English
ItalianoCampaigning for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights, Democracy, the Rule of Law and International Justice
10 Jan 2017 - NPWJ News Digest on FGM & women's rights
Articles
May urged to enact law to ensure 45% of candidates are women by 2030
By The Guardian, 10 Jan 2017
Political parties should be forced by law to field female candidates in at least 45% of constituencies if they fail to significantly boost the number of women in parliament by 2020, the women and equalities select committee has said. The committee chair and former Conservative culture secretary and minister for women, Maria Miller, said Britain had slipped to a “shockingly low” 48th in the world league table for female representation from 25th in 1999. As well as urging Theresa May to consider legislation for political parties including financial penalties for those that fall short, her group called on the prime minister to set a domestic target – also of 45% – for the proportion of female MPs actually elected to Westminster by 2030.
Read More
Critics urge repeal of Lebanon rape law
by Al Jazeera, 10 Jan 2017
In what could prove a victory for women's rights activists in Lebanon, a parliamentary committee recently recommended striking down a law that allows rapists' sentences to be commuted if they marry their victim. Although it is difficult to say how many women have been affected by the law, it is most likely to occur in situations where the victim knows her rapist - such as a cousin or neighbour - and the tight-knit community heaps pressure on her to accept the offer of marriage, said Roula Masri, a senior programme manager with the local gender-rights NGO, ABAAD. "There's the psychological trauma," Masri told Al Jazeera. "Victims usually have to undergo therapy. They may feel that sex is disgusting … Usually, the victims, the girls, are obliged [to marry their rapist] by family members. They would blame you, and they would push the marriage forward, to save the family's honour." Men convicted of rape in Lebanon can face up to five years in jail. The proposed changes to the law would also increase the maximum sentence to seven years, and classify rape as a crime against women.
Read More
Alarming rise of violence against women in Arab region
by Samar Kadi - BEIRUT, Middle East Online, 09 Jan 2017
Figures indicate that gender-based violence is increasing with new forms of attacks.
Violence against women is a global issue but has risen in the Middle East in recent years and incurred costs that significantly affect society at large. Figures indicate that gender-based violence is increasing with new forms of attacks.
“Violence against women is equivalent to violation of human rights. It remains under many forms in the Arab region, including intimate partner violence, gender-related killings and other forms that are particular to this region, such as early forced marriages and temporary marriages, sexual harassment and female genital mutilation,” said Blerta Aliko, deputy regional director of Arab states at UN Women.
“An estimated 30% of ever-partnered women in the Middle East and North Africa region have experienced physical violence by intimate partners at some point in their lives, while one in seven girls is married as a child with the highest rates in Mauritania, Sudan and the Yemen,” Aliko said at a panel discussion in Beirut on the cost of violence against women in the Arab region.
“While 87% of women and girls aged between 15 and 49 have undergone FGM (female genital mutilation) in Egypt and Sudan, an estimated 19% have experienced the same form of violence in Yemen and 8% in Iraq since 2015.”
Although complete data on the prevalence of violence are lacking in the region, largely due to under-reporting of violence within marriage particularly, some estimates were available.
Ireland Reconsiders Its Constitutional Ban on Abortion
by The New York Times, 08 Jan 2017
An assembly of Irish citizens convened by Parliament is considering changes to one of the most divisive policies in the country: the near-total ban on abortions, which has been enshrined in Ireland’s Constitution since 1983. The group, a 100-member Citizens’ Assembly led by Mary Laffoy, a Supreme Court judge, does not have the power to change the law. But its mandate from Parliament — to examine the full range of medical, legal and ethical issues surrounding abortion — suggests a willingness to revisit the ban, one of the most stringent in the Western world. Over the last three months, the assembly has received more than 13,500 comments from the public — more than 1,000 of which have been published online so far. It pored over these submissions at the Grand Hotel Malahide over the weekend, along with testimony from experts, and is scheduled to issue a report later this year. Abortion was already illegal in Ireland before 1983, but the Eighth Amendment gave “the right to life of the unborn” equal status to “the right to life of the mother” under the Constitution. The amendment was enacted through a voter referendum, and can be altered — or abandoned — only via another referendum. Several highly publicized cases since then have contributed to and reflected a shift in the public’s mood, however. In 2012, a 31-year-old woman, Savita Halappanavar, died from septic shock while having a miscarriage, after a hospital denied her an abortion that might have saved her life. It is common for women in Ireland to travel to countries such as Britain and the Netherlands for abortions. Figures from Britain’s National Health Service showed that more than 3,400 women gave Irish addresses to British abortions clinics in 2015.
Read More
Abused housemaid's death in Indian capital raises trafficking concerns
by Reuters, 06 Jan 2017
The death of a housemaid who said she was abused by her New Delhi employers after being lured to the city with the promise of a job has raised new concerns over those trapped in domestic servitude in India. Campaigners are demanding a renewed crackdown on unregulated employment agencies that profit from workers from impoverished states attracted to cities hoping to earn money to support their families back home. The 24-year-old housemaid died in hospital on Wednesday, two weeks after she was admitted with multiple fractures and injuries, police said. She had been trafficked from the eastern Indian state of West Bengal three years ago. The woman's cousin, who also works as a housemaid in the city, called a helpline asking for help on Dec. 19. Swati Maliwal, head of the Delhi Commission for Women, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation: "When I reached the hospital, what I saw was horrifying. "She looked starved and could barely move. In her statement to the police she said that she had been beaten with iron rods by her employer for complaining about excess work." There are an estimated 50 million domestic workers in India, most of them women, who are regularly exploited in the absence of any legal protection with a nationwide policy to support domestic workers awaiting cabinet approval, activists say. Traffickers zero in on poor villages in states such as West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, convincing vulnerable families to send their daughters away for employment.
