Following the House’s passage on Saturday by a vote of 220-215, the Senate cleared the Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act to be sent to the White House today by a vote of 54-44. According to the Older Women’s League (OWL), the Medicare Prescription Drug bill (H.R. 1) will cause millions to lose their employer-sponsored […]
Iraq’s Governing Council named Rend Rahim Francke, an Iraqi-American woman, as its ambassador to the United States. Francke became a US citizen in 1987 and directs the Iraq Foundation, a Washington-based organization working for democracy and human rights in Iraq. According to the Seattle Times, Francke was a leading voice among the Iraqi people worried […]
The US Justice Department inspector general released a report last week citing several examples of inappropriate sexual behavior and racial comments by senior FBI managers. The report, according to the Washington Post, “reinforced earlier findings that the FBI has repeatedly let senior managers get away with egregious conduct while meting out harsher punishment to lower-level […]
A delegation of nine religious leaders released a report to the White House and the US State Department asking that the United States restore and increase funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) because the UNFPA promotes high quality and voluntary reproductive health care in China. According to PlanetWire, the delegation asked if President […]
March for Choice held over 20 events this fall in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Baltimore, Delaware, New York, and Washington, DC to activate local groups and coalitions to begin organizing delegations. Activists networked and gained valuable organizing and fundraising skills for the massive national March for Choice in Washington, DC on April 25. Pro-choice leaders Feminist Majority […]
Two high school girls at River Hills High School in Clarkesville, MD were suspended on November 5 for a kiss they claimed was an act of protest against discrimination faced by homosexual students. After climbing on top of lunch tables, Katherine Pecore and Stephanie Haaser shouted “End Homophobia Now!” and proceeded to kiss each other […]
The Medicare drug proposal agreement currently before a Congressional Conference Committee, if adopted by the House and Senate, would “do more harm than good to the Medicare system and midlife and older women,” Dr Laurie Young, Executive Director of the Older Women’s League (OWL), asserts. In her statement released this week urging Congress not to […]
Planned Parenthood of Northern New England and New Hampshire medical providers filed a lawsuit in federal court early this week to stop New Hampshire’s new law requiring parental notification for abortion from taking effect. The law requires parental notification at least 48 hours before a physician may provide an abortion to a young woman under […]
At a House hearing on Afghanistan and its draft constitution, several members of Congress, administration officials, and representatives of international organizations pressed for more protections for women’s rights in the constitution and security in Afghanistan. The Assistant Secretary of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor the State Department Lorne Craner stated, “though the draft makes wide […]
Carol Moseley Braun announced on Monday that she has hired former National Organization for Women (NOW) president Patricia Ireland as her campaign chair. “Patricia Ireland and her team bring new energy and excitement to the campaign. With more than 20 years’ experience in national politics, Patricia Ireland also expands our outreach to activists and organizers, […]
Discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS in the United States remains prevalent, according to a survey released last week by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Based on data collected through interviews with 43 community AIDS service providers over the last two years, “HIV & Civil Rights: A Report from the Frontlines of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic,” […]
Cherie Booth, a leading human rights attorney and Prime Minister Tony Blair’s wife, criticized the Bush administration’s opposition to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Booth said that the administration’s concerns about the International Criminal Court are “not well founded,” reports the Washington Post. According to the Washington Post, speaking at a panel at Georgetown University […]
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court today announced that under the state’s constitution, lesbians and gay men have a right to marry. The Court, in a 4-3 decision, gave the state legislature 180 days to come up with a legislative solution. The legislature has been considering a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a union […]
A United Nations aid worker was killed on Sunday in Ghazni by two men whom authorities believe are Taliban rebels. The 29-year-old Frenchwoman, Bettina Goislard, who was working for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), was the first UN staff to be killed in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban two years ago. […]
House-Senate conferees agreed to provide $400 million more for the global AIDS initiative for FY 2004 than the Bush administration requested. The total approved to fight global HIV/AIDS was $2.4 billion. The administration request of $2 billion, which was $1 billion less than Bush originally proposed in his $15 billion five-year plan, prompted outcry from […]
Louisiana voters elected their first woman governor in the state’s history on Saturday. Two-time Lt. Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) beat Bobby Jindal (R) with 52 percent of the vote, scoring the only victory for Democrats in the four gubernatorial elections this year. However, Blanco is a conservative Democrat, against abortion, affirmative action, and gun […]
A federal judge on Thursday ordered West Chester University to reinstate the women’s gymnastics team it had cut in April. US District Court Judge R. Barclay Surrick issued a preliminary injunction agreeing with the claims made in the lawsuit, filed on behalf of nine members of the gymnastics team by the Trial Lawyers for Public […]
Women’s rights leaders joined women Senators and Senator Tom Daschle (D-ND) today at a press conference at the Capitol supporting current filibusters against anti-women nominees. The press conference follows a 39-hour debate on judicial nominations led by Republican Senators in an attempt to force votes on some of President Bush’s most extreme nominees. “We stand […]
The Court of the Judiciary in Alabama yesterday unanimously removed from office Chief Justice Roy Moore. According to the Court, Moore brought “disrepute” to Alabama’s judiciary when he defied a federal order to remove a 2.5-ton monument to the Ten Commandments from the rotunda of the state’s Supreme Court building. Moore had secretly installed the […]
Speaking before a conference of human rights defenders at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Dr Sima Samar, Chair of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, called for an expansion in the size, range, and mandate of international peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan in order to secure women’s rights and human rights. “Even in Kabul, it is […]
