The recently-elected President of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, won the elections with 46.7% of the votes to become the first woman politician to occupy this important position. Since the beginning of the election process, Ms. Chinchilla was considered a possible winner.
Bolivia’s President Evo Morales has made history early into his second presidential mandate by designating an equal number of men and women in his cabinet. President Morales described this action as a dream come true in a country known for its patriarchal tradition.
Leading up to the January 2010 London Conference on Afghanistan, Afghan women’s human rights defenders and representatives of women’s civil society organizations released a statement expressing their strong and specific recommendations on security development and governance priorities in the country. They expressed their concern about being excluded from the decision-making process and requested that their priorities and needs be addressed.
Ms Margaret Wallstrom, the former European Commissioner for Communication, has accepted the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s designation as Special Representative of the Secretary General for Sexual Violence in Conflict as part of a UN action to end all forms of SGBV against women, children, refugees and civilians in conflict situations.
After a significant rise in the number of foreign domestic helpers in Dubai, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, the conditions under which foreign migrant workers are hired in those countries tend to favor the revision of the employment contracts that conform to new labour laws.
President Obama’s proposal for health care reform is in agreement with some of the United States Senate’s recommendations regarding immigrants, the situation of citizens living in Puerto Rico and abortion coverage.
Domestic worker Po Po has been enduring long hours of hard work, poor pay and abuse within the confines of her employer’s home for the past seven years. The 25-year old poor woman abandoned a university education and left her native Burma to work as a domestic helper in Thailand.
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.
