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Morocco: Election To Mark Another Step for Women
She's young, at ease in Arabic, French or English, travels, loves scuba diving, campaigns in a T-shirt and jeans and is bent on winning a seat in Morocco's municipal elections on Friday. Kaoutar Benhamou, who turns 34 the same day, says she embodies modern Morocco. But she is also riding the kingdom's latest wave to promote the role of women in this conservative Muslim state. For the first time, the government has stipulated a 12 percent quota for women in Friday's municipal polls -- a major leap over the 0.58 percent, or 127 women, now holding local council seats across the country, according to interior ministry figures. "I've never been involved in politics before," says Benhamou, behind the wheel of her white, four-wheel drive vehicle as she drums up support in the town of Bouknadel, 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of the capital Rabat. She is running for the new, reformist Authenticity and Modernity Party, or PAM, an alliance of five smaller groups facing a first electoral challenge it views as a litmus test for general elections three years away.
Bangladesh: To Increase Women's Seats in Parliament to 100
Even as Indian political parties
fail to reach a consensus over the Women's Reservation Bill, Bangladesh is all
set to increase by more than double the number of reserved seats for women in
parliament. 
"The
number of reserved seats for women in parliament will be increased to 100 and
there will be direct election in these seats," Finance Minister A M A Muhith
told the House while presenting the budget for 2009-10 yesterday. The women MPs
have so far been nominated by political parties on the basis of the proportion
of their representation in parliament. At present, only 45 seats are reserved
for women in the Bangladesh parliament. Muhith said in
line with its election commitment, the Sheikh Hasina government has started
working to ensure recruitment, promotion and placement of women in top positions
of the administration, armed forces, autonomous bodies, educational institutions
and judicial service.
India: Parliament Might Have 33% More Women
An Indian parliamentary standing committee on Law and Justice, headed by Rajya Sabha Parliamentarian Sudarshan Nachiappan (Congress), has found acceptable a proposition to increase the number of seats for women in parliament by 33 percent. Since reserving seats for women in parliament, and for state legislatures, had always been a skewed issue in India, the parliamentary panel emerged with the solution while examining a reservation bill pending in the Rajya Sabha (upper house). People like Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and Janata Dal (JD) chief Lalu Prasad opposed the plan because there was no quota for women from the lower castes. However, the panel could not complete its report because of the Lok Sabha (lower house) elections, and would now work with members of the new lower house to resume work on the plan. Acceptable: The idea of increasing seats in the Lok Sabha was also supported on the grounds that the strength of the House was fixed at 545 when India’s population was 300 million. However, the figure had now swelled to over 1 billion. Hence, an increase of 33 percent seats would result in better representation for the people.
Australia: Gillard Hopeful For Equality in Politics
It won't be long before being a woman in politics is no big deal, says Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Australia's highest-profile woman politician says it won't be long before female politicians get no extra attention for their gender. "In the time I've been interested in politics going back, of course, through the Fraser government, the Hawke government, Keating government, Howard government, now into the Rudd government ... a lot has changed for women in politics," she told Sky News on Wednesday. "It's much more usual for women to be in politics, we're there in greater numbers. I think there is still some level of differential attention but it is changing very quickly."
Lebanon: A Dwindling Show by Women in Politics
A seductive woman looks out from the billboards that line Beirut's highways proclaiming, "Be Beautiful and Vote," one political party's appeal to women in this beauty-obsessed nation's upcoming parliamentary elections. Women's rights activists have fumed that the ad is demeaning. An opposing party has put up billboards with a more feminist message, "Be Equal and Vote," though featuring, of course, an equally sexy model. A lingerie brand jumped in with its own mock election ad: a woman in silky underwear urging, "Vote for me." Lebanon's election campaign is full of women — except where it counts. Only a handful of women are among the more than 580 candidates vying for parliament's 128 seats, and after Sunday's voting, the number of women in parliament is likely to drop to four, down from the current six. Lebanon may look like one of the most liberal countries in the deeply conservative Middle East but patriarchal attitudes still reign, women activists say. Women's poor showing also reflects a wider problem: although Lebanon has the trappings of a modern democracy, its politics are dominated by former warlords and family dynasties. Often only each clan's appointed heirs — usually men — stand a real chance of getting elected.
