5 May 2015 - NPWJ News Digest on Gender and Human Rights

Articles

UN Women introduces policy agenda for gender equality
By Jurist, 01 May 2015

 [JURIST] UN Women [official website] on Monday released Progress of the World's Women 2015-2016: Transforming Economies, Realizing Rights [text], the gender-equality organization's flagship report on the status of women around the world. The report "proposes a comprehensive agenda for key policy actors, including gender equality advocates, national governments and international agencies, to make human rights a lived reality for all women and girls," by focusing on the economic and social aspects of gender relations "including the right of all women to a good job, with fair pay and safe working conditions, to an adequate pension in older age, to health care and to safe water, without discrimination based on factors such as socioeconomic status, geographic location and race or ethnicity." The report was launched [press release] to coincide with the 20-year anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women[UN report], a program that set an agenda leading to substantial gains in women's rights, especially at the political level. Despite these gains, the new report details significant work to be done, as only half of women around the world are a part of the workforce, compared to around three quarters of men, and earn around 24 percent less globally.

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Female genital mutilation increase in England 'only tip of iceberg'
By The Guardian, 30 Apr 2015

 A total of 578 girls were treated for female genital mutilation in England in March in what campaigners said was just the tip of the iceberg. The latest figures, from the Health and Social Care Information Centre, bring the total of identified cases to 3,963 since data began to be collected on FGM in September. Sixty of the newly identified cases reported involved under-18s. Tackling FGM has risen up the political agenda since last year, after high-profile campaigns gained public support. A Guardian petition saw the Department for Education write to schools about the dangers of FGM, while steps have been taken by the Department of Health and the Home Office to ensure cases are recorded and victims are better supported.

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Bolivia struggles with gender-based violence
By Al Jazeera America, 30 Apr 2015

 LA PAZ, Bolivia — María Isabel Pillco’s body lay on a table in the city morgue. A doctor was conducting an autopsy on it, peeling back layers of skin and tissue. It was early November, and the sun blazed overhead as dozens of people milled around in a dusty parking lot outside. The Pillco family was among them, waiting for her body to be released for the funeral the following day. The dead woman’s partner, the father of their 2-year-old child, was not in the crowd; he was sitting in a police cell halfway across the city — held as a suspect in her death.

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Sandi Toksvig reveals she quit Radio 4 to set up women's rights political party
By The Guardian, 30 Apr 2015

 The comedian Sandi Toksvig has revealed she quit BBC Radio 4’s News Quiz to enter the political fray. But instead of aligning herself with any mainstream group, Toksvig has helped set up a new political party: the Women’s Equality party.Speaking on Woman’s Hour on Radio 4, Toksvig, who announced earlier this week that she was leaving the News Quiz after nine years, said the party would field candidates in 2020, adding that it was “very possible” they would get an MP elected.

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Nationality laws – a new battleground for women’s equality
By Open Democracy, 29 Apr 2015

 The annual session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, held in New York last March, marked 20 years of the Beijing Declaration – where states committed to ensure equality between men and women. The session saw UN member states, civil society and the wider gender equality community join together to celebrate progress and outline challenges faced in advancing global gender equality

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