Advocacy & Lobbying
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women today reviewed the eighth periodic report of Italy, with Committee Experts commending the State on its robust gender architecture, while asking questions about human trafficking and gender parity in politics.
A Committee Expert commended Italy on its gender architecture, which was in accordance with the Convention. The gender architecture was composed of the Ministry of Equal Opportunities, the Department on Equal Opportunities directly linked to the Prime Minister, and the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Human Rights. The political and institutional structure was robust but complex.
Another Committee Expert said Italy was at the forefront of the reception of refugees. Many women were trafficked during several parts of their journey. How did the State party guarantee these women’s access to protection in all circumstances? Were non-governmental organizations permitted to run interviews with trafficked persons to assist them? How was individualised risk assessment conducted before forced removals? How would the State party implement a referral and identification process throughout Italy and strengthen the capacity of the reception system?
One Expert regretted the slow progress made by Italy regarding political representation. The 2017 electoral law imposed a 40 per cent quota on electoral lists. However, these rules were not respected. There were fewer female members of parliament in this term, compared to the previous one. Why was there not a fifty-fifty parity? What measures did the State party plan to take to encourage parity at all levels? How many standing committees in parliament were chaired by women?
Click here to read the full article published by the United Nations Geneva on 1 February 2024.
Australian government, political and defence force leaders came together at Parliament House this morning to officially launch the Australian celebrations of International Women’s Day – ahead of the UN Global Day of Observance on 8 March.
Co-hosted by the Hon Anthony Albanese MP, Prime Minister of Australia, and the Hon. Peter Dutton MP, Leader of the Opposition, the annual UN Women Australia event brings together the leaders and decision makers of our nation to celebrate the progress made and the commitment required to achieving gender equality and SDG 5.
The Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and Minister for Foreign Affairs each addressed the event, speaking to the importance of International Women’s Day, which this year centres on the need for economic inclusion and investment to accelerate progress for women and girls everywhere.
Click here to read the full article published by The National Tribune on 7 February 2024.
Image source: The National Tribune
Over 60 percent of Americans support abortion rights—but last year Roe was overturned and 14 states now ban abortions in most circumstances. A president who lost the popular vote by millions appointed three staunch opponents of abortion to the Supreme Court, who joined two right-wing members of the Court to overturn a half-century-old constitutional right to abortion. Then politicians in states with high levels of gerrymandering and voter suppression—such as Texas, Louisiana and West Virginia—banned abortion.
One reason women are losing the right to abortion is that men who do not support women’s rights have supermajority control of most state legislatures and Congress.
In states banning abortion, women’s political representation is remarkably low.
Click here to read the full article published by Ms Magazine on 3 January 2024.
Image source: Ms Magazine
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Traditionally, across South Sudan, women and girls have been disproportionately affected by conflict. Add to this, cultural norms, such as early or forced marriages, and there is a significant gap in attaining equal rights for women.
As this young nation approaches its first post-independence elections, the need for more women in politics and governance is clear.
To enable women to have a full say in decisions that impact them directly, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), through its Gender Advisory Unit, and in partnership with Eastern Equatoria’s state Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare, hosted a three-day workshop on the country’s permanent constitution-making and electoral processes with a special focus on increasing participation by women in these key tasks.
Some 57 participants, including 42 women holding leadership positions within the government, civil society organizations, youth representations, and faith-based groups, attended this interactive training and strategized on how to ensure that gender provisions contained within the 2018 peace deal are fully adhered to as South Sudan races against time to complete its long-delayed democratic transition.
Click here to read the full article published by the African Business on 14 December 2023.
Image by The African Business
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The Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, last month committed to a revitalised gender equality declaration. This declaration, spearheaded by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, was subject to extensive consultation across the region. The first of its seven priority areas is “political leadership and regionalism”, in which leaders have committed to accelerated actions to strengthen the participation of women and girls in all their diversity “at all levels of leadership and decision-making”.
In various ways, women’s political leadership in the Pacific has changed over the last ten years. In 2023, women were represented in the parliament of every national jurisdiction in the region for the first time. Before then, no woman had ever been elected to the legislature of the Federated States of Micronesia. In 2021, the region saw its first female head of government, Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa, elected in Samoa. This followed the region’s first female head of state, Hilda Heine, in the Republic of the Marshall Islands in 2016. Women have held diverse executive portfolios in office, serving as deputy prime minister and leader of the opposition, and as ministers for foreign affairs, education, home affairs and justice, to name a few.
Click here to read the full article published by Devpolicy on 15 December 2023.
Image by Devpolicy
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Stakeholders have advocated the implementation of gender-inclusive policy-making to address the challenges facing women in the country.
This was as Women Trust Fund (WTF) observed that the widening gender gap in political opportunities would worsen issues for women.
In a communiqué issued after a high-level stakeholders’ event tagged #WhatNaijaWomenWant campaign, hosted by Gatefield, supported by Heinrich Boll Stiftung Foundation, the stakeholders, comprising representatives of the executive and legislative arms of government, the federal civil service, as well as civil society and the private sector allies, called for increased women representation in policymaking and other spheres of national life.
Click here to read the full article published by The Guardian Nigeria on 14 December 2023.
Image by The Guardian Nigeria
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