Gambia.   On  28 December 2015, the National Assembly of Gambia adopted the Women's Amendment Bill 2015 which bans Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and sets strict penalties for offenders. According to the bill, a person who engages in female circumcision could face up to three years in prison or a fine of 50,000 dalasi (£851). If the act results in death, a person could face life imprisonment. The adoption of the bill follows an executive pronouncement and decision by President Yahya Jammeh of Gambia to ban FGM. 

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Articles

Rouhani calls for more Iranian women to 'lean in' to politics
by Al-Monitor, 08 Feb 2016

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani encouraged greater female participation in politics and culture at a conference Feb. 8 titled “Women, Moderation and Development.” Rouhani said that women’s rights in Iran have come a long way since the first days of the 1979 revolution. He recalled that during those days, there were some clerics with “extreme ideologies” who had religious objections to women participating in protests. The clerics had gone as far as asking women to not chant slogans so that their voices would not be heard by unrelated men. Rouhani said that the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, had rejected these extreme opinions and said that women were encouraged to both protest in the streets and chant slogans. According to Rouhani, women must now push for their role in society. “Women must themselves enter the arena and show their capacity and capability,” he said. Rouhani did not specify how he expected women to become more involved in politics. Iran's parliament has one of the lowest female memberships in the world. In the 290-seat parliament, only nine seats are occupied by women. Rouhani claimed that while in the fields of education and health care there is greater gender equality. He warned, “If we do not allow women to use the opportunities that God and society intended for them, it would be a great oppression against women and the future of the country.”
 

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Peru sex worker's campaign trail: 'I'll put order in the big brothel that is congress'
By The Guardian, 08 Feb 2016

Villón, 51, is the first sex worker in the country to run for congress. Villón is running for El Frente Amplio, a coalition of leftist parties and movements, in Peru’s general and legislative elections in April. She is one of more than 2,600 candidates for 130 seats in Peru’s legislative chamber. After campaigning for the rights of people who are HIV positive, and for legal recognition for fellow sex workers, she has now set her sights on parliament because, she says, she was tired of “having the door shut” in her face. Opinion polls indicate congress is consistently Peru’s most discredited institution. According to an Ipsos Apoyo poll in September 2015, 84% of Peruvians said they didn’t trust the country’s parliament. If elected, Villón, who is a mother of four, has vowed to legislate to improve women’s rights, decriminalise abortion in the case of rape, back civil unions and gay marriage, and fight human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of underage girls.

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FGM: number of victims found to be 70 million higher than thought
by The Guardian , 05 Feb 2016

The huge global scale of female genital mutilation has been revealed in disturbing new statistics, which show at least 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone ritual cutting, half of them living in just three countries. The latest worldwide figures, compiled by Unicef, include nearly 70 million more girls and women than estimated in 2014 because of a raft of new data collected inIndonesia, one of the countries where FGM is most prevalent despite the practice being banned since 2006. In the analysis of 30 countries, published to mark the International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM, statistics showed women in Indonesia, Egypt and Ethiopia account for half of all FGM victims worldwide. Somalia has the highest prevalence of women and girls who have been cut – 98% of the female population between the ages of 15 and 49. Claudia Cappa, the report’s lead author, said data from Indonesia shows FGM was practised more widely than researchers thought. “In countries where data was not available, we had previously only had anecdotal evidence. We knew Indonesia has a growing population of women and girls, but I would say (these figures) are higher than expected,” she said. “It shows it is a global issue, when the focus has previously been on Africa.”

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