5 October 2021 - NPWJ News Digest on FGM & women's rights

Articles

Anxious wait for Afghan girls as opening of high schools stalled
Al Jazeera, 05 Oct 2021

Millions of teenage girls across Afghanistan are anxiously waiting to return to the classroom, as high schools continue to remain closed, raising fears about the future of female education under Taliban rule. The country’s new rulers allowed boys in the same age group – seven to 12 – to attend classes last month, but said that “a safe learning environment” was needed before older girls could return to school.

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Zimbabwe: Masvingo Resident Seeks Court Order On Child Marriages
AllAfrica, 04 Oct 2021

A Masvingo resident Sharon Moffat, the Legal Resource Foundation (LRF) and Women's Coalition in Zimbabwe (WcoZ) have filed an application at the High Court seeking an order for the Johanne Marange Church and Apostolic Churches Council to publish message that condemns the marrying off of children under the guise of religion. Confirming the application on Twitter, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) said the trio also want the court to order government departments to take steps to bring an end to child marriages.

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Tens of thousands of women march for abortion rights in US
Al Jazeera, 02 Oct 2021

Tens of thousands of women have marched across cities in the United States to protest increasing restrictions on abortion. The 660 demonstrations around the US on Saturday, including on the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington DC, were largely sparked by a Texas law that bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

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Iraq: ‘Moral obligation’ to ensure justice for Yazidi and other survivors of ISIL crimes
UN News, 30 Sep 2021

A new Iraqi law to support Yazidi women survivors of crimes committed by ISIL terrorists, represents “a watershed moment” in addressing the wrongs committed against them and other minority groups, the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict told an event on Thursday, highlighting the need for effective reparations. On 1 March, the Iraqi Parliament passed the Yazidi [Women] Survivors Law (YSL) to deliver long-awaited support not only for Yazidi women, but other ethno-religious survivors targeted by the ISIL extremist group, when it occupied large swathes of Iraq from 2014-2017.

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Africa: Rights Progress for Pregnant Students
Human Rights Watch, 29 Sep 2021

African countries have taken important steps in recent years to protect the right to education of pregnant students and adolescent mothers, Human Rights Watch said today. Since 2019, at least five sub-Saharan African countries – Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and São Tomé e Príncipe – have either revoked restrictive or discriminatory policies or adopted laws or policies that allow pregnant students and adolescent mothers to stay in school under certain conditions.

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Meet the Latin American women who launched the global day for safe abortion
Open Democracy, 28 Sep 2021

Three decades ago, in a small Argentinian beach city, thousands of women’s rights activists met and launched what would become the International Safe Abortion Day – now marked each year around the world on 28 September. They also learned, from Brazilian activists, about misoprostol – a drug that had been used to treat gastric ulcers, which was also effective and safe for terminating pregnancies (usually taken in combination with another drug, mifepristone).

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Change is inevitable: people demand the human right to access safe abortion across Europe
Amnesty International, 28 Sep 2021

Europe has been at the forefront of the global trend towards the liberalization of abortion laws for more than 60 years. But there is still work to do to give all women and people who can become pregnant access to safe and legal abortion. Almost all EU member states have now legalized abortion on request or on broad socio-economic grounds and, in the last few years, several European countries have enacted important progressive reforms or taken steps to remove harmful procedural and regulatory barriers that can impede access to abortion.

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