South Africa: Woman Shakes Up Racial Politics
Helen Zille has a sharp tongue and a short fuse, and she doesn't dodge a fight. In apartheid times, she enraged South Africa’s white rulers, and lately she has ruffled South Africa’s black political establishment. Having won plaudits as mayor of Cape Town, she is now leader of the main opposition and her province's premier – a striking example of democracy at work in a country that is ruled by blacks but leaves room for white politicians like Zille. In the April provincial election, Zille won just over 51 percent of the vote to seize control of the wealthy Western Cape province from the African National Congress, breaking the ruling party's monopoly on power. In voting for the national parliament, her Democratic Alliance party's share rose to nearly 17 percent and helped deny the ANC its coveted two-thirds majority. Now the 58-year-old workaholic says her goal is to run Western Cape so well that voters will be persuaded to ditch the ANC in other provinces. “The Western Cape will set an example for democracy for South Africa,” she told cheering supporters after the results were announced.
OP | |HOMECanada: Women in Politics Take Center Stage
Progress is slow but sure for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' (FCM) Standing Committee for Increasing Women's Participation in Politics, as the number of female representatives in local governments increased by one per cent in 2008, from 22 per cent to 23 per cent. The goal of the organization is to reach a plateau of 30 per cent - consistent with a United Nations directive on women in democracy that determined that 30 per cent was the minimum number, or "tipping point" required for women to have an effective voice. While politics may be gender-neutral, the issues are not. For example, female politicians tend to be more effective when it comes to representing women's issues like childcare, playgrounds, facilities for nursing mothers, etc.At the committee's presentation in Whistler on Saturday, standing committee chair Pam McConnell, listed the committee's main achievements the past year - including, notably, the promotion of the group as a full standing committee within the FCM framework.
OP | |HOMEGender Issues Gain Momentum at Climate Talks in Germany
Communication lines with Mother Earth have become complicated. Our practices of thousands of years are becoming difficult,” implored an indigenous man from Bolivia, on behalf of his government’s delegation, as Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) met from 1-12 June in Bonn, Germany, to advance negotiation of a climate change framework for post-2012. References to the human dimension of climate change and the policies needed to address it are increasingly common at the ongoing UNFCCC international climate change talks, expected to culminate in an agreement at the Conference of Parties (COP-15) in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December. Gender advocates, indigenous peoples, labour representatives and the youth have become increasingly visible and coordinated in their efforts to build awareness of the human face to climate change, as well as the need to include all stakeholders in designing and implementing an effective response. And, governments are increasingly reflecting these aspects in submissions to the text under negotiation.
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Women are the Energy Decision Makers
While Congress is contemplating a new energy policy, American women are paying the electric bills at home and making the critical decisions on energy use in their homes and businesses, according to the national Women’s Survey on Energy & the Environment, the first in-depth women’s survey on attitudes and awareness about energy. The nationally representative survey of 801 women 18 years or older, commissioned by Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) in collaboration with the Women’s Council on Energy and the Environment (WCEE), shows that women want the country to move toward clean energy sources, and more than half (57%) are even willing to pay $30 more per month for it. Yet they don’t completely understand the electricity sources we use today, the impact of electricity on clean air and what is causing global warming.
From Early Warning to Early Action in Bangladesh
Bangladesh is the most vulnerable country in the world to tropical cyclones. In addition, mortality risk from cyclones is approximately 200 times higher in developing countries like Bangladesh. The combination is deadly, for both lives and livelihoods of those living in coastal areas of Bangladesh such as Noakhali. Changes in cyclone behaviour have also been noted: they are impacting further inland over a greater geographic area, with increased frequency and severity, probably attributable to climate change. At the same time, effective early warning systems have been shown to save thousands of lives. The cyclone that ravaged the coastline in 1970 killed 500,000 people. In 2007, cyclone Sidr killed 3,000: a difference in death toll that is largely attributed to effective disaster preparedness measures such as the Bangladesh Red Crescent's Cyclone Preparedness Programme (CPP) and the British Red Cross co-funded Building Community Disaster Preparedness Capacity (BCDPC) project implemented with European Commission funds. The project, running for the past three years, supports 85 communities along the coastal areas of Bangladesh to develop their capacity towards disaster preparedness and response, with a focus on addressing the specific needs of women and children.
