Advocacy & Lobbying
“If you want to know how civilized a culture is, look at how they treat its women.” - Bacha Khan
In the heart of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), a region brimming with resilience and potential, there exists a stark reality that impedes its progress: the underrepresentation of women in the political sphere. This disparity not only stifles the voices of half the population but also hampers the region's socio-economic development.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with its rich cultural heritage and diverse populace, has long grappled with socio-political challenges. Yet, amidst the rugged landscapes and bustling bazaars lies an untapped resource – the potential of its women. However, entrenched patriarchal norms, compounded by societal taboos and systemic barriers, conspire to marginalize women from participating meaningfully in the political process.
At the core of this issue lies the lack of representation in decision-making bodies. Women, comprising approximately half of the population, are grossly underrepresented in legislative assemblies and local councils. This dearth of female voices perpetuates a cycle of neglect, as policies and initiatives fail to address the unique challenges faced by women and girls in the region.
Read here the full article published by The Friday Times on 20 May 2024.
Image by The Friday Times
Libyan feminists were in uproar in June 2023 when the government decided to once again introduce a travel ban on women flying without a male chaperone, an action that severely curtails Libyan women’s freedom of movement. In a surprising act of coordination, the governments of both east and west Libya imposed travel restrictions on Libyan women, further inhibiting the possibility of circumventing such measures, the latest in a wider pattern of state-supported infringement of Libyan women’s rights. They draw attention to the importance of developing, and implementing, a National Action Plan identifying national and local needs to safeguard women’s freedoms across the country. The plan would also aim to reform the security sector to become human-centered, as opposed to state-centered, with a particular focus on women and girls.
A similar travel ban was first introduced in 2017, which Libyan human rights activists decried as a “gross violation of fundamental rights, in direct contravention of Libya’s interim constitutional declaration, and made without authorization, mandate, or jurisdiction.” In justification of their actions, the authorities claimed that Libyan women pose a threat to national security.
Six years later, Libyan women saw an alarming repeat of events. In early-May 2023, a travel questionnaire was given to women without a “male companion” at Mitiga International Airport in Tripoli. The questionnaire forced women to justify their reasons for traveling alone and specify their destination, in flagrant violation of the freedom of movement guaranteed by local and international legislation. Meanwhile, authorities in Benghazi went further: a citizen reported that a woman was prevented from traveling from Benina Airport despite obtaining travel permission to board the plane, under the pretext of the absence of a male companion. These actions further emphasize the importance of rapidly developing and implementing a National Action Plan to ensure women’s freedoms are protected, and advocate for policy change within the current security sector.
Read here the full article published by the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy on 15 May 2024.
Image by The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy
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Africa Renewal: What best practices you would you like to share with other countries regarding your government’s work to empower women?
Dr. Mahoi: Everybody knows what we have been through in Sierra Leone—war, Ebola, landslides, flooding, and more. In all these, women suffered the most but we have picked ourselves up. Our focus now is ensuring that women's empowerment is at the centre of development.
We have ratified numerous international agreements such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, also known as the Maputo Protocol, and the Beijing Declaration, and so on. So, we are on course in domesticating these treaties and implementing our mandates and obligations as a country.
On the domestic front, we have enacted many gender-related laws such as the Devolution of Estates Act, 2007; the Domestic Violence Act of 2007; and the Customary Marriage and Divorce Act of 2009. For me, these are outdated laws, even though they were steps in the right direction at the time.
In the last few years, we reviewed some of those laws and are trying to address existing gaps. For example, in 2019, we reviewed the Sexual Offenses Act of 2012, to impose stiffer punishments on perpetrators of sexual violence. President Julius Maada Bio demonstrated his passion for the well-being of women by declaring in 2019 a State of Emergency over rape and sexual violence.
We established a Sexual Offences Model Court to try cases of sexual violence against minors and impose stiff punishment. Those cases are now fast-tracked. We enacted the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act(GEWE), in 2022, to reaffirm our commitment to the empowerment of women and girls. We also have the Customary Land Rights Act, which guarantees women the right to own, hold, use, and inherit land.
All these efforts are translating into tangible results.
Click here to read the full article published by the United Nations Africa Renewal News on 30 April 2024.
Image by UN News
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United Nations Women (UN Women) has called on local political parties to create a safe space for women participating in politics and swiftly move to address violence against women during elections.
Speaking during the opening of a three-day multi-stakeholder conference in Salima on Wednesday themed ‘Violence against women in elections’, UN Women acting country representative Kebedech Ambaye observed that women experience various forms of violence during elections, including physical, psychological, verbal and digital abuse.
She said: “Statistics show that since 2014, the number of independents has been rising. It was at 37 percent in 2014 and reached 39 percent in 2019.
