17 May 2022 - NPWJ News Digest on FGM & Women's Rights

Articles

Judge rules California law requiring women on corporate boards violates men’s constitutional rights
San Francisco Chronicle, 16 May 2022

California’s first-in-the-nation law requiring corporations to include women on their boards of directors, enacted at a time when women made up fewer than one-sixth of corporate board members in the state, violates the constitutional rights of men, a judge in Los Angeles has ruled. 

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Gambia: Women Right Activists Call for Equal Representation in Cabinet
All Africa, 16 May 2022

Several Women Rights activists have called on President Adama Barrow's government to ensure equal representation in ministerial positions in the country, describing the current situation as unjust to women.
Currently there are three females in Cabinet and five in Parliament with more men in both arms of government than women. Therefore, scores of women activists have raised concerns over the disparity in the governance structure. According to the official country statistics, women constitute the large chunk of the population, and 57% of registered voters are women. With all these indicators, gender rights activists felt that the current leadership positions do not commensurate with the realities in terms of equal representation. 

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Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis and Taliban’s obsession with women’s rights
Modern Diplomacy, 15 May 2022

 The Taliban’s latest move to restrict the rights of women points to an obsession with women’s rights. This is in stark contrast to the neglect the regime is showing in addressing an ever worsening economic and humanitarian crisis. With Afghan’s facing poverty and starvation, the Taliban needs to focus on rebuilding the country, and this can only be achieved by respecting the rights of women.

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Three arrested over ‘female genital mutilation at unregistered school’ in Birmingham
The Independent, 14 May 2022

Officers made arrests after becoming concerned about ‘possible illegal practices which may have taken place at premises’ in West Midlands.
Three people have been arrested as part of an investigation into suspected female genital mutilation at an unregistered school in Birmingham. 

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UN official on Roe v Wade: reversal would ‘give legitimacy to growing anti-women’s rights’
The Guardian, 14 May 2022

The United Nations special rapporteur on the right to health, one of the international body’s most important human rights advocates, has urged the US supreme court not to end federal protections for abortion rights in America.
The comments from the special rapporteur, Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng, come after a leaked supreme court draft opinion showed a majority of the court’s conservative justices support overturning the nearly 50-year-old precedent in Roe v Wade. 

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Spain to ease abortion limits for over-16s and allow menstrual leave
The Guardian, 12 May 2022

Spain’s Socialist-led coalition government is preparing a law that would allow women over the age of 16 to have abortions without permission from their parents or guardians, and introduce up to five days of menstrual leave a month.
The draft legislation, which is due to be approved by the cabinet next week, is intended to ensure that abortion is available to all those using the public health system, and that menstruation is treated as a proper health issue. 

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Turkmenistan: Car and Beauty Bans Further Erode Women’s Rights
Institute for War & Peace Reporting, 09 May 2022

Women in Turkmenistan are no longer allowed to sit in the front seat of taxis and male drivers are barred from offering rides to women who are not family members, in the latest move to shrink women’s rights in the Central Asian country.
The informal ban came in April, following prohibitions police have been enforcing on beauty practises like dyed hair, manicure and fake nails and eyelashes. 

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