News

3/9/2012

Sierra Leone: Enactment of Important Sexual Offenses Bill

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.

3/9/2012

Interview with Marieme Helie Lucas: No Spring for Arab Women

Marieme Helie Lucas is an Algerian feminist, sociologist, political theorist and author known for her work against religious fundamentalism. Marieme was born in Algeria to a ‘family of feminists’ and had been active in the liberation struggle of Algeria. She founded the Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) in 1984. The former international coordinator of WLUML, Marieme founded Secularismis a Women’s Issue (SIAWI) in 2005.

3/9/2012

UK: Advocate Against Honour Crimes Once Escaped Forced Marriage

Jasvinder Sanghera was eight years old when she was promised in marriage to a man she had never met. When, six years later, her mother showed Sanghera a photograph of her intended husband, the 14-year-old reacted with horror.

31/8/2012

Interview with Soheila Vahdati Bana: Elevating the issues of Iran’s women to the world’s stage

Soheila Vahdati Bana, a scholar, writer and human rights activist focusing on Iranian women's and children's issues, has written numerous articles against the death penalty and state violence against women, children and ethnic and religious minorities. Her areas of research include the effects of mandatory hijab on the image of Iranian women and their role in society, the recent history of state oppression of followers of the Bahai Faith and child soldiers in Iran. She has also written extensively on the current Islamic Penal Code’s encroachment on women’s rights, the treatment of women as second class citizens and the deprivation of their sexual rights.

30/8/2012

Iran: Through Human Rights, Global Advocacy & Action Stoning Can Be Stopped!

The U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 10, 1984 through resolution 39/46. The Convention entered into force on June 26, 1987.

This United Nations Convention against Torture defines torture as “… any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.”

30/8/2012

Kurdish Women Call For Nationwide Campaign Against Honor Killing

One week after its foundation, women’s rights organization Zhiyan [Life] Group organized a demonstration against honor killing in the Kurdistan Region.The demonstrators condemned the killing of Nigar Rahim, a Kurdish girl in the Garmiyan region, who was raped by one of her brothers and later killed by another.The spokesperson for Zhiyan called on all the civil organizations in Kurdistan to join her group in its campaign.

29/8/2012

Norway: Rape & Domestic Violence Recur but Rarely Reported

She ran for her life. Her husband had raped her again that night, this time more violently than ever in their 15-year marriage. He forced himself on her repeatedly, he choked her and threatened to kill her.

When she fled in the early hours of March 23, 2008 — down the stairwell, through the courtyard, into the street and up to a taxi — he caught up before the driver could pull away. She ran on, finally reaching a police station.

29/8/2012

Somalia: Thirty Women Elected to New Parliament

Somalia has recently selected its parliament on Somali soil for the first time since the civil war of the late 1980s. This is a significant achievement since regional power brokers such as Ethiopia and Kenya, with the financial and logistical backing of the European Union, the United States and the United Nations, concocted Somali governments in neighbouring countries.

23/8/2012

SOMALIA: Peace in Somalia will Remain Superficial until the Human Rights of Women are Protected

On the 21^st August 2012, a female tea seller traveling in the early evening was dragged from a bus in Awdiinle, Baidoa Region, by Al Shabaab taken to the bush close by and beheaded. The woman in question had been based in Bardaale district (Bay region) and had in the course of her tea selling business served members of the TFG who came to her shop regularly. Although she had received threats from Al Shabaab that she would be killed if she continued to receive business from the TFG, due to her position as sole breadwinner in her household, it was necessary that she continue.

22/8/2012

SOMALIA: Activists laud ban on FGM/C, say implementation will require more

Activists have welcomed a ban on female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in the new constitution of Somalia – a country where 96 percent of women undergo one of the more extreme forms of the practice – but warn that translating the law into action will require more than just a legal declaration.