25/11/2011
New York – Based on country data available, between 15 to 76 per cent of women experience physical or sexual violence from men in their lifetime. It happens everywhere – at home and at work, on the streets and in schools, during peacetime and in conflict, reports UN Women.
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Violence against women and girls has far-reaching consequences, harming families and communities, stunting human develop- ment, and undermining economic growth, it adds.
“Everyone has a role to play in combating this global pandemic; the time to act together is NOW.”
The social mobilisation platform on ending violence against women and girls “Say NO – UNiTE” aims to trigger and highlight actions by individuals, governments and civil society partners.
Actions can range from reaching out to students at schools, to volunteering at local shelters, advocating for legislation or donating funds towards programmes that protect women and girls from violence, and more.
Every action is counted to symbolise the groundswell of engagement that exists on the issue. Everybody can y should join now.
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25/11/2011
Geneva – “Jordan must take further steps to eradicate violence against women and ensure gender equality,” an independent UN human rights expert said.
Queen Noor of Jordan - Picture: David Shankbone* | Wikimedia Commons
Rashida Manjoo, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, wrapped up a two-week visit to the Middle East country with a warning to authorities that a purely legal or programmatic approach will not be sufficient given that so many of Jordanian women have followed traditional roles.
“Women need to be provided with opportunities and also an enabling environment to achieve equality of results,” she said in a statement issued in Amman.
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24/11/2011
Human Wrongs Watch
New York – Six in 10 women have suffered physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime, a majority from their husbands or partners.
Photo credit: UN
Facts like this have urged the UN to call for engaging all of society, and especially young people, to end violence against women, “a scourge that spans the globe and takes many forms, including rape, domestic violence and harassment at work.”
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24/11/2011
Human Wrongs Watch
New York – “There is a long way to go before the rights of Afghan women are fully protected,” says a UN report, noting that the government has not yet succeeded in applying a two-year-old landmark law to the vast majority of cases of violence against women.
Credit: UN
The 2009 Elimination of Violence against Women (EVAW) law criminalises “child marriage, forced marriage, selling and buying women for the purpose or under the pretext of marriage, baad (giving away a woman or girl to settle a dispute), forced self-immolation and 17 other acts of violence against women, including rape and beating.’
It also specifies punishment for perpetrators,” the report which was issued two days ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on Nov. 25.
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23/11/2011
Human Wrongs Watch
SocialistWorker* – Mostafa Omar, a member of Egypt’s Revolutionary Socialists and journalist for Ahram Online, spoke with Lee Sustar about the dynamics of the movement and the prospects for the renewal of Egypt’s revolutionary movement.
Photo: Mosa’ab Elshami | SocialistWorker.org
What was the trigger for this latest crisis in Egypt?
The immediate trigger was an incident last Saturday, November 19, when the police went to break up a sit-in of no more than 100 people on the center traffic island of Tahrir Square. Most of them had been injured in the January 25 uprising that led to the overthrow of Mubarak.
The sit-in followed a big march the day before that was dominated by the Islamists, demanding that the Supreme Council hand over power to a civilian administration by the end of April 2012. The day went just fine.
But one Islamist leader, a conservative Salafist, called off his plan for a sit-in and left with his supporters, so just 100 people were there overnight. Police came the following morning and began brutalizing them, and ejected them from the square.
But thousands responded to this repression by coming to the square to reclaim it.
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23/11/2011
Human Wrongs Watch
Cairo, Nov. 23 – Violent clashes between security forces and unarmed protesters continued to expand in Cairo and other major Egyptian cities for the fifth consecutive day since the “One Million” people march which started on November 18 to demand the immediate end of military rule.
Image: The Lion of Egyptian Revolution* | Wikimedia Commons
Most conservative estimates talk about 35 deaths in five days in addition to over 2,000 people injured and more than 300 people arrested.
Several hundreds of thousands of Egyptians continued shouting “al shaab urid isqat el moushir” (the people want the fall of the field marshal), in explicit reference to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, deposed Hosni Mubarak’s Defence minister and current Chief of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) since last February.
The new, massive wave of protests came hours after Tantawi announced that the military had no interest in staying in power; that it would organise presidential elections by June next year; that the scheduled parliamentarian poles will start on Nov. 28, and that it will form a new government following the people demands.
Far from calming down the protests, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians continued their mobilisations amid growing mistrust of the ruling military junta.
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22/11/2011
Human Wrongs Watch
Egypt’s military rulers have completely failed to live up to their promises to Egyptians to improve human rights and have instead been responsible for a catalogue of abuses which in some cases exceeds the record of Hosni Mubarak, Amnesty International said in a new report.
Field Marshal Tantawi, Military Junta Chief. Photo: Helene C. Stikkel | Wikimedia Commons
In Broken Promises: Egypt’s Military Rulers Erode Human Rights, the organization documents a woeful performance on human rights by the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) which assumed power after the fall of former President Hosni Mubarak in February.
The report’s release on Nov. 21 follows a bloody few days in Egypt that has left many dead and hundreds injured after army and security forces violently attempted to disperse anti-SCAF protesters from Cairo’s Tahrir square.
“By using military courts to try thousands of civilians, cracking down on peaceful protest and expanding the remit of Mubarak’s Emergency Law, the SCAF has continued the tradition of repressive rule which the January 25 demonstrators fought so hard to get rid of,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Acting Director.
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22/11/2011
Human Wrongs Watch
Harare – More than one million Zimbabweans will struggle for food between now and March, the United Nations reported.
Food on sale at a market in Harare | Credit: UN
The UN World Food Programme (WFP), which has already begun assisting the most vulnerable but needs $42 million to fund its activities in the Southern African nation.
Most of the vulnerable households are located in the southern and western regions, which are very susceptible to dry spells. And most at risk are low-income families hit by failed harvests, and households with orphans and vulnerable children.
“Although food is generally available in many rural areas, it is too expensive for those with limited resources,” WFP said.
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21/11/2011
Human Wrongs Watch
By Vandana Shiva* – TRANSCEND
On May 15, 2011, young people occupied the squares of the cities in Spain. They called themselves Los Indignados – “the indignant”. I met them in Madrid where I was attending the meeting of the scientific committee that advises the Spanish prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
Wall Street Area. Image: Ibagli | Wikimedia Commons
Their declaration states: “Who are we? We are the people; we have come here freely as volunteers. Why are we here? We are here because we want a new society that gives more priority to life than to economic interest.”
In the US, the ongoing “Occupy movement” commonly cries: “We are the 99 per cent”. This people’s protest, inspired by the Arab Spring, is directed against the unequal distribution of wealth; the “99 per cent” here refers to “the difference in wealth between the top one per cent and all the remaining citizens”.
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21/11/2011
Human Wrongs Watch
London (IRIN*) – It will take two centuries for sub-Saharan Africa to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, according to NGO WaterAid, which calls on national leaders to commit 3.5 percent of their annual budget to the sector.
Photo credit: UN
Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) are being sidelined as governments concentrate on health and education, says the WaterAid report.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 