Migration Category: Global Old Site

On Saturday, three women were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. The three women – Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee, who led a women’s movement to protest the use of rape during Liberia’s civil war, Tawakkol Karman, a pro-democracy campaigner from Yemen, and President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberi, the first woman to be elected president of an African country – have championed efforts to end war and oppression in their respective countries and on the global scale.

Gbowee said in her remarks, “We must continue to unite in sisterhood to turn our tears into triumph, our despair into determination and our fear into fortitude. There is no time to rest until our world achieves wholeness and balance, where all men and women are considered equal and free.”

Karman added, “I have always believed that resistance against repression and violence is possible without relying on similar repression and violence. I have always believed that human civilization is the fruit of the effort of both women and men. So, when women are treated unjustly and are deprived of their natural right in this process, all social deficiencies and cultural illnesses will be unfolded, and in the end the whole community, men and women, will suffer.”

This is the first time that a woman has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 7 years, making the women award winners amongst only a handful of women who have received the award in its 110-year history.

At a regional midwifery workshop in New Delhi, hosted by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), multilateral, bilateral, and international NGOs released the first-ever joint statement indicating their commitment to scaling up efforts for “adapting, disseminating, and implementing the confederation’s global standards of education, regulation, and professional association,” for midwifery. According to the statement, “The second indicator of MDG 5, ‘proportion of births attended by skilled health providers’ highlights the crucial role of midwives and others with midwifery skills in providing skilled birth attendance to achieve optimal maternal health outcomes.”

Geeta Lal, the midwifery coordinator at UNFPA, stated, “The workshop was a landmark for the Asia region, since for the first time, key UN agencies engaged in health, together with major multilateral and bilateral development partners and NGOs, came forward with a strong statement of commitment to support strengthening standards of midwifery education, ensuring skilled human resources for maternal health and jointly working towards the establishment of a professional cadre of midwives.”

Midwife advisors, national program officers, donors, and partner organizations were in attendance and discussed the importance of creating a “regional resource center for midwifery; standardize midwifery curriculum and tools based on International Confederation of Midwives competencies and standards of education; and encourage strong advocacy.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered an address to the United Nations in Geneva last night urging nations to respect the civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals. Clinton noted that over 80 nations maintain laws criminalizing LGBT individuals and indicated that the US would pledge $3 million in aid to protect LGBT rights.

Secretary of State Clinton stated, “I want to talk about the work we have left to do to protect one group of people whose human rights are still denied in too many parts of the world today. In many ways, they are an invisible minority. They are arrested, beaten, terrorized, even executed… I am talking about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, human beings born free and given bestowed equality and dignity, who have a right to claim that, which is now one of the remaining human rights challenges of our time…Being LGBT does not make you less human. And that is why gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights.”

Clinton’s speech follows President Obama’s executive order yesterday detailing the responsibilities of federal agencies working abroad to protect LGBT rights. The Presidential order stated the need to “combat the criminalization of LGBT status or conduct abroad; protect vulnerable LGBT refugees and asylum seekers; leverage foreign assistance to protect human rights and advance nondiscrimination; ensure swift and meaningful US responses to human rights of LGBT persons; and engage international organizations in the fight against LGBT discrimination.”

Women are nearly a third of the Afghan delegation at today’s Afghanistan conference in Bonn, Germany holding 13 of the 40 delegate positions. One hundred nations are meeting in Bonn to discuss future support for Afghanistan as the US has begun withdrawing troops.

“The people of Afghanistan are looking to this conference for clear affirmation of commitment to make security transition and economic progress irreversible,” said Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who also warned that despite significant gains, international support will be needed for “at least another decade.”

Although the US plans to withdraw all troops by 2014, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who led the US delegation, indicated that the US “intends to stay the course with our friends in Afghanistan.”

On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) introduced legislation that would criminalize the transportation of young girls out of the United States to receive female genital mutilation (FGM) procedures. The Girls Protection Act would serve as a follow up to legislation passed in 1996 that outlawed the practice of FGM in the United States. The bill proposes fines and up to five years in prison for those who violate the law.

Senator Reid stated, “While it is difficult to know precisely how many girls in the United States are at risk of being subject to FGM, estimates from various sources suggest that approximately 200,000 women living in the United States have been, or are at risk, of being subject to FGM.”

