Advocacy & Lobbying
On International Women’s Day, March 8, women in major cities across Pakistan, including Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi and Multan, took to the streets for the seventh consecutive year to advocate for gender equality, justice, and safety against patriarchal norms.
Aurat March is a feminist collective that unites to speak out against discrimination and inequality. The march was attended by hundreds of women, girls, transgender people, and male allies across Pakistan.
The theme of the Aurat March was the liberation and support of Palestine, with each chapter also presenting manifestos on topics related to gender equality.
Unrest in the Islamabad March
The women marchers of Islamabad’s Aurat March carried placards with messages of solidarity with oppressed communities, such as the apartheid happening in Gaza and the forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan, Pakistan.
Placards also highlighted women's desire to walk home safely without the fear of being harassed. This is a very common concern for women in Pakistan, as they often face sexual harassment and violence in public spaces.
Throughout the march, the women chanted slogans about Gaza, showing their support for Gaza, where over 25,000 women and children have tragically lost their lives in Israel's conflict with Gaza since October 7, 2023. The atmosphere was charged with emotion and determination as the women raised their voices for justice and equality.
However, the march faced challenges from the police and authorities.
Read here the full article published by Global Voices on 19 March 2024.
Image source: Global Voices
Many advocates, gender activists, development agencies and civil society organisations have been making a strong case for the inclusion of women in high level politics and empowering them economically. A clear case is ongoing advocacy for political parties in Ghana to nominate women as the running mates of the former President John Dramani Mahama and Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
Last week John Mahama retained Prof Naana Opoku Agyeman as part of the affirmative action to give voice to women in politics. The electorate is now waiting for Dr. Bawumia to announce his running mate. So far, the discussions in the media space suggest that the Vice President may opt for a male candidate. But in politics anything can change. In the 2020 elections, John Mahama settled for Prof. Naana Opoku-Agyeman, the first female to become Vice Chancellor of a university in Ghana. Whether the female professor’s inclusion provided any gains for John Mahama’s bid to become president again remains debatable. However, there is enough evidence to demonstrate that when women are empowered political and economically, they become a voice for the vulnerable. Therefore, investing in agriculture and supporting women to thrive in agriculture value chain. This is an agenda for the African Union members to implement.
Click here to read the full article published by the Business & Financial Times on 18 March 2024.
Image source: Business & Financial Times
The German government in collaboration with a non-governmental organisation, Hope for Family Development Initiative (HFDI) is set to train 300 women in three Southwest states on campaign strategies, leadership skills, and political engagement.
The project, tagged ‘Advancing Women’s Political Participation through Female Elected Candidates in South West Nigeria’, would be held in Osun, Oyo, and Ekiti states.
Speaking during a media parley held at NUJ Press Center, Osogbo, HFDI Program Manager, Adeola Falana, said the region still faces significant disparities in political representation despite the increase in the number of women holding political positions in the country.
Falana said the NGO would be implementing capacity-building training for women aspirants, town halls meeting with community stakeholders, consultative meetings with stakeholders, and sensitization workshops for young girls on the importance of women’s involvement in politics.
She called on stakeholders to work collectively to support women’s leadership and ensure women have an equal voice in shaping the future of our communities and nation.
Read here the full article published by the Nigerian Tribune on 12 March 2024.
Image source: Nigerian Tribune
Russian singer Monetochka (Liza Gyrdymova), who lives in exile after the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine started in February 2022, released a song in honor of the International Women's Day titled “Mom Has a Secret.”
All of the women featured in the video for the song, as well as Monetochka herself, are mothers but also high profile and vocal activists who oppose the war and the current Russian regime.
The released video features journalists Katerina Gordeeva, who has her own popular opposition YouTube video channel and currently lives in exile, Anna Mongait, a journalist for Russia TV Rain, banned in Russia, TV host Tatiana Lazareva who had also, as other women from the list, expressed her firm anti-war stance and lives in exile, and Pussy Riot member Nadya Tolokonnikova who spent several years in prison and is strongly against war and Putin's regime. It shows very popular actresses Chulpan Khamatova who features in a lot of anti-war videos and plays, currently in exile, Varvara Shmykova, who also has anti-war stance and had to leave her career and country because of it, and Maria Shalaeva who was detained at the opposition rally together with her son and had to leave Russia. The video includes politician Yekaterina Duntsova, who tried to run against Putin in the upcoming elections and has an anti-war stance (she is still in Russia), lawyer Mari Davtyan, who fights against domestic violence in Russia, and Yulia Vanalnaya, the widow of opposition politician Alexei Navalny.
Read here the full article published by Global Voices on 11 March 2024.
