gender-based violence

New International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) findings show that Indian boys’ views about manhood and women’s roles in society became less patriarchal and more equitable after participating in an ICRW program that aimed to shift norms about gender equity. 

The program, called Parivartan, drew in boys from Mumbai through the popular sport of cricket and challenged them to question traditional notions of manhood present in many societies, including their own. Results from ICRW’s evaluation provided proof that sensitizing boys to gender issues can potentially change stereotypes they hold and their attitudes about violence against women. 

The Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law – Sierra Leone (CARL-SL) welcomed the Sierra Leone Parliament’s enactment of the Sexual Offences Act 2012.  In March this year, CARL-SL called on the Sierra Leone Government to step up efforts at enacting both the Sexual Offences Bill and the Legal Aid Bill. The fact that both bills have now been passed into law is significant, and CARL-SL would like to commend the Parliament of Sierra Leone for its timely enactment of the Sexual Offences Act.  

A few days ago British journalist Natasha Smith published a long and anguished account of being sexually assaulted at the hands of a mob in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. She described how she was attacked by numerous men, her clothes torn off while she was beaten and groped as bystanders did nothing and those who tried to rescue her were set upon by the mob.

It is a country that can seem inured to violence from sheer familiarity. But this was a crime so shocking that even South Africa has begun to search its soul.

A disabled 17-year-old girl, said to have the mental capacity of a five-year-old, was allegedly gang-raped by seven men and boys in an assault that came to light only when a mobile phone video of the brutal attack went viral online.

WE CONDEMN RENEWED THREATS TO UGANDAN LGBT RIGHTS DEFENDERS

The Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) international solidarity network and the Violence is not our Culture (VNC) Campaign condemn the recent police raid on a workshop for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) human rights defenders in Entebbe, Uganda.  This act is an outright violation of the fundamental rights and freedoms of human rights defenders, which are guaranteed under the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the African Charter, both of which the Uganda government has signed and ratified. 

WE CONDEMN RENEWED THREATS TO UGANDAN LGBT RIGHTS DEFENDERS

The Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) international solidarity network and the Violence is not our Culture (VNC) Campaign condemn the recent police raid on a workshop for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) human rights defenders in Entebbe, Uganda.  This act is an outright violation of the fundamental rights and freedoms of human rights defenders, which are guaranteed under the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the African Charter, both of which the Uganda government has signed and ratified. 

The passage of the landmark ‘The Prevention of Anti-Women Practices (Criminal Law Amendment) Act 2011’ through parliament marks an 

B, who was paraded naked in the streets of her village, Neelor Bala, a few days ago, still fears for her life and of her family members because the accused have not been apprehended. Her traumatised 10-year-old son also shakes in fear as he remembers his mother`s ordeal that he was a witness to. “They slapped me a couple of times before attacking my mother,” he recalls. “One of them held me by the arms when I tried to reach for her.”

This report is part of a WLUML three-part series on women’s rights in the context of the ‘Arab uprisings’. Last week: Egypt: Fighting for Women’s Rights in the Aftermath of the Revolution.

The Syrian government’s response to the uprisings across the country has been violent; over one thousand people have been killed so far, more than a hundred of them in the southwestern city of Deraa, and ten thousand people are said to have been detained by security forces. Syrian women, in common with their counterparts in Egypt and Tunisia, have played a crucial role in the protests against the autocratic political regime, which has hitherto successfully used the threat of the well-organised mukhabarat (secret services) to silence dissent. Their outspoken demands for the release of male family members, and the voices of those women who have themselves been targeted by government forces, has focused the attention of women’s groups and human rights organizations both inside and outside Syria on their situation.

Le réseau Wassila a lancé le 15 mai un guide destiné aux professionnel-le-s de santé algérien-ne-s pour les informer sur le dépistage et la prise en charge des femmes victimes de violences, notamment de violences conjugales. Un dépliant, en français et en arabe, permettant aux femmes de connaître leurs droits et les recours auprès d’associations et différents services d’aide sera distribué gratuitement dans les centres de santé et chez les médecins.

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