Page 29 - Maputo Protocol News Today

As the world battles Covid-19, women and girls in Africa are fighting their own parallel battle that has been raging for ages: endemic gender-based violence (GBV).  Unfortunately (but as usual), commemorations of the 16 Days of Activism Against GBV happened amid reports, once again, of an alarming increase in violence against women. The United Nations has called it the “shadow pandemic”.  The United Nations Population Fund believes that violence against women and girls is perpetuated and ...

Evariste Ndayishimiye, a retired general, won the presidential election held in May 2020, securing 68.72% of the vote. The elections allegedly took place in a highly repressive environment (reported killings, arrests of opposition leaders, voter intimidation) with no independent international observers.   This was Burundi’s fourth post-conflict general election as well as a year that marked the 15 th anniversary of the implementation of gender quotas in politics. A result of the combined ...

Zim: Unsafe abortions are a major public health concern Date: January 20, 2021 By Muchaneta Chimuka Harare, 10 December: Unsafe abortion cases are rife among youth and adults in Zimbabwe owing to high medical costs, restrictive abortion laws and lack of or inadequate   youth friendly clinics that offers sexual reproductive health services, negative attitudes by service providers towards patients, lack of knowledge on how and where to seek services among others. The 2020 #VoiceandChoice Barome...

Urgent Call to Action Women human rights defenders (WHRDs) are crucial actors in the struggle to ensure human rights are enjoyed by all, moving their societies toward more inclusive and equal ones. In the Middle East and North African (MENA) region, where most countries lag behind in gender equality, WHRDs play an even more critical role, but also face greater challenges. Over the last few years we have witnessed a rise in violence against WHRDs in the MENA region. 2020 was an especially violen...