In an unprecedented vote on Tuesday, Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted 218-185 to approve a motion expressing a “lack of confidence” in Harvard president Lawrence Summers. A second motion offering a milder rebuke of Summer’s comments and “managerial style” was also passed 253 to 137, with 18 abstentions, reports the Associated Press. Summers […]
US District Judge Denise Page Hood has halted enforcement of an abortion ban in Michigan until a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the ban is considered in the coming months. The ban was scheduled to take effect on March 30. As it is written, the ban could potentially criminalize even first-trimester abortions, according to the […]
Japan’s travel industry signed a code of conduct against child sex tourism in an attempt to stop the practice by Japanese clients in Southeast Asia. The code, which was launched by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), also calls upon travel agents to train personnel on how to avoid working with child sex tourism businesses […]
A California judge ruled on Monday that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and a violation of civil rights. Judge Richard Kramer of the San Francisco County Superior Court wrote in his ruling, “The state’s protracted denial of equal protection cannot be justified simply because such constitutional violation has become traditional,” the San […]
The southern state of Andhra Pradesh, India is offering to pay families $2,300 when their daughter turns 20 years old as an incentive to encourage families to keep their female babies. The sex ratio of females to males in India is 927 to 1,000, making it one of the lowest female-to-male ratios in the world, […]
US District Court Judge C Lynwood Smith ruled that anti-abortion extremist Eric Robert Rudolph could be tried under a federal arson law, which would allow him to face the death penalty if convicted. According to the Associated Press, the defense attorneys pushed for Rudolph to be tried under the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic […]
The “Best Help for Rape Victims Act” was introduced last week to require the Department of Justice to include emergency contraception (EC) in the National Protocol for Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examination. The first-ever national medical guidelines for treating sexual-assault victims omitted EC as an option to prevent unwanted pregnancies, despite the inclusion of such […]
A leading human rights organization issued a report last week documenting how the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has not taken the necessary steps to prosecute the militiamen and renegade soldiers responsible for raping and beating tens of thousands of women and girls in the eastern part of the country. “Sexual violence […]
Doris Matsui was sworn into the House of Representatives on Thursday after winning a race to fill the seat of her husband, former Representative Robert Matsui (D-CA), who died in January. Representative Matsui (D-CA) won Tuesday’s special election with 69 percent of the vote in a field of 12 candidates. Jeff Raimundo, campaign consultant for […]
Thomas Griffith, nominated to a seat on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, faced the Senate Judiciary Committee in a confirmation hearing on Tuesday. Griffith has been widely criticized for failing to obtain a license to practice law in Utah when he served as a lawyer for Brigham Young University […]
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed an amendment offered by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) last week urging Saudi Arabia to allow women to vote and run for office. Boxer stated that “the Saudi government’s denial of basic rights to women is not only wrong, it hurts Saudi Arabia’s economic development, modernization, and prosperity. It is […]
Earlier this week, President Bush nominated John Bolton to be the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, angering women’s rights and human rights advocates. According to Citizens for Global Solutions, Bolton has a history of hostility towards the United Nations, international law, and the International Criminal Court (ICC). As President George W. Bush’s Undersecretary […]
Over 200 women’s organizations have sent a letter to Russian president Vladimir Putin calling for him to create and fund a national committee on gender equality, which is increasingly necessary as women’s status continues to decline in the country. Currently, women’s organizations in Russia wield no influence in the government’s decision-making process, even on topics […]
An amendment to legislation that would have barred anti-abortion extremists from escaping legal judgments and fines by declaring bankruptcy was defeated in the Senate on Tuesday with a vote of 53-46. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), who introduced the amendment with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) […]
Afghanistan’s first female provincial governor was appointed by President Hamid Karzai last week. Habiba Sorabi, former Minister of Women’s Affairs, has been selected to head the central province of Bamiyan, Afghanistan. According to Agence France Presse, 200 people went to the streets to protest her appointment but were soon overrun by 1,000 supporters who came […]
On Friday Judge Judy Hersher of the Sacramento County Superior Court in California ruled that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) illegally delayed the enforcement of a law that would have required hospitals to maintain a one-to-five ratio of nurses to patients. The law, signed in 1999 by former Governor Gray Davis (D), set a ratio of […]
A judge has ruled that a pharmacist who refused to fill a woman’s prescription for birth control on religious grounds should be reprimanded. In July 2002, Neil Noesen, a pharmacist at Kmart, refused to fill a University of Wisconsin student’s oral contraceptive prescription, arguing that it would be a sin under his religion, reports Medical […]
A report released last week by the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) brought to light the dire state of family planning funding in the United States, made worse in recent years by anti-choice legislation and restrictive budget proposals. According to the report, publicly funded family planning services have declined in 27 states and the District of […]
Several hundred Kuwaiti women demanded support for women’s rights outside Kuwait’s parliament while the all-male assembly was considering a new law that would grant women the right to vote. Last May, Kuwait’s cabinet approved a law granting women political rights, reports BBC News. According to Reuters, Kuwaiti newspapers are reporting that Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheik […]
The (Un)Changing Face of the Ivy League, a report conducted by a graduate student group at Yale University, found that women and minorities at Ivy League schools have made little progress breaking into the tenure track faculty ranks, and are instead becoming a larger part of the growing group of highly qualified but non tenure […]