Climate Change is Pushing Malawi Further Into Poverty. Women Are Hit Worst
Climate change in Malawi is pushing people further into poverty and women are suffering most, according to a new report from international agency Oxfam today. The report,The Wind of Change: Climate Change, poverty and the environment in Malawi says that an increase in temperatures and intense rain in Malawi over the past 40 years has led to drought and flooding, causing shorter growing seasons, poor crop yields, food shortages, hunger and the spread of disease in a country where 29 per cent of people already live in extreme poverty. As women have multiple roles in Malawi as farmers, child carers, providers of food, water and firewood, they are affected most by the changing climate, according to the report. Women’s weak position in Malawian society also means that, generally, they have less access to income and credit and no voice in decision-making, making it difficult for them to find other sources of income or influence action on climate change in Malawi.
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Human Rights Council Holds Panel Discussion on Climate Change and Human Rights
The Human Rights Council this afternoon held a panel discussion on the relationship between climate change and human rights during which participants raised a large number of issues, including the barrier that climate change posed to development in some countries; how climate change impacted on the right to life, food, safe water and health, home, land, properties, livelihoods, employment and development; and how the poor in developing countries were the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and the responsibility of developed countries which had caused the climate change to help them mitigate climate change effects. Kyung-wha Kang, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, in an opening statement, said climate change posed an immediate and far-reaching threat to people and communities around the world. The human impact of climate change was not only related to environmental factors but also to poverty, discrimination and inequalities. The human rights perspective, focusing on the right of everyone to a dignified life based on the fundamental principles of inequality and discrimination, was particularly well-suited to analyse how climate change affected people differently.
China's Toxic Harvest: Noxious Chinese Drywall Believed To Contain Smokestack Contaminants
Since late 2008, media coverage of problems resulting from toxic drywall imported from China has increased rapidly, with more details unfolding. This substandard drywall can be found in as many as 250,000 homes in 13 states. As homes sustain corrosion in electrical wiring, HVAC units, and even jewelry, their owners experience a myriad of illnesses and symptoms. The effects are particularly hazardous to children, the elderly, pregnant women, and those with pre-existing respiratory illness. While Florida's Republican Governor Crist recently joined with Senator Ben Nelson (D-FL) and Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) to push both state and federal agencies to aggressively investigate the problem and pursue solutions, his own Lt. Governor, Jeff Kottkamp, moved his family moved out of their home in February as a result of drywall concerns.
UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday debated, in a full-session, on the impacts of climate change on full enjoyment of human rights, especially in vulnerable countries. The debate tabled by the Maldives, sought to portray climate change not solely as a scientific issue, but also as a matter of global injustice and human rights , with the poor and vulnerable suffering because of the pursuit of wealth in richer parts of the world. During the debate the Maldives presented a joint statement on behalf of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) outlining the massive negative impacts of global warming on their communities, calling on large emitting States to honor their international legal obligation not to interfere with the enjoyment of human rights in other countries, and urging UN human rights mechanisms to hold such countries accountable. US, EU, Brazil, China, Canada, Mauritius, Bhutan, Uruguay, UK, Russia, Costa Rica, Bangladesh, Philippines, Indonesia and around thirty other States took part in the debate.
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CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
Global Media Monitoring Project - Gender Media Monitoring
What is the GMMP?
The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) is the largest and longest longitudinal research and advocacy project on gender in the world's news media. It is unique in involving participants ranging from grassroots community organizations to university students and researchers to media practitioners, all of whom participate on a voluntary basis. The GMMP has two phases.
