The South Pacific: a region of inviting sandy beaches, turquoise waters – and unacceptable levels of violence against women. Life is especially difficult in Papua New Guinea, where an estimated 70% of women will be raped or physically assaulted in their lifetime. If this isn’t shocking enough, perhaps the news that witch-hunts still exist – […]
Millions of women and young girls across the globe continue to be denied their rights to equal and fair access to education and healthcare and many are faced with gender-based violence such a female genital mutilation (FGM)/female circumcision, child marriage, child trafficking, honor killings, female infantcide, domestic violence and other gender inequality and sexually-based human rights abuses every day. […]
Documentary exposes Pakistan gender biases A documentary film screened at the Sundance Film Festival chronicles the fallout in Pakistan after a 13-year-old girl, gang-raped by four men, took her attackers to court and was nearly put to death by village elders. The case of Kainat Soomro reveals gender biases in the country that make laws […]
In retrospect, it wasn’t that unusual of an event but would be one that finally broke the silence surrounding violence against women in the world’s second largest country. On December 16, a 23-year-old medical student travelling with a male companion on a bus in New Delhi was beaten and gang raped by a group of […]
A mother breastfeeds one of her twin babies at Jose Fabella Medical hospital in Manila, Philippines © Jason Gutierrez/IRIN Filipino breast milk bank gives babies a chance A state-run breast milk bank in the Philippines is helping to fend off infant mortality in Manila, the capital, and elsewhere as breastfeeding rates differ among the […]
Child marriages spike among Syrian refugees The young teenage daughters of Syrian refugees in Jordan are increasingly being married to older Syrian men — against the laws of both countries — as a form of financial and other security against a backdrop of conflict and instability. “We’re concerned about early marriages — using that as […]
London Summit offers crucial opportunities for women, health The London Summit on Family Planning opened today and aims to prioritize and fund family planning globally. It aims to give women “the tools to make critical decisions about the size of their families and the spacing of their pregnancies,” writes Nafis Sadik, whose United Nations roles […]
Children of the Earth summit — 1992 and 2012 As young people weigh in with their impressions of the ongoing Rio+20 conference, this documentary series, Zero Ten Twenty, looks back on the lives of children born in 1992–the year of the groundbreaking Earth Summit. Working to include women in development recipe The United Nations is hosting […]
Biogas saves Kenyan school money, conserves nature A school in the rural Rift Valley of central Kenya is a model for successful small-scale response to climate change, according to this article. The school cooks with biogas produced from latrines, eliminating fuel and sanitation costs while reducing harmful carbon emissions and sparing surrounding forests some 150 […]
While the debate over the current ban against openly gay service members in the US military continues in Washington, there is another story about the consequences of breaking barriers in the military that is also getting attention: the ongoing prevalence of sexual violence against women in the military. The BBC carried an interesting story this […]
Some stories never die. Human trafficking, a multibillion dollar a year global industry, seems to be one of them. In recent years, there has been a huge advocacy effort that has raised awareness on the issue, but still the trade of people as goods persists in every corner of the world. One of the most […]
Elections are events that always garner attention. Whether its to see how a particular politician will fare, what direction a country may be headed with its policies, or as a barometer of corruption, elections are covered by the world media regardless of where they occur. Unfortunately, there are places where election coverage can only achieve […]