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09 May 2023 - NPWJ News Digest on FGM & women's rights
Articles
National gathering of First Nations women aims to bring ‘gender justice’ to Indigenous issues
The Guardian, 08 May 2023
First Nations women have the right to move beyond “holding society together, healing, reducing harms and violence, and guaranteeing cohesion and healthy environments for everyone” and be free to imagine “gender justice”, the social justice commissioner June Oscar says. More than 900 First Nations women are meeting in Canberra this week, the first national gathering of its kind, to bring “a necessary First Nations gender lens” to everything from housing to education, healing and economic development. “There has never been a national action plan or approach to realising the rights of First Nations women and girls,” the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner Oscar said.
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More Iranian actresses summoned for not wearing hijab
Al Jazeera, 08 May 2023
Iran’s judiciary has summoned two more well-known actresses for taking off their headscarves in public as they continue their efforts to crack down on violations of the country’s hijab laws, which have now gone beyond celebrities to encompass businesses and sports events. State-affiliated media reported on Monday that judicial cases had been lodged against 37-year-old Baran Kosari and 44-year-old Shaghayegh Dehghan for not fully adhering to hijab laws, which were passed shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution. Kosari is accused of attending the funeral for a fellow actor on Friday without a headscarf while Dehghan had been photographed with her hair visible during a book unveiling in a cafe in Tehran a day later.
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Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women Opens Eighty-Fifth Session in Geneva
OHCHR, 08 May 2023
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women this morning opened its eighty-fifth session, hearing a statement from a representative of the Secretary-General, and adopting its agenda for the session, during which it will review the reports of China, Germany, Iceland, Sao Tome and Principe, Slovakia, Spain, Timor-Leste and Venezuela. Ibrahim Salama, Chief of the Human Rights Treaties Branch, Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanisms Division, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Representative of the Secretary-General, said with its half-day of general discussion in February, the Committee had embarked on the elaboration of a new general recommendation which would provide significant guidance to States parties for ensuring women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life by 2030.
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It’s time to combine the fights for climate change and reproductive justice
Human Rights Watch, 08 May 2023
In Pittsburgh, people breathe air that is suffused with toxic matter, according to the American Lung Association. It’s gotten so bad, in fact, that in 2019, Pittsburgh was determined to be the worst place for Black women and birthing people to live. Most would think these things are not connected, but nothing could be further from the truth. Those concerned about reproductive and maternal health need to pay more attention to the climate crisis and other environmental disasters. And people concerned about our planet’s environment need to pay more attention to the increases in maternal and infant mortality. Breathing in polluted air makes it more likely for pregnant people in Pittsburgh to give birth prematurely. Premature births and low birth weight make it more likely a baby will die in their first year and are linked to both immediate health problems and life-long, chronic conditions.
Sierra Leone: Center Girls’ Voices in Education Reforms
Human Rights Watch, 08 May 2023
The Sierra Leone government should prioritize the views and experiences of girls to advance its education reforms, Human Rights Watch and Purposeful said in a report released today. Despite the government’s important progress on access to education for girls, many girls who are pregnant, living in poverty, or in rural areas remain at risk of exclusion from school. On April 24, 2023, Sierra Leone’s parliament enacted the Basic and Senior Secondary Education Act, 2023, which incorporates some elements of its groundbreaking 2021 National Policy on Radical Inclusion in Schools. The policy explicitly acknowledged that pregnant girls, young mothers, and other groups are systematically excluded from school. Until 2020, the government had banned pregnant girls from schools. Sierra Leone has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies in the world, and rates are highest among girls living in poverty.
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Kenya: 40% of Women in the Country Have Experienced Physical, Sexual Violence
All Africa, 05 May 2023
According to World Vision, Gender Based Violence (GBV) cases are rife in Kenya. The major types affecting families include domestic violence, sexual abuse cases like rape and harmful cultural practices such as child marriage and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). In Kenya, just as in most African Countries, GBV disproportionately affects more women than men. According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS), over 40 percent of women have experienced physical or sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime. Mercy (not her real name), a single mother of three children, is just but a victim of Gender Based Violence due to love gone wrong. A blossom of love between her and her foreign life partner whom she met 21 years ago turned out into poison that nearly killed her. The 41-year-old had just cleared high school when she met Jean from Congo who was 15 years older than her. At the time Mercy was working in a salon. Their conversation sparked an instant connection and that is when Mercy decided to give Jean a chance in her life.
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Afghanistan: Women tell UN rights experts ‘we’re alive, but not living’
UN News, 05 May 2023
“We are alarmed about widespread mental health issues and accounts of escalating suicides among women and girls,” they said in a joint statement. “This extreme situation of institutionalized gender-based discrimination in Afghanistan is unparalleled anywhere in the world.” Since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021, de facto authorities have issued a cascade of restrictive orders that amounts to “extreme institutionalized gender-based discrimination” and a systematic chipping away of the rights of women and girls, they warned. The ongoing “appalling” human rights violations have masked other underlying manifestations of gender-based discrimination that preceded the Taliban’s rule and are now “deeply engrained in society and even normalized”, they added.
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