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18 April 2023 - NPWJ News Digest on FGM and Women's Rights
Articles
MPs condemn failure to tackle ‘glaring’ racial inequalities in UK maternal health
The Guardian, 18 Apr 2023
Committee says too many black women receive treatment that falls short of acceptable standards. Black women are almost four times more likely to die from childbirth than white women, the MPs’ report says. In a scathing report, the women and equalities committee said maternal death rates in deprived areas were on the rise, with women in the poorest areas about two and half times more likely to die in childbirth than those in the richest areas.
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Feminists, Women Activists in Asia-Pacific Urge Govts to Cease Attacks Against Human Rights Defenders
Tempo, 18 Apr 2023
Triggered by the recent arrest of Elizabeth Tang, General Secretary of International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF) and former Chief Executive of Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HCKTU), feminists and women activists express solidarity to Elizabeth, pointing out the alarmingly worsening attacks against women human rights defenders in Asia-Pacific.
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G7 urges immediate reversal of Taliban ban on women’s working rights
Al Arabiya News, 18 Apr 2023
G7 foreign ministers on Tuesday demanded the “immediate reversal” of a ban on women in Afghanistan working for non-governmental organizations and the United Nations. “We call for the immediate reversal of unacceptable decisions restricting human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the latest bans prohibiting Afghan women from working for NGOs and the UN,” the top diplomats said in a statement after two days of talks in Japan.
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Iran Deploys “Smart” Technology to Track and Punish Islamic Dress Code Violators
Legal Insurrection, 16 Apr 2023
Iran has started using facial recognition and other “smart” technologies to crack down on women violating the regime’s Sharia-mandated dress code. The Iranian police warned on Saturday that surveillance technology was in place “from today” to apprehend hijab law violators. They warned that “technology will be used for the smart identification of people who break the [hijab] law.” The police also threatened to shut down businesses that allowed women to remove their headscarves and to impound vehicles if passengers are found in violation of the Islamic dress code.
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Spain’s Prime Minister apologises to victims over rape law loophole
The Local, 16 Apr 2023
Spain's Prime Minister on Sunday apologised to victims for a loophole in a landmark law aimed at fighting sexual violence that has allowed some convicted offenders to reduce their sentences.The law, dubbed “Only yes means yes”, came into effect in October, reforming the criminal code in a bid to define all non-consensual sex as rape. But since then, at least 104 offenders have been released and another 978 have seen their sentences reduced, according to latest government figures. In an interview published on Sunday in the El Correo newspaper, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that “I ask victims for forgiveness for these undesired effects”.
Elisabeth Kopp, first woman in Swiss cabinet, dies at 86
The Washington Post, 15 Apr 2023
GENEVA — Elisabeth Kopp, an advocate of equal rights and the environment who was the first woman elected to Switzerland’s seven-member executive branch, has died. She was 86. Kopp died April 7 in the town of Zumikon, near Zurich, from complications related to an unspecified “long illness,” the federal chancellery said Friday.
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Protesters gather at Supreme Court to blast judge’s abortion pill ruling
The Washington Post, 15 Apr 2023
The hundreds who gathered warned that reproductive rights and the FDA’s authority to regulate medication based on scientific evidence are at risk. A federal judge’s ruling to suspend approval of a pill used for abortions drew hundreds of protesters to a rally Saturday in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, and many said reproductive rights were under threat along with the Food and Drug Administration’s authority to regulate medication based on scientific evidence.
US Supreme Court justice temporarily halts abortion pill curbs
Al Jazeera , 14 Apr 2023
US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito temporarily halted lower court rulings that had set limits on access to the abortion pill mifepristone, giving the court time to weigh a bid by President Joe Biden’s administration to defend the drug from a challenge by anti-abortion groups. The action from Alito came after the Department of Justice filed an emergency request on Friday asking the Supreme Court justices to put on hold a ruling by US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas.
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