The first phase is a research phase in which volunteer media monitors all over the world collect data on selected indicators of gender in their local news media, following specified guidelines.
The second phase is the research findings' application phase which combines advocacy for gender-responsive media policies, capacity-building for gender-responsive media practice and gender-aware citizens' media literacy.
When does it take place?
Three GMMPs have taken place so far, the first in 1995, the second in 2000 and the third in 2005. The fourth global media research day is set for early November, 2009 when media monitors all the over the world will participate once again in a Media Monitoring Day - a one day massive, global effort to collect data on selected indicators of gender in their local news media. The follow-up data application phase (Phase 2) begins thereafter until 2014.
What has the GMMP achieved so far?
GMMP research from 1995, 2000, and 2005 shows consistently significant gender imbalances in news media content, news-making context and practice. Women are dramatically under-represented in the news, their voices silenced and contributions negated through stereotyping and invisibilisation. A comparison of the results from the three GMMPs in 1995, 2000 and 2005 revealed that change in the gender dimensions of news media has been small and slow across the 15-year period. As newsmakers, women are under-represented in professional categories. As authorities and experts, women barely feature in news stories. While there are a few excellent examples of exemplary gender-balanced and gender-sensitive journalism, overall there is a glaring deficit in the news media globally, with half of the world’s population barely present.
Will GMMP 2009/2010 make a difference?
Yes. The data generated by the monitoring project will provide gender and communication activists with a tool to lobby for more gender-sensitive media and communication policies in their national and regional contexts. The timing of the media monitoring for November means the results will be published in time for key global processes scheduled for 2010, including the Beijing +15 review and the Millennium Development Goals Review Summit.
What can you do?
, and become part of a global network spanning over 100 countries in every continent across the world. The GMMP is unique in involving participants ranging from grassroots community organizations, to university students and researchers, to church groups, to media practitioners, all of whom participate on a voluntary basis.Spread the word to colleagues, family, friends! Raise awareness of the GMMP's findings and its upcoming Media Monitoring Day with key stakeholders in your organisation or denomination or in its communications tools (magazines, websites, etc.). Link your organisation's website to this website.
Become a national co-ordinator
or suggest organisations in your country that could play this role. If your country is not on the list, let us know and volunteer to organise a monitoring group.Aren't there already lots of people doing this?
Not enough. Participation is open to any individual or organisation interested in media monitoring research, intrigued by the gender dimensions of media, or in need of "hard" evidence to support their work for gender-just news media.
What's involved in monitoring?
Following the guidelines in the
GMMP monitoring guides, choose the media in your community that you want to measure on the GMMP day. The monitoring guides for each medium provide examples that take you through a step-by-step process for how to code and compile the information for every news story you monitor. You'll be looking at things such as the numbers of women and men in the news, the types of story in which they are found, and the roles they play in the news.Where do I get more information?
For more information, visit this website or send an email to: http://www.whomakesthenews.org:80/contact-us.html
Because I am a Girl
Girls are getting a raw deal. They face the double discrimination of their
gender and their age, in many societies remain at the bottom of the
social and economic ladder.
Plan launched the report - 'Because I am a Girl: The State of the World's
Girls 2007' - revealing huge global complacency about the rights of girls.
Plan believes it doesn't have to be like this. Join Plan's campaign and help us break this cycle of discrimination and maltreatment.
Plan UK
5-6 Underhill Street
London NW1 7HS
Tel: 020 7482 9777
Fax: 020 7482 9778
GET ALL GIRLS INTO SCHOOL AND GIVE THEM A FIGHTING CHANCE AGAINST HIV
Across the world today, 1 in every 5 girls of primary school age are not in
school. When girls miss out, not only are they denied the chance to learn
to read and write, earn a living and participate in democracy, it also puts
their lives in jeopardy. Education gives women and girls the skills,
knowledge and confidence they need to protect themselves against HIV
and AIDS. The Global Campaign for Education is calling on world leaders to
JOIN UP and take urgent action now. They must ensure everyone,
especially girls, can go to school and get the education needed to fight
for their rights. Poorer countries need to enact policies that will make
school free, accessible and safe for girls and boys, whilst rich countries
must live up to promises repeatedly made, and still not fulfilled, to
increase aid in support of these policies.
