Disturbing global increase in female genital mutilation
8/3/2024: Over 230 million girls and women alive today have been subjected to female genital mutilation, an increase of 15% since 2016. This data casts serious doubt on meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal to eliminate the practice by 2030.
Source: UNICEF
UN chief launches Gender Equality Acceleration plan
8/3/2024: Marking International Women's Day, the UN Secretary-General announced new support for governments around the world to implement policies that respond to the needs of women and girls. The new plan responds to a global backlash against women’s rights that is threatening and sometimes reversing progress.
Source: UN News
Why legal equality is key to women’s economic rights
7/3/2024: Women’s economic opportunities, rights, and well-being are being denied worldwide by sex-discriminatory laws and policies that curtail access to employment, equal pay, property ownership, and inheritance. A policy brief by Equality Now offers examples from a range of countries.
Source: Inter Press Service
Navalny dies in Russian prison
16/2/2024: The Kremlin bears responsibility for the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, according to Human Rights Watch. Under international law, states have obligations to exercise a “duty of care” to anyone in custody, and all deaths in custody must be effectively investigated.
Source: Human Rights Watch
Civil society and NGOs ‘under assault’ in Asia
12/2/2024: The CIVICUS Monitor data for 2023 shows the Asia Pacific region as having the highest number of “closed” countries constricting civil society and NGO operability. The crackdown against fundamental freedoms correlates with a rise in authoritarian governments in the region.
Source: Devex
Pakistan needs more than elections to be a democracy
6/2/2024: Both former prime ministers of Pakistan, Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif, have disregarded the Charter of Democracy, a 2006 pledge by Pakistani politicians to refrain from colluding with the security establishment to derail democratic processes. By doing that, they have undermined conditions necessary for a rights-respecting democracy.
Source: Human Rights Watch
Election delay in Senegal puts rights at risk
5/2/2024: Senegal’s President Macky Sall has announced that presidential elections, slated for February 25, will be delayed indefinitely. Senegal has long been considered a beacon of democracy in the inceasingly troubled region. This is now at risk.
Source: Human Rights Watch
Saudi Arabia must abide by UN Human Rights Council review
30/1/2024: Amnesty has called on Saudi Arabia to act on the UN's latest Universal Periodic Review of human rights which contains 354 recommendations including eliminating all forms of discrimination against women. Since its last review in 2018, Saudi Arabia has failed to implement many of the recommendations it had supported at the time.
Source: Amnesty International
China set to dodge accountability at UN human rights review
24/1/2024: The UN Human Rights Council is about to begin the process of China’s Fourth Cycle Universal Periodic Review, amid a deeply hostile environment for minorities in China and an increasingly desperate Hong Kong population. The Chinese government has already expressed its resistance to the concept of universality, preferring a ‘Chinese path of human rights development.'
Source: East Asia Forum
A human rights economy is key to sustainable development
17/1/2024: The UN Summit of the Future scheduled for September 2024 may be the final opportunity to stimulate real momentum to the Sustainable Development Goals. An alternative economic model that enables the realization of human rights within planetary boundaries has support from many development agencies.
Source: Human Rights Watch