Afghan girls and women made focus of International Education Day: UNESCO — Global Issues

Afghan girls and women made focus of International Education Day: UNESCO — Global Issues

The agency announced on Thursday that it was dedicating the International Day of Education on 24 January, to the country’s women and girls.  “No country in the world should bar women and girls from receiving an education. Education is a universal human right that must be respected,” said Director-General Audrey…

UN calls for immediate release of 50 women and girls abducted in Burkina Faso — Global Issues

UN calls for immediate release of 50 women and girls abducted in Burkina Faso — Global Issues

Unidentified armed groups reportedly kidnapped the women and girls on Thursday and Friday near the town of Arbinda, located in the north.  UN Secretary-General António Guterres has strongly condemned the incident.  ‘Spare no efforts’  “The Secretary-General calls for the immediate and unconditional release of the abducted women and girls and…

Afghan girls and women made focus of International Education Day: UNESCO — Global Issues

rights experts urge action on coerced religious conversions, child marriage — Global Issues

In their appeal to the authorities to stop the alleged abuse, the experts warned that teenagers had been “kidnapped from their families, trafficked … far from their homes (and) made to marry men sometimes twice their age”. The rights experts – who report to the Human Rights Council – cited…

African Parliamentarians Strongly Committed to Population and Development — Global Issues

African Parliamentarians Strongly Committed to Population and Development — Global Issues

APDA organizes regular conferences bringing together various parliamentarians from Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe to address critical issues on population and development – including youth employment and other issues arising from ICPD25 take center stage. Here Bridget Bedu takes a test in computational electronics as her daughter Giovana plays…

Africas Maternal Deaths Need Urgent Action to Meet SDG Goals — Global Issues

Africas Maternal Deaths Need Urgent Action to Meet SDG Goals — Global Issues

Africa needs to urgently invest in health programmes to reduce maternal deaths, which is more than five times above the 2030 SDG target of fewer than 70 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births. Measures include ensuring women access to skilled birth attendants. Credit: Ernest Ankomah/IPS by Francis Kokutse (accra) Tuesday,…

Afghan girls and women made focus of International Education Day: UNESCO — Global Issues

Celebrating women fighting for their rights — Global Issues

It often takes considerable bravery to stand up for the rights of women. The UN, which is committed to empowering women and girls, works relentlessly with activists and organizations across the world, to protect women from abuse, support health initiatives, and improve lives. UNAMA/Fraidoon Poya Women living under Taliban rule…

UN and top aid officials slam Afghan rulers’ NGO ban for women — Global Issues

UN and top aid officials slam Afghan rulers’ NGO ban for women — Global Issues

“Banning women from humanitarian work has immediate life-threatening consequences for all Afghans,” they insisted. Some aid programmes have already had to stop temporarily, owing to a lack of female staff, at a time when more than 28 million people in Afghanistan need “assistance to survive” the brutal winter, economic collapse…

Afghan girls and women made focus of International Education Day: UNESCO — Global Issues

‘Unfathomable restrictions’ on women’s rights risk destabilizing Afghanistan — Global Issues

“No country can develop – indeed survive – socially and economically with half its population excluded”, said the High Commissioner for Human Rights. “These unfathomable restrictions placed on women and girls will not only increase the suffering of all Afghans but, I fear, pose a risk beyond Afghanistan’s borders”.  He…

Severe drought fuels malnutrition, reduces hospital-delivery births in Turkana County — Global Issues

Severe drought fuels malnutrition, reduces hospital-delivery births in Turkana County — Global Issues

“I have never experienced a drought as bad as this in my life”, 28-year-old Akure Ewar told UNFPA. At seven months pregnant, she complains that she is hungry and often feels dizzy when going about her day. “The dry seasons have been progressively getting worse over the last three years,…

Afghan girls and women made focus of International Education Day: UNESCO — Global Issues

UN Secretary-General ‘deeply disturbed’ by Taliban’s reported ban on women working for NGOs in Afghanistan — Global Issues

A statement issued by Spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said that Secretary-General António Guterres was “deeply disturbed by the reported order of the de facto Taliban authorities” and that the UN chief “reiterates the rights of all women to participate in the workforce thus contributing to the greater good.”  According to media reports, the Taliban ordered all…