"World leaders barely raised an eyebrow when we missed the Millennium
Development Goal to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary
education. Shockingly 94 countries missed this target. Two years on it
is a travesty that the international community continues to stand by as
millions of girls are denied their rights to a life-saving education."
(Maria Khan, GCE Board Member & ASPBAE)
Around the world 80 million children, mostly girls, are out of
school. 800
million adults, mostly women, cannot read and write. Yet free education
has been enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights since
1948.
Giving girls' the chance to learn to read and write not only fulfils
their
right to an education – but it also helps them in challenging the many
power imbalances between men and women, and crucially in protecting
themselves against HIV.
In a survey carried out last year 30% of girls in South Africa said
that
their first sexual experience was under force or threat of force. When it
comes t o HIV and AIDS women and girls fare the worst – accounting for
74% of young people living with HIV in Africa.
At present many women simply do not have the power they need to
decide who to have sex with, when to have sex and how to have safe
sex. Education can give women a chance to challenge this situation.
The more education women and girls receive, the better they are able to
negotiate safer sex and HIV rates. This is clearly demonstrated in
Swaziland, where 2 in 3 girls who are in school are HIV negative, while 2
in 3 of girls out of school are HIV positive.
Girls who complete primary school are 50% less likely to be
infected
with HIV. Seven million cases of HIV could be prevented in a decade
if all children attended primary school.
Not only are educated girls better able to
protect their own health but
they are also able to make informed choices that can protect the health
of their family and earn a greater income, giving them more bargaining
power within the home:
-
The children of women who can read and write are 50% more likely to live past the age of 5.
-
In poor countries, each year of schooling increases girls' future earning power by 10-20%.
The Global Campaign for Education asks that leaders no longer turn a
blind eye whilst the rights of women and girls are denied. Give them a
fighting chance. Ensure education is of high quality, free and accessible
to everyone, especially girls.
The Global Campaign for Education is asking people to JOIN UP and be
part of the world's longest chain for education. By joining the chain you
will send a message to the world leaders to spend more on education -
www.campaignforeducation.org/joinup
GCE International Secretariat
Tel. No: +27 (0)11 447 4111
Fax No: +27 (0)11 447 4138
Postal Address: GCE, PO Box 521733, Saxonwold, 2132, South Africa
Physical Address: GCE, 6th Floor, Nedbank Gardens, 33 Bath Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg, South Africa
Other News
Fiji: Workshop Calls For Laws To Halt Abuse of Women
After thirty years of war and destruction, Afghanistan remains on the bottom of the human development index, with the worst social indicators among women. The way to empower women in Afghanistan's traditional society is through enhancing their access to primary and higher education inside or outside the country. In the United States and Europe, women were not fully enfranchised as early as last century - until they were able to acquire higher education and became financially independent. Afghanistan has much to do to catch up. Indeed, Afghanistan's economy could hardly grow on a sustainable basis without half of our population contributing to the reconstruction and development of the country.
Iran: Women on Front Line of Street Protests
The iconography dominating global television coverage of Iran’s biggest demonstrations since the 1979 Islamic Revolution is stunning: women are on the front line of the protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s allegedly fraudulent re-election. It is no surprise. They feel most robbed by his “stolen” victory. “We feel cheated, frustrated and betrayed,” said an Iranian woman in a message circulated on Facebook. Iran’s energetic female activists are using the social networking site to mobilise opposition to Mr Ahmadinejad. Iranian women also have a dynamic presence on the country’s blogosphere – the biggest in the Middle East – which they are using to keep up popular momentum against the election outcome. Many Iranian women will suspect that a prime reason the election was “stolen” was to keep them in their place. To the regime, their demands for equal rights are inseparable from the opposition’s drive for greater democracy.
