Advocacy & Lobbying
The herstoric Hine E Hine gathering concluded today after three days celebrating 40 years of the Māori women’s refuge movement. Founding leader Denise Messiter ONZM used the occasion to connect decades of liberation work with urgent calls for pay equity, women’s representation, and greater Māori participation in democracy.
Hosted by Waikato Women’s Refuge Te Whakaruruhau, the gathering brought together veteran wāhine toa and emerging leaders from across Aotearoa. It was the first such event in 30 years.
“This gathering has celebrated the movement and our work in the emancipation of women across Aotearoa,” said Messiter, who has led refuge mahi in Hauraki for four decades. “Now we must turn that strength into political action, starting with the local body elections.”
In Kenya’s political arena, women are rarely seen as leaders in their own right. Instead, they are often labelled with degrading terms like flower girls or slay queens, or portrayed as sidekicks to powerful men. These sexist narratives undermine their legitimacy and overshadow their ideas and capabilities.
This problem is not unique to Kenya. When a US governor dismissed Vice President Kamala Harris because she lacked “humility” as a stepmother, it reflected a global pattern that reduces women’s value to their biological or marital roles.
In 2010, Kenya took a bold constitutional step by enshrining the two-thirds gender principle, which requires that no more than two-thirds of any elected or appointed body be of the same gender. On August 27th, we celebrated the 15th anniversary of this Constitution. Yet despite this milestone, the promise of gender equity remains unfulfilled. This failure is not due to legal complications but a deliberate refusal to share power with women. Today, women hold only 23.3 per cent of National Assembly seats, 31.3 per cent in the Senate, and just six out of 47 governor positions. This is despite women making up over half of Kenya’s population. Women remain political outsiders in a system they helped build. Their exclusion is a loss for democracy and denies women their rightful place in shaping Kenya’s future.
On August 15, 2021, the lives of the Afghan people underwent a stochastic lifestyle shift. It marked the establishment of a Taliban-governed Afghan state for the first time since 2001. This theocratic regime has been characterized by humanitarian organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as oppressive toward women, with documented restrictions on their rights to work, education, freedom of movement and public participation. Additional documented human rights concerns include religious intolerance, persecution of minorities, suppression of press and speech freedoms, extrajudicial killings and denial of due process.
The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, coined “The Fall of Kabul,” was a far more hastened onslaught of events than American intelligence and even the Taliban themselves anticipated. The United States military completed its withdrawal by August 30, 2021. It took the Taliban just 10 days to retake Afghanistan. The only thing to change as impetuously in Afghanistan as the system of government change was the constitutional rights of Afghan women.
Women’s voices and experiences are crucial for the functioning of our democracy. Yet, despite many women’s roles as community leaders right across the island, they remain significantly underrepresented in our political system North and South. This particularly affects women from marginalised communities, including Traveller, disabled and migrant women.
Today (Wednesday, 3rd September, 2025),at Reimagining Leadership, an event hosted by the National Women’s Council’s (NWC) All Island Women’s Forum at Queen’s University Belfast, feminist activists, political leaders, and community organisers discussed how to achieve greater representation of women in politics and explored forms of feminist leadership, including community leadership, that go beyond the traditional political system. Rather than conforming to the existing system, participants explored what a truly feminist leadership would mean that embraces feminist values, principles and approaches.
Historically, Northern Ireland has had the lowest proportion of women representatives among all UK devolved institutions—only 35.5% of seats at the national level and 31.5% of council positions are held by women.
Reacting to the ratification of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, (Maputo Protocol) on 26 August by the Central African authorities, Abdoulaye Diarra, Senior Researcher at Amnesty International, said:
“The Central African authorities ratification of the Maputo Protocol is a welcome and long-awaited step in promoting and protecting women and girls’ rights in the country, including from all forms of gender-based violence (GBV) such as early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation that have long hindered their education, health, and well-being.”
“However, actions speak louder than words and Central African authorities must now follow through to take necessary measures to ensure the full implementation of the Maputo Protocol by adopting a comprehensive law to address GBV and promote gender equality, strengthening the justice system, improving support services for survivors, and raising awareness in communities, including in rural areas.”
“According to the UNFPA latest figures, 61% of Central African girls are still married before the age of 18, and 22% of girls and women aged 15 – 49 suffer from a form of genital mutilation.”
“We urge the adoption of a holistic approach that addresses the root causes of gender-based violence to change attitudes and norms in order to empower women and girls in the Central African Republic.”
“We also urge Niger and Chad, the two countries in West and Central Africa who have not yet ratified the Maputo Protocol, to do so without delay.”
TALLINN, Estonia -- Antanina Kanavalava says her four years in a Belarusian penal colony as a political prisoner were filled with a fear and anguish that still haunts her.
She nearly lost parental rights to her two young children when she was initially arrested. Her eyesight deteriorated from sewing military uniforms in a dimly lit room. Denied access to even basic needs like feminine hygiene products, she used rags or whatever she could find amid unsanitary conditions.
“Women in prison go through hell and can’t even complain to anyone,” Kanavalava, 37, told The Associated Press after her release in December. “The head of the prison told me straight out that people like me should be put against the wall and shot.”
Belarus has nearly 1,200 political prisoners. While all endure harsh conditions like unheated cells, isolation and poor nutrition and health care, human rights officials say the 178 women behind bars are particularly vulnerable.