18 Oct 2016 - NPWJ News Digest on Gender & women's rights

Articles

Nigeria: Buhari Accepts Gender Equality, but Insists Wife Stays Out of Politics
by All Africa, 18 Oct 2016

Nigeria's president Muhammadu Buhari has insisted that his wife, Aisha, should stay out of politics though he is accepting of gender equality. "I am sure you have a house. ... You know where your kitchen is, you know where your living room is, and I believe your wife looks after all of that, even if she is working," said Buhari in an interview with Deutsche Welle's Phil Gayle, doubling down on his earlier comment about his wife. Deutsche Welle published the interview on its website on Saturday. Mrs Buhari claimed an interview with BBC Hausa's Naziru Mikailu that she may not back her husband if he seeks reelection in 2019 because she felt the government has been hijacked from him. Buhari laughed off his wife's comment while talking to reporters in Germany where met with the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Friday. "I don't know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room," he said. But Buhari said he was not aversed to gender equality in spite of the controversies his comments have generated. Responding to the question on if he considered gender equality as a good thing, Buhari answered in affirmative.

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Three in five people in Northern Ireland want abortion decriminalised
by The Guardian, 18 Oct 2016

Nearly 60% of people in Northern Ireland believe abortion in the province should be decriminalised, a new survey has found. When asked whether abortion should be permitted for victims of rape, and in cases where the foetus cannot survive outside the womb, three-quarters of those polled agreed. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where abortion is illegal, except in the limited circumstances where continuing a pregnancy would put the mother’s life in direct danger. The 1861 Offences Against the Persons Act, which makes abortion a criminal offence, is punishable by a life sentence in prison. Attempts by individual members of the Northern Ireland assembly to introduce limited abortion reform in the Stormont parliament have been met by opposition from the biggest party, the Democratic Unionists, as well as members of the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour party. The public attitudes survey was conducted last month by local pollsters Millward Brown on behalf of Amnesty International, which backs abortion reform in Northern Ireland. The polling of 1,000 adults, carried out in September, found: • 72% of people think abortion should be available if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest; only 15% are opposed. • 67% of people think abortion should be available in cases of fatal foetal abnormality; just 17% are opposed. • 58% of people think abortion should be decriminalised so that there would be no criminal penalty for women who have abortions in Northern Ireland; 22% are opposed to this change.

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Gambia: Ministry of Justice Sensitises Immigration Officers On FGM/C
By All Africa, 17 Oct 2016

The Child Rights Unit of the Ministry of Justice with support from UNICEF on 12 October 2016 held a one-day sensitisation workshop on the practice of FGM/C for Immigration officers drawn from all regions across the country to ensure the effective upholding of the law. The sensitisation was organised premised on the fact that as security officials tasked with enforcing the law and thereby frequently interacting with communities, it is important to bring the provision to their attention together with the effect of FGM/C and the need to eradicate it. Speaking at the opening ceremony held at the Kairaba Beach Hotel, UNICEF Resident Representative, Mrs Sara Beysolow Nyanti, commended the Ministry of Justice for its leadership in moving forward the child rights agenda through the training of Immigration Officers. She described the day as a landmark event and signalled a significant evolution in the collective quest to ensure the fulfilment of the rights of children in The Gambia. She said the day demonstrates the government's enhanced understanding of the need for a multisectoral response to addressing FGM/C. If the practice will be abandoned, it will require everybody to play their role, she said.
 

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Boko Haram faction ready to negotiate release of 83 more Chibok girls: government
by Reuters, 16 Oct 2016

The Islamic State-allied faction of Boko Haram which last week freed 21 of more than 200 Chibok girls kidnapped in April 2014 in northeast Nigeria is willing to negotiate the release of 83 more of the girls, the president's spokesman said on Sunday. Around 220 girls were taken from their school in 2014 in Chibok in northeastern Borno state, where Boko Haram has waged a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state, killing thousands and displacing more than 2 million people. A faction of the militant group released 21 of the girls on Thursday after the Red Cross and the Swiss government brokered a deal. They were brought from the northeastern city of Maiduguri to the capital Abuja to meet state officials. "These 21 released girls are supposed to be tale bearers to tell the Nigerian government that this faction of Boko Haram has 83 more Chibok girls," Garba Shehu, spokesman for President Muhammadu Buhari, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. "The faction said it is ready to negotiate if the government is willing to sit down with them," said Shehu, adding that the state is prepared to negotiate with the branch of Boko Haram. The Islamic State-allied splinter group said the rest of the kidnapped Chibok girls were with the part of Boko Haram under the control of figurehead Abubakar Shekau, according to Shehu.

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Women climb Africa's highest mountain to call for land rights
by Reuters, 13 Oct 2016

As soon as Ann Ondaye's husband died, his two brothers took all the Kenyan widow's possessions: the television, bicycle, a fishing boat and nets and even her late husband's trousers. Ondaye and her three young daughters were allowed to remain in their home in western Kenya's Homa Bay for six years while she nursed her late husband's mother. But when her mother-in-law died in 2006, the brothers returned to oust Ondaye from her matrimonial home, saying her children were not entitled to inherit their father's land because they were girls. With support from elders in her husband's Luo community and women activists, Ondaye fought to stay on the 2.5 hectare plot, which is in the names of her late husband and his father. "Being that I know my rights, I know where to go, I know where to report, I am still on the land," said Ondaye, 46, who has trained as a paralegal to support other women's land claims. "I am trying to get the title deed and then divide the land among my girls - for the first time in Luo culture," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Ondaye is one of hundreds of women from more than 20 African countries meeting in Tanzania this week to write a charter of demands to improve their access to and control over land. The fittest among them will climb to the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, on Sunday to launch the charter, calling on African governments to implement it.

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