The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the “Petateras” network
called for international support on behalf of Haitian women and girls.
Thousands of pregnant women are at risk of suffering complications or
even die, since natural disasters like the one that devastated the
country’s capital, have an especially negative effect on these
vulnerable sectors of society.
Many women and children in Nepal are victims of war and are struggling
for survival. Women continue to be excluded from peace processes, and
women and children are ignored in post conflict concentration,
according to Krishna Hari Pushkar, Peace and Conflict Management Expert
and Under Secretary of Government of Nepal.
On 14 January 2010, in an extensive reshuffling of his cabinet, the
Tunisian President appointed a woman, Mrs. Bibiya Chihi, to head the
Ministry of Women, Children and Seniors.
Women and the media is one of the twelve critical areas of concern
identified in the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995. The UN
Department of Public Information will hold an online discussion on the
topic from 1 to 28 February 2010.
Honduran Jenny Aguilar began a hunger strike in December 2009 to avoid deportation and separation from her three children who were born in the United States. Organizations that defend the rights of migrants demand that detention and deportation policies that are in violation of basic human rights and that divide family members be suspended.
Latin American women parliamentarians will meet to promote women’s human rights at the "International Conference of Indigenous Women Parliamentarians" from 19-20 January 2010 in Bolivia.
Organizations working in Eastern and Southern Africa warn that the
backwards trend in women’s political participation in the region is
threatening the goals set out by governments and stress that urgent
action is needed to fulfill their commitments.
Women’s organizations have drawn up a national strategy to increase
participation in general elections in Burundi this May. This will be
the second election since the conflict ended; the second post-conflict
poll in the country.
In the aftermath of the recently passed bills on domestic violence and
female genital mutilation, female lawmakers in Uganda hope for an
approval in January of long-awaited modernization bills on marriage and
divorce.
The legislative elections held this autumn 2009 in Tunisia included a
notable presence of women both as candidates and heads of lists. The
results of the elections confirmed this significant progress, and women
now have a representation of 28 percent in parliament, as 59 women were
elected to the 214-seat Chamber of Deputies.
Approximately 40 percent of the women who cross the southern border of
Mexico are victims of some kind of sexual violence, according to
Rolando Tinoco, expert on Gender and Public Policies of the Southern
Border College (Ecosur).