Image source: Global Voices
On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2024, 8 March, Congress Thematic Spokesperson on Gender Equality Eirini Dourou (Greece, SOC/G/PD) has made the following statement:
“On this year’s International Women’s Day, we echo the words of the Reykjavik Principles for Democracy and call for full, equal and meaningful participation in political and public life for all, in particular for women and girls. We cannot “inspire inclusion” if women and girls are not fully represented in our democratic institutions. This is a shared battle to be embraced by all.
“As local and regional authorities, we have a key role to play in accelerating women’s political careers. Helping them to develop their capacities and bolster their representation and visibility at regional and national level is a sure way to see their numbers increase in our parliaments and governments.
Read here the full article published by The Council of Europe on 7 March 2024.
Image source: Council of Europe
Mali, a landlocked country in West Africa, has one of the world’s fastest growing populations. The country houses more than nine million women, yet the state of women’s health remains a critical issue. Women in Mali face significant challenges. A lack of awareness and respect for human rights, especially for women and children, continues to drive disparities in education, governance, economic independence, and security. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) ranks Mali in a low human development category, placing it 186th out of 191 countries and territories globally.
Gender-based violence and female genital mutilation persist as major issues for women in Mali, further undermining women’s health and well-being. Legal avenues for justice are often inaccessible to women due to social pressures and a lack of awareness of their rights. Moreover, Mali’s political landscape has become very unstable in recent years, leading to a humanitarian crisis and the displacement of more than 470,000 people in the country.
Click here to read the full article published by The Borgen Project on 19 February 2024.
Image source: the Borgen Project
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 access the article.
Violence against women and girls (VAWG) in digital contexts is not a new phenomenon, however it has rapidly escalated in the shadows of the COVID-19 pandemic as women’s lives shifted online for work, education, access to services, and social activities. While there continue to be significant gaps in data, one global report suggests that prevalence ranges from 16 per cent to 58 per cent.
Online VAWG occurs as part of a continuum that is often connected to offline violence and can encompass many forms including sexual harassment, stalking, zoom bombing, and these continue to multiply in a context of rapidly expanding digitalization. The impact of online VAWG can be as harmful as offline violence with negative effects on the health and wellbeing of women and girls as well as serious economic, social and political impacts.
This paper provides a brief overview of the existing data and evidence on online and technology facilitated VAWG, outlines some of the key developments, gaps, challenges, and emerging promising practices, and makes recommendations to be considered by governments, international organizations, civil society organizations, and the technology sector.
Click here to access the report.
- Gender equality has suffered since the pandemic began.
- It will now take an estimated 135.6 years to close the worldwide gender gap between men and women.
- However, progress is being made in areas including science and politics.
- Improving paternity policies and representation of women will help.
There is still a huge amount of work to do to achieve gender equality around the world.
The time it will take to close the gender gap grew by 36 years in just 12 months, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021. This means it will now take an estimated 135.6 years for men and women to reach parity, according to the report, which assesses areas including economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and political empowerment.
Click here to read the full article published by The World Economic Forum on 3 March 2022.
This report and accompanying policy brief is intended to trigger a UN ‘rethink’ about women’s participation in transitional justice at both the policy and programme levels.
Fundamentally, ‘meaningful’ women’s participation in transitional justice does not only involve women being present—instead, it involves the convergence of several elements and manifests when women from diverse backgrounds: have the ability to enter; are present; possess self-efficacy; deploy their agency; and exert influence over transitional justice processes.
It recommends several adjustments for UN policy and programming—both in general and in relation to the updating of the UN Secretary-General’s 2010 Guidance Note on transitional justice—to better promote women’s meaningful participation in transitional justice.
Click here to access the report.
This report assesses women’s access to justice and women’s political participation in parliament, local councils and civil society organisations in Colombia. It examines existing legal, political and institutional frameworks in order to better understand successes, challenges and implementation gaps in the government’s pursuit of access to justice and gender equality. The report also offers examples of different approaches in OECD member and partner countries to support Colombia in closing gender gaps. Based on this analysis, the report proposes actionable solutions to help Colombia design and deliver policies that effectively promote women’s political participation and access to justice, including for survivors of gender based violence.
Click here to download the full report published by the OECD on 11 July 2020.
In 2016 at the launch of the #NotTheCost campaign, NDI presented a list of strategies to address and prevent violence against women in politics, focusing on a wide range of potential change-makers, from the global to the grassroots levels. While a deeper understanding of the issue has emerged, new problems have arisen. The world is grappling with a global pandemic. Many countries have seen their democratic institutions severely weakened. Technological innovations have created new contexts and means of perpetrating violence against women. On the fifth anniversary of the #NotTheCost campaign, NDI is renewing its call to action and presenting new opportunities to end both prevailing and newly emerging types of violence against women in politics. In the 2021 call to action, NDI identifies new opportunities to end both prevailing and newly emerging types of violence against women in politics.
Click here to read the full report.