iKnow Politics

A group of non-governmental organizations has come up with a programme to ensure that women safely participate in the forthcoming elections.

The programme, called The Women's Situation Room, will see women across the country and from different political parties receiving help as soon as they dial a toll free number that is set to be launched next July 29, if they experience any problems during the election period.

With constitutional quotas for interest group seats in their favour and all political parties legally bound to respect women's quota of at least 30 per cent of their parliamentary nominees, women may retain or even widen their majority in the Chamber of Deputies after the upcoming September elections.

Before Anthony Weiner cannonballed into the 2013 New York City mayoral race, the storyline of the election had been whether mayoral frontrunner and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn would become the city's first female mayor (and its first openly gay mayor to boot).

Canada's premiers are backing a call by aboriginal leaders to launch a national public inquiry into the case of missing or murdered aboriginal women, CBC News has learned.

"The premiers at the table agreed to support the call of the Native Women's Association of Canada for a national public inquiry on this very, very important issue," Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said.

Michelle Nunn has electrified Georgia Democrats by announcing she will run for the U.S. Senate in 2014. Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis (D) has electrified Texas Democrats with her standup leadership in the Texas Senate. Hillary Clinton inspires Democrats everywhere with her prospects for the presidency in 2016. 

Afghanistan's first and only female governor, Habiba Sarabi, is among this year's recipients of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards, often regarded as Asia's version of the Nobel Prize.

The Manila-based Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation announced Wednesday that it had selected three individuals and two organizations as this year's awardees, including a Filipino doctor, an independent commission eradicating corruption in Indonesia and a civil society organization in Nepal created and run by human trafficking victims.

When Canada’s premiers sit down next July 25 for their semi-annual summit, they’ll be making history by changing the face of provincial and territorial leadership.

For the first time, there will be six women at the meeting in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., representing about 85 per cent of the country’s population. And at the head of the table will be Kathleen Wynne, who was sworn in as Ontario’s first woman premier just six months ago.