Advocacy & Lobbying
Lusaka, Zambia | 21 April 2026 — The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in partnership with the Gender Division, the Non‑Governmental Gender Organizations’ Coordinating Council (NGOCC), the Spotlight Initiative, the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), the Zambia Centre for Interparty Dialogue (ZCID), and UN Women convened a three‑day High‑Level Conference on Accelerated Women’s Political Participation and Leadership in Zambia, ahead of the 2026 General Elections.
Anchored within UNDP’s Africa Facility for Women in Political Leadership (AFWPL), the conference provides a national platform for evidence‑based dialogue, political commitment, and coordinated action to address the structural barriers hindering women’s participation in politics. These include patriarchal norms, gender‑based violence, limited access to campaign financing, exclusion from political party decision‑making structures, and inadequate media visibility.
With just four years remaining to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Zambia faces a critical challenge in achieving women’s full, equal, and effective participation in political leadership. Despite progressive policies and legal frameworks, women remain significantly underrepresented in decision‑making positions across the country.
In a speech read on his behalf by the Minister of Justice, Hon. Princess Kasune, the Republican President, Mr. Hakainde Hichilema, emphasized that inclusive governance is impossible without women’s leadership. The President noted that “when women participate fully, governance becomes more responsive and reflective of the realities of our people. When women lead, nations do not merely grow; they advance with purpose, balance, and vision.”
The Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), in collaboration with the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Kenya, amongst other partners has stepped up efforts to tackle rising cases of online abuse against women and girls across Sub-Saharan Africa.
As part of the move, the organisation unveiled a new research report and commenced stakeholder training aimed at addressing technology-facilitated violence in the region.
A recent study published in the journal Violence Against Women surveyed 19 victim-survivor support practitioners and interviewed five across nine Pacific Island nations, finding smartphones, Facebook and AI-generated sexualised deepfakes are used to control and harm women and girls. The researchers report device-sharing, cultural taboos, and poor police responses exacerbate tech-facilitated abuse, suggesting training, culturally sensitive education, and faith-community engagement are needed...
The right to education does not end at the classroom. It extends into digital spaces, including social media, group chats, messaging apps, and even online learning platforms. When those spaces become sites for harassment, cyber-bullying, sexual exploitation, blackmail, or humiliation, students – especially girls – are denied this right.
Imagine you are a teenage girl at school, walking into the classroom and seeing your peers laughing into their screens. Then comes the shock of discovering that they are laughing at photos of you that have been digitally altered into explicit content and shared across social media.
While this is a shocking example of digital abuse, it is also a frightening reality for millions of women and girls navigating the digital world today.
Technology-facilitated violence against women and girls may stop girls from participating in the classroom or cause them to avoid school altogether. It may sap them of confidence, concentration, and trust. They may be physically present in class, but emotionally pushed out of learning.
Yordanos Bezabih, an Ethiopian women’s rights activist, had faced online threats for years: of acid attacks, gang-rape and death. She tried her best to ignore the abuse as she continued her advocacy work. But in 2025, the threats became more menacing. In April, an anonymous Telegram group with 6,000 subscribers organised an effort to track down her location.
They shared deepfakes of her – nude images and videos. The following month, a stranger started to film her in the streets, calling her by her social media handle.
In summer, thieves broke into her house and stole her laptop. Soon after, her Telegram account was hacked and her private photos and messages were circulated on social media. The perpetrators later circulated her address, she says, demanding she be found and “executed”.
Christine Arab, Regional Director of UN Women for Asia and the Pacific, delivers opening remarks at Our Safety, the national dialogue on technology-facilitated gender-based violence on 10 December 2025, Phnom Penh. Photo: UN Women/Lim Sophorn
Phnom Penh, Cambodia — On International Human Rights Day 2025, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs of Cambodia and the United Nations, with support from Australia and the Cambodia Cooperation for Equitable Sustainable Services Phase 2 programme (ACCESS 2), convened Our Safety, a landmark national dialogue focused on ending Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV).
