Advocacy & Development
National Assembly Speaker Jo Jeong-sik attended a gathering of female lawmakers of the 22nd National Assembly at Sarangjae Hall on Tuesday, urging them to "open the path for women politicians even wider."
Delivering a congratulatory address, Jo said the Tuesday event — held on the opening day of the 22nd Assembly's third regular session — was "a meaningful occasion for female lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties to communicate and connect, to build a gender-equal political culture in the Assembly, and to strengthen women's political leadership."
Jo said 64 female lawmakers are currently serving in the 22nd National Assembly, including Deputy Speaker Nam In-soon, accounting for 21.4 percent of all 300 members. "South Korea's rate of women's political participation is gradually increasing, but it still ranks only 122nd out of 183 countries by the Inter-Parliamentary Union standard, which falls far short of global trends," he said.
He added that he hoped the gathering would serve as a forum to discuss solutions to the country's long-term challenges — including women's and family welfare, caregiving, the low birth rate and human rights — and to expand women's political participation and leadership in South Korea. "I hope female lawmakers will become the driving force of the 22nd National Assembly and continue to open the path for women politicians even wider," he said.
It is now five years since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan – the second time they seized power in the country. Since August 2021, the de facto authorities (DFA) have issued more than 100 decrees affecting women and girls, stripping them of their rights and institutionalizing discrimination against them.
In the past year, this organized exclusion of women and girls from education, health services, and work – and restrictions on their movement and access to public life – has only intensified.
No other country in modern times has dismantled the rights of half its population through law, policy, and practice to the same extent. At the same time, overlapping humanitarian and economic crises and deepening poverty are also having a disproportionate impact on women and girls.
Half a decade in, the most severe women’s rights crisis in the world is being normalized.
The short answer: no – and the risks are rising.
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Women’s leadership is advancing, but parity remains decades away. Women hold 27.4 per cent of parliamentary seats, 35.6 per cent of local government positions and 30.5 per cent of managerial jobs worldwide – all only slight improvements over 2015 levels.
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Despite progress on gender-responsive budgeting and legal reforms, systemic barriers persist. More countries are adopting gender-responsive budgeting, but only one in four has a comprehensive system. Since 2019, 99 legal reforms have advanced women’s rights, but discriminatory laws and barriers to land ownership and secure tenure remain widespread.
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Violence and harmful practices continue to undermine the rights and agency of millions of women and girls. Nearly one in three women has experienced violence in her lifetime, almost half of married or partnered women lack full bodily autonomy, nearly one in five girls still marries before the age of 18 and 230 million girls and women have undergone female genital mutilation. Regional successes, however, show that legal reforms and changing social norms can drive progress.
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Achieving gender equality requires sustained investment in sexual and reproductive health, decisive action to remove discriminatory laws and end harmful practices, stronger women's economic rights and gender-responsive financing, and a transformation of the social norms and institutions that continue to limit women's and girls' opportunities.
They are mocked, they are dismissed with jokes, they are humiliated online with deepfakes – they even have their very lives threatened. And still, as the poet Maya Angelou said, they rise. In this episode, Politically Aweh honours the fearless women of South African political life.
In honour of Women’s Month 2026, this week the satirical political podcast Politically Aweh shines a light on the sexism, disinformation and threats of violence perpetrated against the women who speak out in the political sphere in South Africa, to bully them into silence and acquiescence.
Ferial Haffejee, Associate Editor of Daily Maverick, was one of the first women in media who was exposed to this first-hand. “Very quickly it jumps from the ether into the real world.”
“The digital world isn’t separate from the real one any more,” says Politically Aweh co-host Zoë Barnes. “What starts with a post can become harassment; what starts with misinformation can become violence.”
“I’ve been threatened. It’s very scary,” admits Caryn Dolley, an investigative reporter who focuses on organised crime at Daily Maverick.
Political analyst Tara Roos received death threats so serious that she had to open a police investigation. “After I spoke online about the attacks that I received, there were many female journalists that also spoke up online and who contacted me to say they’d experienced the same thing,” she says. “I think threats like these are aimed at silencing people, and we should not be silenced,” she tells KG. “We should not be threatened for giving an opinion.”
Half a decade after the Taliban takeover in August 2021, Afghanistan has systematically dismantled the rights of half its population, making it a global outlier with no parallel in the modern world.
Over the past five years, the de facto authorities have issued more than 100 decrees targeting women and girls, institutionalizing discrimination and stripping them of their fundamental rights – with profound consequences for their lives and for their communities, according to new UN Women data. In the past year alone, this exclusion of women and girls from education, employment, public life, justice systems, and healthcare has only intensified, entrenching what remains the world’s most severe women’s rights crisis.
This unparalleled crisis of women’s and girls’ rights is at risk of being forgotten by the world.
Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant prospect for Africa’s courts. It is changing how evidence is assessed, cases are managed and justice is delivered. But with that transformation comes a defining challenge: how can technology advance justice without reproducing the inequalities it should help overcome? In Johannesburg, Africa’s senior women judicial leaders gathered to help shape the answer.
The Second High-Level Meeting of Women Judicial Leaders of Africa, hosted by the Office of Chief Justice of South Africa was held from 20-24 April 2026 under the theme "The Maputo Protocol @20: Consolidating the Jurisprudence of Equality for the Next Generation," brought together more than 300 Chief Justices, Presidents of Constitutional Courts and senior judicial leaders to address emerging challenges facing justice systems across the continent.
As a knowledge partner, UNESCO, with the generous support of the European Union, and its Social Media 4 Peace Coalition contributed to the high-level session on "Artificial Intelligence, the Digital Frontier and Women's Rights." Through its AI and the Rule of Law Programme, UNESCO highlighted both the opportunities AI offers to improve access to justice and the risks it poses when deployed without human rights safeguards. In addition, through its Social Media 4 Peace (SM4P) Project, supported by the European Union, UNESCO further contributed to the event by disseminating the Judicial Handbook on Countering Harmful Online Content. The Handbook serves as a strategic resource for judicial leaders, offering a human rights-based framework to strengthen judicial responses to hate speech, disinformation, and other harmful online content, while safeguarding freedom of expression and reinforcing the rule of law in the digital age.
Participants at the meeting
AI is increasingly supporting judicial administration, analysing evidence and improving responses to gender-based violence. However, it can also reinforce historical bias, facilitate technology-enabled violence and deepen discrimination if left unchecked.
Speaking during the session, Eunice Smith, Head of the UNESCO Office in Namibia and UNESCO Representative, stressed the responsibility of judicial leaders to ensure AI remains accountable to human rights.
Judicial leaders have a critical role to play in demanding transparency about training data, insisting on human oversight, and applying frameworks such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
Bedette van Loggerenberg of the University of Oxford emphasised that judicial readiness is essential as AI becomes part of modern justice systems.
AI is already reshaping the realities of judging, evidence, and access to justice. For judicial leaders, the challenge is not to become technologists, but to remain curious, informed, and equipped to ask the right questions. Continuous judicial education is essential to ensure that courts can respond to rapidly evolving technologies while safeguarding fairness, human dignity, and the rights of women and vulnerable communities.
UNESCO also showcased practical tools to help courts navigate this new frontier, including its Guidelines for the Use of AI in Courts and Tribunals and the new AI, Justice and the Rule of Law online course, developed with the University of Oxford. The course includes a dedicated module on AI and Women's Rights, equipping judges with the knowledge to identify algorithmic bias, assess AI-generated evidence and apply human rights principles in judicial decision-making. Through its Global Judges Initiative, UNESCO has already trained more than 38,000 judicial operators in over 160 countries, strengthening judicial capacity to govern AI responsibly.
A landmark outcome of the meeting was the adoption of the Johannesburg Declaration, which commits African judiciaries to ensuring strong human oversight, transparency and accountability in AI systems while promoting judicial education, digital literacy and survivor-centered digital justice tools. It also calls for AI to advance not undermine the rights, safety and equality of women.
Beyond artificial intelligence, the Declaration reaffirmed a collective commitment to strengthening gender-responsive jurisprudence by advancing women's leadership in the judiciary, improving protection against violence, promoting women's economic empowerment and deepening implementation of the Maputo Protocol through greater regional collaboration.
By bringing together judicial leaders, international experts and development partners, UNESCO reaffirmed its commitment to supporting African judiciaries in building AI-ready justice systems that uphold human dignity, protect women's rights and strengthen the rule of law.
As Africa embraces the opportunities of the digital age, the message from Johannesburg was clear: innovation must serve justice, and justice must always serve humanity.
Background
The access to water and sanitation is recognised as human right and the access to clean drinking water and sanitation are essential to the realisation of all human rights. The EESC with this own-initiative opinion is aiming to address the issue of water-related challenges for the most vulnerable population on the planet and to propose options for their empowerment.
Key points
In the opinion the EESC:
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stresses that young people, women, and indigenous and local communities (including migrants and people with disabilities) are the most vulnerable to water stress and have a large untapped potential for contributing to sustainable water management, for turning water into an instrument of peace and stability, and, thus, for contributing to blue diplomacy;
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calls on the EU to pay due attention to these groups in its external relations and international cooperation and suggests a lighthouse partnership programme related to water stress for addressing how to empower them in an integrated manner;
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notes that access to clean water, education, employment and participation in policymaking are key elements of empowerment. Better access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services is crucial, as it frees up time for education and vocational training and opens up more diverse options for employment and the ability to contribute to water management and policies;
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reaffirms that blue and digital technologies are instrumental for improving water management and access to clean water and sanitation;
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highlights that meaningful partnership and funding are critical in the development of infrastructure, education and general capacity building. Both EU funds and national donors’ programmes play a crucial role here and coordination is vital to create synergies and make the most of the allocated resources.