Read More
Burkina Faso : Plan d’élimination des mutilations génitales féminines
Afriquejet, 06 Jan 2017
Le Burkina Faso se dote d’un Plan stratégique national de promotion de l’élimination des mutilations génitales féminines – Le Burkina Faso s’est doté jeudi d’un Plan stratégique national de promotion de l’élimination des mutilations génitales féminines et son Plan d’actions opérationnel triennal glissant 2016-2018, a annoncé le gouvernement dans un communiqué.
Selon le communiqué du conseil des ministres, ce Plan stratégique est un document de programmation qui oriente et canalise les interventions de promotion de l’élimination des mutilations génitales féminines au Burkina Faso.
L’adoption de ce rapport permet de disposer d’un référentiel pour tous les acteurs, en vue d’offrir un environnement protecteur des droits des filles et des femmes à même de leur assurer une bonne santé, le maintien de leur intégrité physique et le respect de leurs droits, a ajouté le texte.
Tanzania: 800 Girls 'Suffered FGM Last December Alone'
by AllAfrica, 05 Jan 2017
800 girls were subjected to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in December last year alone, the Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ms Sihaba Nkinga, was told here on Tuesday. Tarime District Commissioner (DC) Mr Glorious Luoga told the PS that all the girls were circumcised during the month. This prompted the permanent secretary to warn that the government will take legal action against all those who are reluctant to stop the illegal practice. "As a government, we can't afford to see such acts continuing to happen. It is not something to be proud of," Ms Nkinga stressed. She was speaking during the 9th graduation ceremony of girls undergoing alternative rite of passage at Association of Termination of Female Genital Mutilation (ATFGM) Masanga in Tarime District. Speaking at the same event, DC Luoga said the police have launched a search for all women who circumcised the girls. Already 12 female circumcisers, locally known as 'Ng'ariba,' had been arrested and taken to court for performing the cut on the girls. Two of them had already been sentenced to jail, the DC added. The PS said FGM was a violation of human rights as it Continues on cut short the dreams of many girls. She urged all communities still embracing the outdated harmful culture to stop it. "FGM should become a history in Tanzania. We as a government are well prepared and all those who do not want to stop it will be forced to stop," she cautioned. Tanzania's FGM rate stands 32 per cent at the moment, according to her.
Read More
Ethiopie : naissance d’une conscience féministe
Grand reportage par Justine Boulo, RFI, 05 Jan 2017
Ces dernières années, en Ethiopie, les affaires de viols collectifs, d’agressions ou de meurtres de femmes ont brisé un tabou. Si les inégalités hommes-femmes s’expriment par les violences physiques, les très récents mouvements féministes éthiopiens s’attaquent d’abord aux carcans sociaux. Dans ce pays de 100 millions d’habitants de la Corne de l’Afrique, très majoritairement rural, les traditions ancestrales subsistent. Et avec elles, persistent le mariage forcé des mineures, les mutilations génitales féminines bien qu’interdits par la législation nationale… Ces atteintes faites aux femmes sont les combats quotidiens des féministes. Mais plus délicat est la lutte pour l’évolution les mentalités : dans un pays où quatre femmes sur cinq considèrent qu’il est « légitime et normal » de se faire battre par son mari.
Read More
29 organisations push UN to put India on FGM/C list
Forum Gandhi, DNA India, 04 Jan 2017
In a new year's resolution, Mumbai based NGO Sahiyo, and 28 other other global civil society organisations, have petitioned the United Nations (UN) to examine the impact of FGM/C (Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting) in Asia more thoroughly and increasing investment in research and funding in South Asia to meet Sustainable Development Goal of ending FGM/C by 2030. The NGO has started an online petition on Change.org to ask UN to include India as one of the practicing countries.
Read More
UN urged to end FGM by 2030
The Hindu, 04 Jan 2017
A coalition of 29 organisations from India and abroad have petitioned to the United Nations to end female genital mutilation (FGM) by 2030. The petitioners called upon the global community to contribute funds, support and resources to facilitate research, data collection and advocacy in countries where FGM is practised.
The co-signers to the petition, which was released on Tuesday, include Mumbai-based Sahiyo, Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, Orchid Project, Equality Now, Men Against Violence and Abuse, No FGM Australia, Hawa Trust and Speak Out on FGM.
The petition states that at least 200 million women in 30 countries have been subjected to FGM. However, these statistics are largely restricted to sub-Saharan Africa and ignore the global scope of the issue. The petition states, “In 2016, a UNICEF report finally included Indonesia as a country where FGM is practised. But FG has also been reported in India, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Maldives, Brunei, Russia (Dagestan) and Bangladesh. These Asian countries fall outside the scope of the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme to Accelerate the Abandonment of FGM. As a result, FGM survivors from this region are overlooked when it comes to resources, data collection efforts, advocacy and support.”