African Union Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) said incidents of violence against women and children in armed conflicts continued unabated in many parts of Africa.
The Africa regional review of Beijing +15 focused on progress in the 12 thematic areas, and was drawn from a survey conducted by the UN Economic Commission for Africa with responses from 41 of the 53 African countries.
The African Union Commission and International IDEA launched a 5 year Joint Activity Plan (JAP) in 2008.
Female representation in government and legislative bodies in sub-Saharan Africa is growing but more women must take political leadership roles in their countries to ensure that laws and conventions protecting their rights are implemented, according to civil society groups.
Women in Southern Africa will soon move a step closer to having equal rights and opportunities with men when a regional gender protocol is ratified in coming weeks. Half of the 15 SADC member states have already ratified the Protocol on Gender and Development.
Hillary Clinton’s speech was met with silence from the male-dominated envoys at the African Union as she criticized the continents aging autocrats. The mood changed when the U.S. Secretary of State turned her attention to women.
When South Sudan became the world’s newest country on July 9, it joined the community of nations with a new constitution adopted by the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly in an eight-hour session on July 6.
The participation of women in political and public affairs of South Sudan is a fairly recent phenomenon. This is partly due to the fact that, women involvement in politics was/is not seen as a woman’s prerogative.
In Africa, as in the rest of the world, women's progress is inextricably linked to community, national and global prosperity.