Advocacy & Lobbying
UN Women, on Wednesday tasked media practitioners and organisations to empower the female gender and promote its participation in politics.
They made the call at the 2024 UN Women Nigeria Media Forum on “Escalating Media Action for Women’s Empowerment” in Abuja.
Ms Beatrice Eyong, UN Women Country Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, said the call was necessary to reverse the poor representation of women in both elective and appointed positions in the country.
Eyong, who noted the pivotal role the media plays in instilling change in the society, said it was fundamental for advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment.
According to her, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and Senate President have shown commitment towards promoting women’s political participation, hence the media should play the role in championing the cause.
Read here the full article published by News Agency of Nigeria on 24 April 2024.
Image by News Agency of Nigeria
(Berlin, April 23, 2024) – Kazakhstan’s President Kasym-Jomart Tokayev signed a new law on April,15, 2024, to strengthen protections from violence for women and children, including domestic violence survivors, but it falls short in key areas, Human Rights Watch said today. The law aims to advance women’s rights and enhance their safety, but among other concerns, it fails to explicitly make domestic violence a stand-alone offense in the criminal code or elsewhere.
“It is significant that Kazakhstan’s leadership has prioritized protecting women and children from violence, and adopting this law is an important step forward,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “But more should be done to ensure that women and children are protected from family abuse in accordance with international human rights standards, including by criminalizing domestic violence as a stand-alone offense.”
The new law, known as Kazakhstan’s “domestic violence” law, introduces amendments to Kazakhstan’s Criminal Code, the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence, the Law on Marriage and Family, and other laws. The passage of the new law coincides with the ongoing high-profile trial of Kuandyk Bishimbayev, Kazakhstan’s former economy minister, who is charged with the murder of his wife, Saltanat Nukenova. The trial has drawn national and international attention and ensured a focus on the urgent need to tackle domestic violence with adequate sanctions for abusers and trauma-informed support for survivors.
Read here the full article published by Human Rights Watch on 23 April 2024.
Image by Human Rights Watch
Jakarta, Indonesia — UN Women Indonesia joined the Indonesian Women's Coalition, the Association for Elections and Democracy, and the Center for Political Studies at the University of Indonesia in organizing the Dialogue Forum of Women Politicians and Civil Society: Promoting Meaningful Participation and Representation in Politics last year.
The 60 participants were women politicians from 15 political parties, including 22 legislative candidates or members of parliament and seven party officials; 31 representatives from civil society organizations; and academic researchers.
Research shows that women's leadership in politics supports social inclusivity and well-being. The United Nations Global Sustainable Development Goals Indicators Database shows that the 10 Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have significantly increased women’s representation in their parliaments during the past two decades. Still, it stood at only 22 per cent in 2022, compared with the global figure of 26 per cent.
Women face many sociocultural barriers to participating in politics, and their low representation makes it difficult to promote women's issues in legislation. In 2019, the United Nations Development Programme Gender Inequality Index ranked Indonesia 121 out of 162 countries.
Read here the full article published by UN Women on 24 April 2024.
On International Women’s Day on March 8, North Korea held various events to celebrate the country’s women, repeating what has become more or less a national slogan, “Women Are Flowers,” and hailing the country as a “paradise” for women. State media even compared North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to a “mother” who cares deeply for her children.
The situation of North Korean women, however, is a far cry from the barrage of propaganda the regime spreads across newspapers, television, and smartphone screens for domestic and international consumption.
Up until now, information about the state of women’s rights in North Korea has largely been limited to anecdotal reports assembled from grassroots media outlets, defector testimony, and reports submitted by the North Korean government to international agencies. Recently, however, Daily NK, with the support of the Embassy of Canada to the Republic of Korea, conducted a survey of 30 North Korean women inside the country, as well as 10 North Korean defectors, to delve deeper into the state of women’s rights in North Korea.
Read here the full article published by The Diplomat on 18 April 2024.
Image by The Diplomat
The Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan, in collaboration with the Republican Commission for Increasing the Role of Women in Society, Gender Equality, and Family Issues, the United Nations Development Programme and with the financial support of the UK government, commenced a five-day training programme on 15 April 2024. The initiative aims to enhance the leadership potential of female representatives from various political parties.
The primary objective of the event is to equip candidates enlisted in the national personnel reserve, women's wings of political parties, and members of local councils—who advocate for gender equality in political spheres—with essential skills to augment their opportunities.
Furthermore, the event featured an award ceremony honoring the winners of the best scenarios competition, "Woman Leader in Politics: A Role Model," organized in March 2024 by the Republican Commission for Increasing the Role of Women in Society, Gender Equality, and Family Issues, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme. The competition aims to foster women's interest in active political participation, craft a contemporary image of female leadership, and cultivate a positive public perception of socially engaged women in politics.