Read here the full article published by Nation Online on 26 April 2024.
Image by Nation Online
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Key women inclusion advocacy groups in Nigeria and other stakeholders have kick-started a robust conversation on how more women would participate in politics going forward, especially starting from 2027 general elections in the country.
These women groups were led in the conversation in Abuja, by Gender Strategy Advancement Initiative, SheForum Africa and Well-being Foundation Africa, among others, on Wednesday where they brainstormed on how to secure more political positions for the women folks come 2027 General election.
The gathering which was tagged “The Godmother’s Mentorship Series” was also aimed at mentoring young female Nigerians to stand up for their rights in the realisation of gender equality as part of the article of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Read here the full article published by P.M. News Nigeria on 26 April 2024.
Image by P.M. News Nigeria
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UN Women, on Wednesday tasked media practitioners and organisations to empower the female gender and promote its participation in politics.
They made the call at the 2024 UN Women Nigeria Media Forum on “Escalating Media Action for Women’s Empowerment” in Abuja.
Ms Beatrice Eyong, UN Women Country Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, said the call was necessary to reverse the poor representation of women in both elective and appointed positions in the country.
Eyong, who noted the pivotal role the media plays in instilling change in the society, said it was fundamental for advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment.
According to her, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and Senate President have shown commitment towards promoting women’s political participation, hence the media should play the role in championing the cause.
Read here the full article published by News Agency of Nigeria on 24 April 2024.
Image by News Agency of Nigeria
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Abstract
Violence against women politicians is increasingly recognized as an issue that undermines women's presence in politics. Latin America has been at the vanguard of this global discussion. In 2012, Bolivia became the only country in the world to criminalize “political violence and harassment against women.” Several other countries have similar legislation in the works. What explains the emergence of these bill proposals? This article argues that the creation of these bills is the result of three processes: activism at the local level used international norms to propose an innovative solution to a problem; women politicians and “femocrats” worked within the state apparatus to overcome resistance; and international actors worked to foster connections among activists and politicians across the region. In this process, international norms have been transformed, with important implications for women's political representation.
Click here to read the full article published by the Cambridge University Press on 27 July 2020.
Image by Cambridge University Press
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Today, we announced the release of our new report, The State of Women: 2023 Multiplier Report and Roadmap, a comprehensive report drawing on insights from extensive data gathered from a wide-ranging network of women nationwide. Utilizing data collected from She Should Run participants and research conducted between 2020 and 2023, we found that most women—across demographics and ideologies—need multiple points and types of encouragement over several years in order to consider running for office.
Click here to read the full report published by She Should Run on 6 November 2023.
The 2023 edition of the global Women Peace and Security Index (WPS Index) scores and ranks 177 countries in terms of women’s inclusion, justice, and security.
No country performs perfectly on the WPS Index and the results reveal wide disparities across countries, regions, and indicators. The WPS Index offers a tool for identifying where resources and accountability are needed most to advance women’s status - which benefits us all.
The WPS Index is published by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security with support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Click here to read the full report published by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security on 26 October 2023.
Nearly a quarter of a century after the adoption by the Security Council of its resolution 1325 (2000), women’s full, equal and meaningful participation in building peace should be the norm, not an aspiration or an afterthought, but the data show that this is far from being a reality. In peace processes, negotiating parties continue to regularly exclude women, and impunity for atrocities against women and girls is still prevalent. Women continue to face entrenched barriers to direct participation in peace and political processes, and women’s organizations struggle to find resources, while military spending continues to grow every year. This remains the case even though there is ample evidence that women’s participation contributes to more robust democracies and longer-lasting peace.
Click here to read the full report published by Relief Web on 24 October 2023.
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women today considered the combined seventh to tenth periodic report of Nicaragua in the absence of a delegation.
Committee Experts raised questions on the treatment of women human rights defenders in Nicaragua, and the lack of sufficient health services for women, among other issues.
Click here to read the full report published by the United Nations News on 23 October 2023.
Violence against women in politics (VAWIP) is an urgent problem worldwide. At the time of this writing, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband had just been violently assaulted by a conspiracy theorist, shouting “Where is Nancy?” after breaking into their house. In Canada, women, Indigenous, Black, racialized, and queer political actors face harassment and threats on a regular basis. During the 2022 Québec provincial election, politician Marwah Rizqy received death threats from a man who allegedly called the police to inform them where they could find her body (she was pregnant at the time). In 2022, federal Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was accosted by a man who yelled profanities at her while she was with her all-women staff. These are not isolated incidents, and the political science community has an important role to play in addressing them.
Click here to read the article by Cambridge University Press on 15 September 2023.