Advocacy & Lobbying

Turkey was ranked 106th out of 183 countries in the 2025/26 Global Women Peace and Security Index (WPS Index), down from 99^th in the previous edition, according to a biennial report released by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) and the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO).

Turkey’s overall score of 0.664 was well below both the developed-country average of 0.847 and the 0.715 average for its regional peer group of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Published biennially since 2017, the WPS Index measures women’s status across 13 indicators covering three dimensions: inclusion, justice, and security. The inclusion dimension measures women’s achievements in education, employment, parliamentary representation and access to financial services. The justice dimension covers legal discrimination, access to justice and maternal mortality. The security dimension examines community safety as well as violence by intimate partners and during political conflict.

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Hawa Bâ is a self-taught journalist based in Mauritania, a country where civic space remains subject to certain limitations and reporting on sensitive issues often comes with risk. She reports for Initiatives News and focuses on women’s rights, gender-based violence, health, and political participation, working in a media environment where journalists face pressure and limited access to information.

In Mauritania, journalists covering protests or public events can have their equipment confiscated, internet access is periodically disrupted, and independent reporting is frequently discouraged. Women journalists encounter additional barriers, including gendered harassment and attempts to discredit their work. Despite these challenges, journalists like Bâ continue to document social realities that would otherwise remain invisible.

Bâ is also the communications lead for a network of journalists working to address violence against women and girls in Mauritania, a collective effort supported by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR). Through training, coordination, and international visibility, OHCHR supports journalists working in restrictive environments to strengthen their reporting, protect their rights, and continue informing the public.

In her own words, Hawa Bâ shares how she became a journalist, why she chose mobile reporting, and what it takes to tell women’s stories in a context where speaking openly can carry consequences.

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Four years have passed since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Daily life is a struggle to survive and tackle economic insecurity, power outages during brutal winters, constant security risks, and displacement.

But this is only half the story.

The other half is about remarkable resilience, courage, and determination of Ukrainian women who have led the war response from day one. They've distributed aid to those most in need, kept food on tables and businesses running, fought on the front lines, held communities together, cared for the sick, and kept essential services operating. Yet today, Ukrainian women and women-led organizations need our support more than ever to keep going and to continue the critical work they do.

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Every election year, Kenya has the same conversation. Where are the women? Why are so few of them on the ballot? And the answers tend to point back at women themselves, their confidence, their readiness and their willingness to step forward. Rarely do we turn the spotlight where it belongs; on the system that makes stepping forward so costly.

Kenya's Constitution is among the most progressive on the continent on gender equality. Yet more than a decade since the two-thirds gender rule was enshrined in law, it remains unmet. Parliament has failed repeatedly to legislate it into reality. And so a constitutional promise sits on paper while the political landscape remains stubbornly, predictably male.

Last week, a gathering of Kenyan women, lawyers, diplomats, conservationists, business leaders, women who have spent careers navigating power in its many forms, sat together and spoke with rare candour about exactly this. Not in the language of activism or advocacy, but in the plain, direct way of people who have lived it. That conversation, and what it revealed about leadership, politics, and the price women pay for public life, is at the heart of this week's cover story. It is worth your time. What struck me reading through it was how consistent the story is, how little the barriers have changed regardless of the generation telling them.

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As communities across Ontario prepare for the 2026 municipal elections, Run Where You Are – Say Yes! is calling on women and gender-diverse people to take the next step toward public leadership.

The free, non-partisan virtual event is produced by six grassroots campaign schools across Ontario, including Grey Bruce’s electHER Now. The online event will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 24, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., and is open to participants across the province.

Building on the momentum of the 2025 Run Where You Are initiative, Say Yes! is designed for those who are curious about running for office, actively considering a campaign, or seeking clarity on what leadership could look like in their own community. The free event focuses on breaking down barriers, addressing self-doubt, and offering practical insight from those who have already said “yes” to leadership.

“Many women don’t always recognize just how ready they already are for leadership,” says Laura Wood, co-founder of electHER Now. “The Say Yes event will help people see that the skills they possess today have prepared them for leadership at the local political table tomorrow."

The virtual panel will feature municipal leaders from across Ontario who will share candid reflections on their paths to public office, including lessons learned, challenges faced, and what they wish they had known before running.

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Over the weekend of November 6 and 7, 2025, thousands of Brazilians took to the streets to call attention to the rampant number of cases of violence against women. Since then, a new cycle of brutal stories occupied the news. Among them was a woman who jumped from a moving car after being kidnapped and stabbed by her ex-partner. Another woman was killed, and her body was discovered in a trash can, with her hands and feet bound. The body of an 18-year-old trans woman was brought to a police station by a ride-share driver who admitted to having killed her; he was freed right after. In another case, a 25-year-old woman died after being beaten and falling from the 10th floor of a building — her partner was arrested as the main suspect.

The number of cases of gender violence has been worrisome for some time in the country, even with laws increasing penalties for aggressors. But what are the reasons for the apparent surge in reported cases? To understand this context, Global Voices interviewed Isabella Matosinhos, a researcher for the Brazilian Forum for Public Security (Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública).

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