The democratization of modern society necessitates active female participation in political life, underscoring the imperative of safeguarding women's rights as an integral component of human rights amidst ongoing globalization processes.
Read here the full article published by UNDP on 17 April 2024.
The CFP seeks to engage partners to support the implementation of activities on advancement of women participation in public life. The project will support actions that will enhance inclusion of women’s voice and their equal representation and participation in leadership and political processes. The call also focuses on supporting gender-sensitive reforms to ensure marginalized women are fully engaged to advocate and participate in the development of affirmative action.
Click here to apply before the deadline on 20 April 2024.
In the ongoing war in Sudan, there is an insufficiently narrated tragedy—the plight of women who are paying a hefty price for this war and are simultaneously being kept from the table in the discussion of how this war can end. International Women's Month coincides with a difficult period in Sudan, where women are facing various forms of violence and violations, including rape, sexual assault, kidnapping and the loss of providers. This is all occurring in a context marked by extreme poverty and lack of medical facilities, especially those related to sexual and reproductive health.
The war that erupted on April 15, 2023 between the Sudanese army and Rapid Support Forces has led to a humanitarian crisis that UN reports have ranked among the largest globally—stating that nearly 8 million people have been displaced due to the war, 88 percent of whom are women and children. There are more than 4 million women and girls at risk of sexual assaults, and alarming reports have appeared of women being sold in markets in Sudan.
The painful irony is that Sudanese women were at the forefront of the Sudanese revolution that overthrew Omar al-Bashir's government on April 11, 2019. Despite their contributions and sacrifices, they found themselves marginalized and excluded from decision-making positions in the subsequent transitional government. The promises of allocating 40 percent of the Sudanese parliament’s seats for women remained unfulfilled. When the actual figures emerged, they reflected a failure to meet Sudanese women's aspirations and acknowledge their vital role in society and the political process.
Read here the full article published by the Washington Institute on 25 March 2024.
Image source: Washington Institute
With Victorian council elections to be held in October, the state government’s target of reaching 50-50 gender representation at the local level is under threat.
While the state achieved a record 43.8% of women elected to councils in 2020, outperforming most federal and state parliaments, and succeeded in achieving gender parity in 47 out of 76 councils, the overall 50-50 gender representation target by 2025 will still be difficult to reach.
Globally, gender quotas have been a tried and tested way of lifting women’s political representation. But research also shows quotas can divide public opinion, and they work better in some contexts than others. With this in mind, we wanted to test alternative measures to support women in politics, which also attract public support.
Click here to read the full article published by The Conversation on 8 February 2024.
Image source: The Conversation
Abstract
Violence against women politicians is increasingly recognized as an issue that undermines women's presence in politics. Latin America has been at the vanguard of this global discussion. In 2012, Bolivia became the only country in the world to criminalize “political violence and harassment against women.” Several other countries have similar legislation in the works. What explains the emergence of these bill proposals? This article argues that the creation of these bills is the result of three processes: activism at the local level used international norms to propose an innovative solution to a problem; women politicians and “femocrats” worked within the state apparatus to overcome resistance; and international actors worked to foster connections among activists and politicians across the region. In this process, international norms have been transformed, with important implications for women's political representation.
Click here to read the full article published by the Cambridge University Press on 27 July 2020.
Today, we announced the release of our new report, The State of Women: 2023 Multiplier Report and Roadmap, a comprehensive report drawing on insights from extensive data gathered from a wide-ranging network of women nationwide. Utilizing data collected from She Should Run participants and research conducted between 2020 and 2023, we found that most women—across demographics and ideologies—need multiple points and types of encouragement over several years in order to consider running for office.
Click here to read the full report published by She Should Run on 6 November 2023.
The 2023 edition of the global Women Peace and Security Index (WPS Index) scores and ranks 177 countries in terms of women’s inclusion, justice, and security.
No country performs perfectly on the WPS Index and the results reveal wide disparities across countries, regions, and indicators. The WPS Index offers a tool for identifying where resources and accountability are needed most to advance women’s status - which benefits us all.
The WPS Index is published by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security with support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Click here to read the full report published by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security on 26 October 2023.
Nearly a quarter of a century after the adoption by the Security Council of its resolution 1325 (2000), women’s full, equal and meaningful participation in building peace should be the norm, not an aspiration or an afterthought, but the data show that this is far from being a reality. In peace processes, negotiating parties continue to regularly exclude women, and impunity for atrocities against women and girls is still prevalent. Women continue to face entrenched barriers to direct participation in peace and political processes, and women’s organizations struggle to find resources, while military spending continues to grow every year. This remains the case even though there is ample evidence that women’s participation contributes to more robust democracies and longer-lasting peace.
Click here to read the full report published by Relief Web on 24 October 2023.