Read here the full article published by the European Economic and Social Committee on 4 December 2024.
Image by the European Economic and Social Committee
What you need to know:
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To effectively address TFGBV, support systems must be integrated into existing reporting mechanisms, providing clear communication channels for women to report incidents.
Uganda is making significant strides in its democratic processes, but the intersection of technology and politics poses both opportunities and challenges, especially for women. Technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) has emerged as a major barrier for women in politics, where harassment, intimidation, and violence are prevalent.
As we commemorate the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence under the theme “Towards Beijing +30: UNiTE to End Violence Against Women and Girls,” it is crucial to address TFGBV through a multifaceted approach, including communication channels, education, awareness, and strong support systems. TFGBV is a pervasive issue that affects women at all levels of political engagement, from grassroots activism to national leadership.
The Amplified Abuse report by Pollicy highlights the alarming prevalence of online violence during periods of political activity in Uganda. This violence, particularly directed at women in public life, exemplifies Violence Against Women in Politics (VAW-P). The research, conducted during the January 2021 general elections, examined social media accounts to assess how online harassment affects women’s political engagement
Read here the full article published by Monitor on 25 November 2024.
Image by Monitor
By the time the first verified reports about COVID-19 were published, misinformation about the virus was already being shared. Disinformation and ‘fake news’ soon followed. It didn’t take much time at all before distortions, lies and fictions were reaching more people, more quickly, than facts.
None of this should surprise us, since we’ve known for some time that lies spread faster than truth. The real problem arises when lies are believed. And when does that happen? Research tells us that lies are more likely to be believed, and especially catch fire, when they reinforce our pre-existing beliefs. While some beliefs are harmless, others can be weaponized, with the help of disinformation, to achieve undemocratic ends.
In the world of politics, this is already happening. Disinformation campaigns regularly rely on sexist beliefs about women, power and politics in attempts to delegitimize women who hold or seek office. Distinct from online abuse, trolling, revenge porn or even pornographic deepfakes, disinformation is a stealthier, more pernicious way to undermine women and dissuade them from entering politics. This emerging threat has devastating implications for women in public life and, by extension, democracies everywhere.
It’s crucial that we pay attention, and commit energy and resources to better understand this problem. What’s at stake is simply too important to ignore, especially now. Just when women are inching closer to a more equitable share of public power, trying to actualize democracy’s promise of government by the people, for the people—women being a key part of the people—gendered disinformation puts hard-fought gains at risk.
Read here the full overview published by Fundación Multitudes.
Multiple studies show that the use of social media has a negative impact on the political leadership of women and girls in Latin America. Social media is one of citizens' most used tools in the region to get information and communicate with others, with a high level of internet penetration, and raising a series of issues related to the low level of digital literacy in the countries.
One of the biggest problems with the massive penetration of social media in Latin America is that users don’t have the knowledge nor the tools to know what is real and what is not. Identifying gender political violence online, including disinformation and fake news, is particularly difficult considering that lies spread faster than truth , making them more vulnerable to disinformation.
In order to understand if the safeguards in place are efficient, it is essential to identify the state of implementation of the institutional incentives for women to participate in politics, in addition to looking at the existing safeguards and legislation to counter online gender-based violence and disinformation in Latin America. Specifically, we look at the current state of affairs in four countries of the region. Our research question is: What is the state of implementing the institutional incentives for women to participate in politics, the existing safeguards to counter gender-based violence online, and the existing legislation against disinformation in Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil?
Access here the full report published by Fundación Multitudes.
A research study by Voice of Women Radio has shown why women don’t vote for female political aspirants in Nigeria.
The reasons ranged from their ignorance of the existing female political aspirants to beliefs that existing female political aspirants are inexperienced. Similarly, many women in the grassroots believe that men are better leaders than women.
There is also the issue of culture, inaccessibility of campaign funding for women as their male counterparts, and family upbringing, which favour males taking up leadership roles. However, higher among the reasons is female electives’ inability to connect with or impact their female electorates once elected into office.
The report detailing the research carried out in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria reveals that only 31 percent of 83 percent of female voters (that is, 8 out of 10 women possessing permanent voters’ cards) voted for women at the last elections.
Read here the full article published by Leadership News Nigeria on 8 October 2024.
Image by Leadership News Nigeria
Implementation Of The Beijing Declaration And Platform For Action (1995) And The Outcomes Of The Twenty Third Special Session Of The General Assembly (2000) In The Context Of The Of The Thirtieth Anniversary Of The Fourth World Conference On Women And The Adoption Of The Beijing Declaration And Platform For Action 2020
Read here the full country report published by UN Women Africa on 30 September 2024.