women's rights

In Nepal, only twenty percent of women have some form of land ownership. Deprivation of land rights is synonymous with poverty and denial of rights. But over time a number of women-led land rights campaigns have brought about important changes at the national policy level.

We invite our users to read the complete article published November 11 2013 

On the eve of Diwali, I was walking around the inner circle of Connaught Place, a well-known shopping center in Delhi, with a journalist friend. The business arcade teemed with people. Suddenly loud, belligerent voices tore through the festive air. We stopped.

Two angry middle-aged women were seeking the help of a policeman and accusing two men hovering around them of making lewd remarks. “He called me a whore,” said one of them, pointing her fingers at one of the men. The accused man raised his hand to hit her.

The Nationwide Women Forum on Peace, Security and Development, jointly organized by women’s human rights organizations and Columbia University, began at the Sky Star Hotel in Yangon yesterday.

The five-day forum is aimed at promoting the participation of women in politics, peace, development, and business activities, in particular to encourage women suffering from conflict and natural disasters to take part during Myanmar’s democratization period.

The women of Afghanistan today aren’t the same women of 2001. They’ve expanded their access to health care, education, justice, and political power. As Inclusive Security Action’s Michelle Barsa noted Tuesday in a congressional hearing, “Afghan women weren’t handed progress; they fought for it.”

As we approach the 2014 deadline for the security transition, organizations like ours that have worked in Afghanistan over the past decade share concerns about the erosion of gains that Afghan women have made.

Giving women access to and control of natural resources such as land, water, forests and minerals is essential to ensure war-torn countries can achieve long-term peace, according to a United Nations report releasedtoday.

We are so fortunate to have been able to interview Betsy Hodges, who is currently running for Mayor of Minneapolis. She's been the representation for Ward 13 on the Minneapolis City Council for seven years, during which time she has chaired the Intergovernmental Relations Committee and the Ways & Means Committee. The mayoral race is coming to a close (get out and vote November 5th if you live in Minneapolis!), so we're thankful that Ms. Hodges took the time to answer some of our questions about her political career.

Women Affairs Minister Hajiya Zainab Maina has called for the adoption of special measures to entrench affirmative action-certain percentage of women- in both elective and appointive positions at all levels in the 2015 elections.

She made the during her key-note address at a 2-day for female parliamentarians on state legislatures on affir-mative action and the quota implementation guideline.

We invite you to read the full article published October 30, 2013

Madi Jobarteh, the programme manager of The Association of Non-governmental Organisations (TANGO) has said that women are the major players in politics but quality participation of women in politics is needed.

He made these remarks during an interview with this reporter at his office in Fajara, after his institution held a two-day workshop on gender quota in politics under its Women in Politics Project funded by the American Embassy in Banjul.