women Archives - Page 5 of 9

Majority of women live in countries with large gender gaps, UN report reveals

·July 19, 2023·1 min read

Out of 114 countries studied, none has achieved full gender parity, the report by UN Women and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has revealed. Moreover, fewer than one per cent of women and girls globally live in a country with both high women’s empowerment and a small gender gap in...

Scourge of racism haunts Black women and girls seeking healthcare

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·July 12, 2023·1 min read

“The scourge of racism continues for Black women and girls in the Americas, many of whom are descendants of the victims of enslavement,” Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), said in a news release. “Too often, Afrodescendent women and girls are abused and mistreated, their needs...

Women and girls bear brunt of global water and sanitation crisis

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·July 7, 2023·2 min read

The study provides the first in-depth analysis of gender inequalities in drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in households, revealing that women and girls bear the brunt of the global water and sanitation crisis. Billions lack access Globally, 2.2 billion people still do not have safely managed drinking water at...

Time to end gender-based violence, boost role of women in politics, public life

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·July 2, 2023·2 min read

Speaking to the Council’s annual meeting in Geneva on protecting the rights of women and girls, the UN High Commissioner said it was an urgent task, and there needed to be zero-tolerance of gender-based violence. He highlighted the alarming reality that female human rights defenders, women journalists, and those in...

Urgent reform needed to shield women and children from violence during custody battles

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·June 24, 2023·2 min read

“The tendency of family courts to dismiss the history of domestic violence and abuse in custody cases, especially where mothers and/or children have brought forward credible allegations of domestic abuse, including coercive control, physical or sexual abuse is unacceptable,” said Reem Alsalem, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, in...

Afghanistan mission chief to Taliban: Bans on women and girls cost you legitimacy at home and abroad

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·June 21, 2023·2 min read

UN Special Representative Roza Otunbayeva was briefing the Security Council on the dire situation facing the country and the international aid effort, with UN women workers among those now prevented by Taliban edicts from working. “We will not put our national staff in danger and therefore we are asking them not...

Women suffer disproportionately from ravages of drought, desertification

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·June 17, 2023·3 min read

“Equal land rights both protect land and advance gender equality,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, in a video message, urging all governments to eliminate legal barriers to women owning land, and to involve them in policy making. “We depend on land for our survival, yet we treat it like dirt,”...

Türk calls for action to enable ‘equal and meaningful’ participation of women in public life

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·June 14, 2023·1 min read

“Patriarchy must be a thing of the past. Our future depends on women and girls being at the table everywhere when decisions are made,” said Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Only 1 in 4 parliamentarians are women “It was only last year that for the first...

New UN report reveals chronic bias against women over last decade

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·June 12, 2023·2 min read

“Half of people worldwide still believe men make better political leaders than women, and more than 40 per cent believe men make better business executives than women,” according to the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in its latest Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI) report. “Social norms that impair women’s rights are...

US state abortion bans ‘putting millions of women and girls at risk’

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·June 2, 2023·2 min read

Since the start of the year, abortion has been banned in 14 states across the country, and the consequences of the Supreme Court decision has reverberated throughout the entire legal and policy system, the Human Rights Council-appointed experts said. “The regressive position taken by the US Supreme Court…by essentially dismantling...

UN representative alarmed by sexual violence against women and girls in DRC

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·May 26, 2023·2 min read

“Allegations of grave cases of sexual violence against civilians, including children, in particular affecting IDPs fleeing conflict in the eastern DRC, is a matter of profound concern which requires immediate action,” said the top UN official who advocates for women and girls impacted by sexual violence. The representative spoke of...

Afghanistan: Women tell UN rights experts ‘we’re alive, but not living’

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·May 5, 2023·3 min read

“We are alarmed about widespread mental health issues and accounts of escalating suicides among women and girls,” they said in a joint statement. “This extreme situation of institutionalized gender-based discrimination in Afghanistan is unparalleled anywhere in the world.” ‘Extreme’ discrimination Since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021, de...