World News

WOMEN’s Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence (Walpe) has expressed concern over the low number of women candidates fielded for the August general elections.

Women leaders from Bersatu, DAP, and PKR have urged the government to implement affirmative action policies to bring more women into political positions.

Wanita Bersatu secretary Nolee Ashilin Radzi said it was time Putrajaya enacted a law to realise the target of 30% representation of women in politics.

Two aspiring female presidential candidates failed to submit their nomination papers last week due to payment challenges.

One of the female presidential candidates, Elisabeth Valerio, of the United Zimbabwe Alliance (UZA) complained that despite having paid her nomination fees, she had been informed by Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) that her payment in local currency had not been processed and that she would need to produce a cash payment of US$20 000.

The Women Rights Initiative (WORI), an NGO has advocated for increased representation of women and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in governance.

Its Executive Director, Dr Laiatu Bamaiyi, made the appeal in her Sallah message to Muslims in Birnin Kebbi on Wednesday.

She appealed to President Bola Tinubu and Governor Nasir Idris of Kebbi, to appoint more women and PWDs in their administration to give them a sense of belonging.

The Status of Women Council of the NWT, leaderless for almost a year, says it now has a new president and a fresh executive director.

The council, an arm’s-length creation of the NWT government, has a mandate to advocate on behalf of women and provide feedback on territorial policies and legislation.

#StopHate is a project focusing on the problem of hateful attacks against women who are active in politics and public life, aiming to gather information from female academics, politicians, activists and journalists about their experience and contribute to their protection, the organisers said yesterday. A handbook for parliament with proposals for action will also be produced.

India has ranked at 127 out of 146 countries in terms of gender parity -- an improvement of eight places from last year -- according to the World Economic Forum's annual Gender Gap Report, 2023. The World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked India at 135 out of 146 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index in the report's 2022 edition.

The number of female candidates for the August 23 harmonised elections is set to drop significantly this year due to several challenges including the exorbitant nomination fees set by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, the NewsDay has heard.

Japan has fallen in the global gender gap rankings, coming in nine positions lower than last year at 125th out of 146 countries, according to a World Economic Forum report released Wednesday.