Advocacy & Lobbying
Every 10 minutes, partners and family members killed a woman or a girl intentionally in 2023
The crisis of gender-based violence is urgent. There is #NoExcuse for violence against women and girls.
The 16 Days of Activism is an opportunity to revitalize commitments, call for accountability and action from decision-makers, as the world approaches the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 2025 – a visionary blueprint for achieving gender equality and women’s and girls’ rights everywhere. Read the concept note.
There is #NoExcuse to violence against women
Nearly one in three women experience violence in their lifetime. Girls are at particular risk of violence—1 in 4 adolescent girls is abused by their partners.
For thousands of women, the cycle of gender-based violence ended with one final and brutal act—their murder by partners and family members.
Femicide (or feminicide) is the intentional killing of a women or girl because of her gender. It is a universal problem, and the most brutal, visible, and extreme manifestation of the cycle of gender-based violence that women and girls endure.
Violence against women and girls can and must be prevented.
Read here the full article published by UN Women on 25 November 2024.
“Regrettably, not much progress has been made in eliminating violence against women since the adoption of the latest Congress texts on this matter, notably on combating domestic violence in 2009 and on fighting sexist violence against women in politics in 2020”, underlined Congress Spokesperson on Gender Equality, Nazia Rehman (UK, SOC/G/PD) in her statement to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 2024.
She called on authorities at all levels to keep this matter high up on their political agendas at a time when, world-wide, one woman was killed every 10 minutes. The 2024 motto of the International Day, held every year on 25 November, “#NoExcuse. UNiTE to End Violence against Women” should therefore be taken to heart by everyone, including public decision-makers. Local and regional authorities play a crucial role in this area, not only to ensure that women are protected from hostile attitudes and behaviours towards them when engaging in politics, but also by developing awareness-raising campaigns and providing reliable support services to all women victims of violence.
Read here the full article published by the Council of Europe on 22 November 2024.
Image by Council of Europe
From Iraq to Afghanistan to the US, basic freedoms for women are being eroded as governments start rolling back existing laws.
Just a few months ago a ban on Afghan women speaking in public was the latest measure introduced by the Taliban, who took back control of the country in 2021. From August the ban included singing, reading aloud, reciting poetry and even laughing outside their homes.
The Taliban’s ministry for the propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice, which implements one of the most radical interpretations of Islamic law, enforces these rules. They are part of a broader set of “vice and virtue” laws that severely restrict women’s rights and freedoms. Women are even banned from reading the Quran out loud to other women in public.
In the past three years in Afghanistan, the Taliban has taken away many basic rights from women who live there, so that there’s very little that they are allowed to do.
From 2021, the Taliban started introducing restrictions on girls receiving education, starting with a ban on coeducation and then a ban on girls attending secondary schools. This was followed by closing blind girls’ schools in 2023, and making it mandatory for girls in grades four to six (ages nine to 12) to cover their faces on the way to school.
Read here the full article published by The Conversation on 20 November 2024.
Image by The Conversation
Kosovo women MPs, on November 19, 2024, signed an official declaration pledging to actively combat gender based violence against women in public and political life.
Cornelia Taylor, Acting Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, which supported the declaration, called it “a commitment to solidarity and a call to safeguard women’s dignity and rights.”
“As a woman, I deeply understand the importance of this cause. I am inspired by the courage and determination of those making this initiative possible. The support and experiences shared from across the region highlight the strength of women uniting and learning from one another,” Taylor said.
“When people witness women leaders facing harassment or threats simply because they are women, it reinforces negative attitudes and also discourages participation of women. When harmful behaviour is normalised in public life it affects how society as a whole treats women,” Taylor added.
She stressed that this declaration marks only the beginning and called for broader actions from other actors, including politicians and media.
Read here the full article published by Prishtina Insights on 20 November 2024.
Image by Prishtina Insights
Funding of €171,162 has been announced for the Longford-based See Her Elected (SHE), in support of their work in supporting and encouraging the participation of women from rural Ireland in local politics.
Minister of State for Planning and Local Government Alan Dillon allocated the funding to Longford Women’s Link, the parent organisation of See Her Elected.
“The outcome of the local elections in June of this year was encouraging in terms of the participation of women in local government,” the minister said when announcing the funding.
“A record 681 female candidates participated, representing an almost 18% increase on the previous elections in 2019, and almost a third of candidates overall.
“The 247 women councillors elected make up 26% of councillors overall – the highest proportion of women elected to local government in the history of the state.
“There is, however, still plenty of work to be done towards our goal of making our council chambers fully reflective of the communities they serve. Groups like See Her Elected are essential to making that goal a reality.”
Read here the full article published by the Westmeath Examiner on 10 November 2024.
Image by Westmeath
As election cycles come and go, the conversation around the low female representation in Sri Lanka’s political sphere is frequently revisited. After all, while Sri Lanka boasts of having the first female Prime Minister in the world, the actual percentage of women in politics still stands at a disappointing 5.4% decades later. A recent regional report analysed Sri Lanka’s legal environment and its application over the past decade, examining the obstacles women faced in politics to provide actionable recommendations.
The regional report titled “A New Paradigm– Building a Regional Coalition to Promote Political Participation of Women in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka” was launched on October 29. In this report, the research on Sri Lanka was conducted by People’s Action For Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) in collaboration with The Asia Foundation (TAF).
Speaking at the launch, PAFFREL’s Executive Director, Rohana Hettiarachchi remarked that most South Asian countries didn’t have fair representation of women at the policy-making level. “In Sri Lanka there are a lot of women leaders at administrative level, but not many in policy-making and parliamentary level. The future target is to increase meaningful women’s participation.”
Read here the full article published by the Daily Mirror on 4 November 2024.
Image by Daily Mirrors