Saudi Arabia: A Vow To Help Women
Human Rights Watch said Friday Saudi Arabia has pledged to improve women's rights by eliminating gender discrimination. Human Rights Watch said in a release Saudi Arabian leaders have agreed also to attempt to end the country's current system of male ownership of women and grant women in Saudi Arabia a full legal identity. "Saudi women have waited a long time for these changes," Nisha Varia, deputy director of the non-governmental organization's women's rights division. "Now they need concrete action so that these commitments do not remain words on paper in Geneva, but are felt by Saudi women in their daily lives." The decision by Saudi Arabian leaders came during Wednesday's review by the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. Human Rights Watch said members of the United Nations recommended in February that Saudi Arabia attempt to improve the rights of the country's female population.
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Turkey: Women's Groups Urge Mobilization on Gender Equality
Women's organizations have called for gender equality education for all in society starting from the top levels, including the president and the prime minister, and down to the bottom, including private citizens, police officers, judges and prosecutors in the wake of a landmark European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) decision that punished Turkey for failing to provide its citizens with better protection from domestic abuse. Hülya Gülbahar, chairwoman of the Association for Educating and Supporting Women Candidates (KA-DER), said society needs to be educated on the issue of gender equality to overcome domestic violence. “There must be gender equality education for the whole of society including the president and the prime minister,” she said speaking at a press conference yesterday organized by the TCK Woman Platform, which had successfully lobbied for changes in the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) to protect women's rights. Gülbahar added that all ministries should be mobilized to guarantee gender equality.
Pakistan: 56 Percent Women Get Share in Property
According to a Gilani Research Foundation survey, 56 per cent Pakistanis believe that women in Pakistan get their share in family property while 44 per cent claim of women not receiving their due property share. A nationally representative sample of men and women from across the country were asked, “In your view, do women in your household or in families around you get their legal share as prescribed by the Islamic law (Shariah)?” The data reveals that an equal percentage of both men (56 per cent) and women (55 per cent) believe that women in their family or in other families receive their proper amount of share as prescribed in Islamic law. It is also seen that a proportionately higher percentage of urbanites (66 per cent) than ruralites (51 per cent) and respondents from higher income groups have claimed that women in their families or in families around them are given their proper share in the family’s property. The Gilani poll, carried out by Gallup Pakistan, was conducted among a sample of 2,721 men and women from rural and urban areas of all four provinces of the country during May-June.
Uganda: Brides Pay Price of Being Bought?
The chilling story of Nathan Awoloi, a hunter from Palisa district in eastern Uganda who allegedly forced his wife, Jennifer Alupot, to breastfeed puppies, has triggered Ugandan women activists into calling for outlawing the long held tradition of bride-price. Apparently, Awoloi claimed he had paid his two cows which were previously giving him milk to feed his puppies as bride price to his wife’s family, he reasoned that the bride should breastfeed his dogs. The bizarre incident has since led women activists to claim that the practice of bride price has dehumanised, enslaved and trapped women in the hands of men. They want the ministry of Justice and parliament to push for laws regarding gender equality and bride price to change people’s attitude. The activists are convinced the practice is no longer fashionable. “The exorbitant bride wealth charges put women in very abusive given that when something goes wrong, the woman finds it hard to pull out of the relationship because her family may fail to agree with her for fear of refunding the bride price,” said Evelyn Schiller of Mifumi, an international development NGO that has a strong advocacy component against domestic violence and reforming bride price.
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Malaysia: More Women Choosing Entrepreneurship As Career
More women in Malaysia are choosing entrepreneurship for a career despite the various challenges they face such as lack of financial support and competitiveness in the market, Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun said Thursday. She said the government was concerned about these challenges and the relevant ministries had been tasked to identify the factors which impeded one from progressing in business. Chew said 99 per cent of the small and medium enterprise (SME) companies in the country were involved in the services, manufacturing and agricultural sectors and women owned 16 per cent of the companies, primarily in the services sector.
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Updated: June 19, 2009
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