Held as the culminating event of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, the dialogue marked a turning point in Cambodia’s digital evolution. It brought together government representatives, technology companies, civil society, and young people to confront a growing challenge: while digital technologies create new opportunities, they are also increasingly being used to harm women and girls.
The 2023 edition of the global Women Peace and Security Index (WPS Index) scores and ranks 177 countries in terms of women’s inclusion, justice, and security.
No country performs perfectly on the WPS Index and the results reveal wide disparities across countries, regions, and indicators. The WPS Index offers a tool for identifying where resources and accountability are needed most to advance women’s status - which benefits us all.
The WPS Index is published by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security with support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Click here to read the full report published by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security on 26 October 2023.
Nearly a quarter of a century after the adoption by the Security Council of its resolution 1325 (2000), women’s full, equal and meaningful participation in building peace should be the norm, not an aspiration or an afterthought, but the data show that this is far from being a reality. In peace processes, negotiating parties continue to regularly exclude women, and impunity for atrocities against women and girls is still prevalent. Women continue to face entrenched barriers to direct participation in peace and political processes, and women’s organizations struggle to find resources, while military spending continues to grow every year. This remains the case even though there is ample evidence that women’s participation contributes to more robust democracies and longer-lasting peace.
Click here to read the full report published by Relief Web on 24 October 2023.
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women today considered the combined seventh to tenth periodic report of Nicaragua in the absence of a delegation.
Committee Experts raised questions on the treatment of women human rights defenders in Nicaragua, and the lack of sufficient health services for women, among other issues.
Click here to read the full report published by the United Nations News on 23 October 2023.
Violence against women in politics (VAWIP) is an urgent problem worldwide. At the time of this writing, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband had just been violently assaulted by a conspiracy theorist, shouting “Where is Nancy?” after breaking into their house. In Canada, women, Indigenous, Black, racialized, and queer political actors face harassment and threats on a regular basis. During the 2022 Québec provincial election, politician Marwah Rizqy received death threats from a man who allegedly called the police to inform them where they could find her body (she was pregnant at the time). In 2022, federal Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was accosted by a man who yelled profanities at her while she was with her all-women staff. These are not isolated incidents, and the political science community has an important role to play in addressing them.
Click here to read the article by Cambridge University Press on 15 September 2023.
In the vast landscape of Mongolia, the traditional nomadic lifestyle is deeply rooted in the fabric of its culture.
Gers, the round white felt tents, have served as the traditional homes of the Mongolian people. They have supported their nomadic way of life and culture since before the time of Chinggis Khan.
In the heart of these nomadic homes, two columns, known as "Bagana (Багана),” stand equally in their position. But these are not mere architectural elements supporting the Gers; they are like quiet messengers with a powerful story to tell. These columns serve as symbols of gender equality, with each one representing men and women, beautifully embodying the core principles of harmony and balance in Mongolian culture.
Despite this rich culture, gender inequality still prevails in Mongolia; men and women have not been equally seen in decision-making processes. The country currently ranks 133rd in terms of women's representation in decision-making, with only 17.1 percent of parliamentary seats held by women, falling below the global average of 26.5 percent.
But the narrative runs deeper. Today, Mongolian women continue to face insufficient support during their pregnancy and child-rearing while continuously battling against deeply ingrained gender stereotypes.
The recent UNDP Gender Social Norms Index report confirms this sobering reality. It shows that 97% of Mongolians hold biases against women, often believing men are better political leaders. These biases, rooted in patriarchal values, create systematic barriers for women in politics and public decision-making.
It is an undeniable reality that Mongolian women face every day.
Read here the full article published by the UNDP Mongolia on 13 September 2023.
In September 2022, I had the opportunity to organize a roundtable at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA), connected to my 2021 APSA Distinguished Award for Civic and Community Engagement. First conferred in 2020, the award honors “significant civic or community engagement activity by a political scientist which merges knowledge and practice and has an impact outside of the profession or the academy.” In my case, it recognized work I had been doing since 2015 with the National Democratic Institute and other global practitioners to recognize and combat violence against women in politics as a distinct form of violence aimed at preventing and undermining women’s political participation.
Click here to read the full article published by Cambridge University Press on 9 August 2023.