Internationally, an estimated 100 million to 140 million women and girls have undergone an FGM procedure, with the practice widely being regarded as a human rights violation. The procedure, which involves the partial or total removal of external genitalia, is designed to decrease women’s sexual desire and is seen in many cultures as essential for a women’s suitability for marriage. The practice is also known to both increase the risk of HIV transmission and infant and maternal mortality rates.

Yesterday the Nigerian Senate passed a bill to prohibit same-sex marriage, as well as gay advocacy groups and public displays of same-sex affection. The bill imposes a 14 year sentence for those who are convicted of homosexuality and 10 year sentences for anyone who assists same-sex couples in marrying. The Nigerian House of Representatives will now vote on the bill and if passed, it will go to President Goodluck Jonathan to sign.

Erwin van der Borght, director of Amnesty International’s Africa program, stated, “The bill will expand Nigeria’s already draconian punishments for consensual same-sex conduct and set a precedent that would threaten all Nigerians’ rights to privacy, equality, free expression, association, and to be free from discrimination.”

Approximately a month before the bill passed the Senate, British Prime Minister David Cameron issued a threat to prevent aid from going to nations that violate the rights of homosexuals. Cameron remarked in a statement, “British aid should have more strings attached in terms of ‘do you persecute people for their faith or their Christianity or do you persecute people for their sexuality.’ We don’t think that’s acceptable…we’re prepared to put some money behind what we believe.”

Homosexuality is illegal in most African countries with the exception of South Africa, which recognizes gay marriage, but even there, anti-gay practices such as “corrective rapes” of lesbians, are commonplace.

With the world’s population predicted to reach 7 billion by the end of the month, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) released the State of World Population 2011 report yesterday. UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin stated, “our work is far from done. Consider that there are 215 million women of childbearing age in developing countries who lack access to voluntary family planning. There are millions of adolescent girls and boys in the developing world who have too little access to sexuality education and information about how to prevent pregnancies or protect themselves from HIV. In pockets of the world where women’s status is low, infant and child survival are also low. And we must tear down economic, legal and social barriers, to put women and men and boys and girls on an equal footing in all spheres of life.”

Since 1950, the world’s population has grown from 2.5 billion people to 7 billion, and since 1987, when the first World Population Day took place, the world’s population has grown by approximately 40 percent. According to Susan Cohen, director of government affairs at the Guttmacher Institute, the population will increase to over 9 billion by the middle of the century if the current rate of growth continues. Cohen writes, “To a large extent, however, these macro-level dilemmas reflect a micro-level problem about which there is a universal consensus and where the solution is relatively straightforward. Millions of women and couples, especially in the developing world, are still unable to control for themselves the timing, spacing and total number of their children.”

The UNFPA indicates that “all of this population growth – 97 of every 100 people – is occurring in less developed countries” and approximately 215 million women who want access to birth control lack access to family planning in developing nations.

On Wednesday, hundreds of Yemeni women gathered in the country’s capital of Sanaa to burn their veils in protest of the government’s on-going crackdown against anti-government demonstrations. The women held banners to criticize President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s authoritative regime, with the banners reading: “Saleh the butcher is killing women and is proud of it” and “Women have no value in the eyes in Ali Saleh.” The act itself, which holds great symbolic meaning in the conservative Islamic nation where women are required to cover themselves with veils, is another example of Yemeni women taking part in the country’s uprising.

Government forces attacked more than 60 women in October alone, according to CNN. Protestor Ruqaiah Nasser stated “We will not stay quiet…Tribes must understand they will not be respected by Yemeni women if they stay quiet while their women are being attacked by the Saleh regime. Tribes who ignore our calls are cowards and have no dignity.”

Although the Yemeni government announced a “cease-fire” earlier this week, more than ten demonstrators were killed on Tuesday.

Women in Kenya are dying at an alarming rate due to unsafe backstreet abortions, according to Reuters. In Kenya, which has high rates of poverty, sexual violence and limited access to family planning, approximately 35 percent of maternal deaths are the result of unsafe abortions and an estimated 2,600 women die each year from complications of abortions.

Although abortion is prohibited in Kenya, exception in cases when a woman’s life is in danger, wealthier women often have increased access to abortion care, which is easily made available in private hospitals that almost exclusively service Kenya’s affluent population. “The high and mighty don’t have a problem. In those ivory tower hospitals, these services are available as a routine,” said Dr. Joseph Karanja, an obstetrician-gynecologist who works at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi.

