With COVID-19, the situation for women human rights defenders and the prospects for women's full participation in building peace, has become “vastly worse”, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Tuesday.

Michelle Bachelet was participating in a Security Council debate dedicated to the theme “Protecting Participation: Addressing violence targeting women in peace and security processes”.

Maendeleo Ya Wanawake Organisation now wants the government and political parties to recognise its members by ensuring that more women acquire elective positions ahead of the next General election.

The women’s organisation currently has more than four million members. The organisation's leadership wants the State to create an enabling environment for women eyeing elective posts.

A gender-based group, Njikoka Women Association, NWA, in Ezimo, Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State, yesterday, identified media sexism as bane of women participation in politics.

The Association which bemoaned the derogatory stereotyping of women in political participation in Nigeria, called for a review of media messages on women in politics in order to correct the stigma against female politicians in the country.

Civil society activists have demanded political parties to award tickets to women aspirants for the local government elections to bring them into the national mainstream.

“If women are not given a leadership role, we cannot expect economic change in our lives and status,” Yasmin Bibi, a former tehsil councillor, told a women-only gathering organised by the Saibaan Development Organisation in Balakot on Friday.