25 Apr 2017 - NPWJ News Digest on FGM & women's rights

Articles

Bangladesh's water crisis: A story of gender
by Aljazeera, 25 Apr 2017

When Khadija Rahman, then a newly married 14-year-old, moved to the Satkhira district on Bangladesh's southwest coast, she didn't realise just how much the scarcity of drinking water in the region would affect her. Now, 10 years later, the cheerful young woman finds that the shortage plagues her daily life. Her village, Kochukhali, lies near the Sundarbans, one of the largest mangrove forests in the world, at the edge of the Ganges delta, where water intrudes on the low-lying land and shallow ponds and rivulets proliferate across the landscape. A combination of tidal flooding, inundation by storm surges and saltwater intrusion has led to a rise in salinity in the groundwater and the fresh-water ponds. As a result, in the coastal area of Satkhira, potable water is a scarce and precious commodity. "We can't drink the saline water, can't take a bath with it. If the utensils are washed with this water they get damaged, even for cooking we have to bring water from far," says Khadija. "In the beginning, I couldn't adjust here, but now I am getting habituated with the salty water." The impact of the acute drinking water crisis in Bangladesh is borne disproportionately by women who, like Khadija, are the family members traditionally responsible for collecting water.

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Southern Africa: Angola Joins Solidarity Campaign for Gender Equality
by AllAfrica, 25 Apr 2017

The National Assembly Wednesday joined the worldwide solidarity campaign for gender equality, "He for she". The Angolan parliament's accession comes as a result of the recommendation of the 39th plenary assembly of the parliamentary forum of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), held last year in the Kingdom of Swaziland to join the "He for She" campaign of the UN woman. The Speaker of the National Assembly, Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos, was the first to sign in the presence of the deputy chair of the SADC parliamentary forum, Monica Mutsvangwa, who arrived on Wednesday to witness the event. The aim is to seek to enlist the participation of men and boys as agents of change with a view to achieving gender equality and women's rights. The National Assembly, within the framework of accession, will include in its domestic legislation the SADC protocol on gender and development and other instruments that promote gender equality and the women empowerment. The speaker of the National Assembly believes that the UN Women initiative, inspired by the 2030 sustainable development agenda, can contribute to a better world for all mankind.

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No Joke: U.N. Elects Saudi Arabia to Women’s Rights Commission, For 2018-2022 Term
by U.N. Watch, 22 Apr 2017

The Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch condemned the U.N.’s election of Saudi Arabia, “the world’s most misogynistic regime,” to a 2018-2022 term on its Commission on the Status of Women, the U.N. agency “exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.” “Electing Saudi Arabia to protect women’s rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. “It’s absurd — and morally reprehensible.” “This is a black day for women’s rights, and for all human rights,” said Neuer. “Saudi discrimination against women is gross and systematic in law and in practice. Every Saudi woman,” said Neuer, “must have a male guardian who makes all critical decisions on her behalf, controlling a woman’s life from her birth until death. Saudi Arabia bans women from driving cars. Why did the U.N. choose the world’s leading promoter of gender inequality to sit on its gender equality commission?” Saudi women feel betrayed by the UN. “I wish I could find the words to express how I feel right know. I’m ‘saudi’ and this feels like betrayal,”tweeted a self-described Saudi woman pursuing a doctorate in international human rights law in Australia.” “Today the UN sent a message that women’s rights can be sold out for petro-dollars and politics,” said Neuer, “and it let down millions of female victims worldwide who look to the world body for protection.”

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Cellphones in Hand, Saudi Women Challenge Notions of Male Control
by The New York Times, 21 Apr 2017

Lately a lot of women in Saudi Arabia have been loudly speaking out against male control over their lives, but as several have recently found, it is still the men who have the last word. Last week, a 24-year-old Saudi woman, Dina Ali Lasloom, tried to flee her home for Australia. Members of her family flew to Manila, a transit stop, and forced her to return to Saudi Arabia. But before she was hauled away, she posted a cellphone video, saying that her family would kill her and begging for help. The video quickly went viral in Saudi Arabia. Another woman, Alaa Anazi, a medical student, was detained at the Riyadh airport after she asked the authorities when Ms. Lasloom’s flight was landing. Protesters had been alerted on Twitter and gathered to support Ms. Lasloom. And this week, a women’s rights activist, Maryam Al-Otaibi, was arrested after she fled her father’s home to live independently in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. Fellow activists were soon spreading news of her case on social media sites. The three cases are part of a campaign by Saudi women, who have been broadcasting daring videos with their cellphones, using Facebook to organize street protests and posting Twitter messages to challenge the very idea of male supremacy in their famously patriarchal society.

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Haitian mothers claim UN unresponsive over support for peacekeeper children
By The Guardian, 21 Apr 2017

The UN has been accused of refusing to cooperate with a human rights group that is pursuing child support payments for women left pregnant by its peacekeeping forces. Lawyers representing 10 women in Haiti plan to pursue child support cases through civil action, but say they need the UN’s assistance to proceed because most of the men involved are no longer in the country. Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), a legal firm in Haiti, wrote to the UN in August requesting the results of DNA tests administered to some of the women. Mario Joseph, managing attorney at BAI, said the letter, sent through Haiti’s foreign ministry, has been met with silence. “[Life for the women] is really terrible,” said Joseph. “We’ve got more than six who live in the south of Haiti; Hurricane Matthew destroyed the south. Some of them don’t have any housing, they tried to go to relatives and they begged to get food for the baby.” The UN stabilisation mission in Haiti (Minustah) said in a statement that it is in contact with the foreign affairs ministry regarding the cases and is awaiting further details in relation to one of the women. The statement said: “Minustah, through its conduct and discipline unit, continues to maintain regular contact with the victims and address their requests. For example, the mission is currently liaising with several UN agencies, funds and programmes to find a shelter solution for one of the victims represented by the lawyer. “Where a child has been born as a result of sexual exploitation and abuse by United Nations or related personnel, the UN will work to facilitate the pursuit of claims of paternity and child support.”

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