For years, officials from many African countries, including Kenya, have called for increased access to legal, safe abortion care in an effort to curb maternal mortality among African women. The Kenya Human Rights Commission and the Reproductive Health and Rights Alliance have both supported efforts to “publicize the negative consequences of the criminalization of abortion in Kenya,” calling the absence of safe abortions in the country a violation of a woman’s human rights.

In anticipation of the world’s population reaching 7 billion at the end of this month, approximately 2,000 policymakers and advocates will gather for the International Conference on Family Planning from November 29 to December 2 in Dakar, Senegal. The conference – sponsored by over 30 international organizations, including UNFPA, USAID, WHO, European Commission, World Bank and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – seeks to gather experts and activists to address the unmet need for family planning. According to the Nigerian Tribune, “Worldwide 215 million women have an unmet need for family planning.”

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin stated, “A world of seven billion people is a distinctive moment in history. It represents an achievement, as well as an unprecedented challenge for the future of the planet and its inhabitants. It also presents a rare opportunity for a call-to-action to renew global commitment for a healthy and sustainable world.”

Since 1950, the world’s population has grown from 2.5 billion people to 7 billion, and since 1987, when the first World Population Day took place, the world’s population has grown by approximately 40 percent. According to UNFPA, “all of this population growth – 97 of every 100 people – is occurring in less developed countries.”

According to a study by Amir Erfani, entitled “Induced Abortion in Tehran, Iran: Estimated Rates and Correlates,” many women in Tehran obtain abortions, despite Iran’s highly restrictive abortion laws. Erfani reports that approximately “one in six married women of reproductive age in Tehran will have an abortion in their lifetime” or 9 percent of pregnancies, women undergo an abortion.

Due to Iran’s restrictive laws governing abortion, most of the abortions are performed in secret and are highly unsafe. Erfani notes that unlike most other countries, where women are more likely to seek an abortion in their 20s, women in Tehran more commonly obtain abortions in their 30s. Moreover, the highest rate was among married women who had higher levels of education and higher incomes. The women most frequently cited their desire to control the number of children and spacing of their births, as well as socioeconomic factors, as their reasons for seeking an abortion.

The study, published in International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, is the first to document abortion statistics in Tehran. Erfani indicates that the actual rate of abortion in Tehran is probably much higher, due to underreporting, and advocates for improved reproductive health services in Iran to reduce the rate of unsafe abortion s and maternal mortality.

The movement to end the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is spreading across Senegal, with as many as 5,000 villages joining the collective effort to eliminate the procedure. “Before you would never even dare to discuss this. It was taboo. Now you have thousands of people coming to abandon it,” said Mamadou Dia, governor of the Kolda region of Senegal. Although FGM was formally outlawed in Senegal more than ten years ago, it is still practiced in areas of the country with a traditionalist base, where the national government has little influence.

The movement to end FGM has gained considerable momentum in the country over the past 15 years, due in part to the efforts of Tostan, a nonprofit group whose name means “breakthrough” in the Wolof, Senegal’s primary language. Tostan has developed educational programs to promote a comprehensive, culturally based awareness of the dangers of FGM.

According to the New York Times, an estimated 92 million girls and women have undergone FGM procedures across the continent of Africa, with FGM being practiced as a rite of passage in 28 African countries. The procedure, which involves the partial or total removal of external genitalia, is designed to decrease women’s sexual desire and is seen in many cultures as essential for a women’s suitability for marriage. The practice is also known to both increase the risk of HIV transmission and infant and maternal mortality rates.

Recently, Education as Vaccine, a Nigerian organization, petitioned the Ministry of Women Affairs to adopt a more aggressive stance on women’s rights issues in the country. The call to action is in response to the failure of the Ministry of Women Affairs to respond to a recent incident of rape, videotaped at a college campus in Abia State, Nigeria. The organization also urged the Ministry to create a support system for victims of abuse.

Members of Education as Vaccine submitted a document entitled “How many more rape victims before our leaders act?” to the ministry two weeks ago, but the ministry has yet to issue a formal response. Aisha Kishimi, a member of the organization, condemned the government for its lack of transparency on the issue, saying that, “bureaucracy is killing Nigeria.”

Plans for a rally to protest the Abia State rape were subsequently cancelled by the State Security Services (SSS), due to the SSS’s concerns over the safety of the protestors.