Demonstrating against the abortion ban in Nicaragua, 28 September 2011 (c) Fondo Centro Americano de Mujeres
By Stephanie Schlitt, Amnesty International’s Researcher and Policy Advisor on Gender
Today, at the United Nations General Assembly, the UN’s expert on the right to health, Anand Grover, will present a ground-breaking report. The report exposes how states are putting women’s and girls’ lives and health at risk through criminal laws and other misguided legal restrictions that deny girls and women access to sexual and reproductive health information and services and the ability to make decisions about their sexual and reproductive lives.
The report concludes that restrictions on abortion and contraception, the criminalization of pregnant women’s conduct (such as making drug use when pregnant a criminal offence), as well as restrictions on access to information on sexual and reproductive health violate girls’ and women’s rights to sexual and reproductive health. This report supports earlier UN expert findings that such laws place states in breach of their international human rights obligations. Continue reading ‘Rights – not criminalization – for girls and women, says UN health expert’
Maternal Mortality Mission, Sierra Leone, January 2009. © Amnesty International
By Lucy Freeman form the Africa Programme, Amnesty International,
On Tuesday, we launched our new report on maternal health care in Sierra Leone.
View report here At a Crossroads: Sierra Leone’s Free Health Care Policy. At the launch, the Ministry of Health committed themselves to implementing the recommendations contained in the report.
The report describes how pregnant women and girls in Sierra Leone continue to face serious challenges in accessing drugs and medical care that are crucial to ensure safe pregnancy and childbirth.
The government launched a major initiative in April 2010 to provide free care to pregnant women and girls. However, much remains to be done. The healthcare system remains dysfunctional in many respects. Disparities persist between rural and urban maternal health services; the quality of care is frequently substandard, and many women continue to pay for essential drugs, despite the free care policy. Continue reading ‘“Only one survived”… At a crossroads for women in Sierra Leone’
Ana María Pizarro, con algunas de las muchas cartas que recibieron las nueve defensoras. © Amnistía Internacional
A fin de aumentar la sensibilización en torno a la campaña Escribe por los derechos de este mes, Ana María Pizarro, defensora de los derechos de las mujeres en Nicaragua, recuerda cómo los mensajes de esperanza y apoyo que llegaron de todo el mundo le ayudaron a ella y a sus ocho compañeras a continuar con su trabajo.
Ana María y sus compañeras fueron sometidas a una investigación judicial que, al parecer, carecía de fundamento, después de que una ONG respaldada por la Iglesia católica presentó una denuncia en su contra por su trabajo para promover y proteger los derechos de las mujeres y las niñas.
La investigación duró dos años y medio, lo que supone mucho más tiempo del permitido por la legislación nicaragüense. La investigación finalmente se archivó en abril de 2010, y no dio lugar a la presentación de cargos contra las nueve defensoras. Continue reading ‘Las cartas de solidaridad nos dieron fuerza para luchar por los derechos de las mujeres en Nicaragua’
Report on violence against women in Tajikistan
By Valentine Sebile, coordinator of Amnesty International’s 16 Days of Activism campaign
The 16 Days of Activism is an international campaign that aims at raising awareness of gender-based violence. It started on 25 November and ends on 10 December.
As i said in my earlier post, we hope that you’ll use this blog as a platform to exchange views, ideas, photographs and any other related materials during the campaign.
It’s often difficult to explain what the words “gender based-violence” means. But let’s try….
Gender-based violence is a notion that we use to define the fact that a person, just for being a woman or a man suffers discrimination that prevents her/him from enjoying her/his rights.
Continue reading ‘16 Days of Activism: Violence against women is a worldwide scandal’
By Valentine Sebile, coordinator of Amnesty International’s 16 Days of Activism campaign
If you tried I bet you could list at least three examples of violence against women in your daily life. Think about those examples: Who is telling women how they should live and behave? Does it have to be this way? How can life be different? Who has the power to change things?
You have that power: By making it clear that violence against women is unacceptable, by speaking out in your school, workplace and home whenever women are insulted, belittled, or objectified, and by taking part in campaigns telling the authorities that these problems can and must be resolved. Continue reading ‘16 days to spread the word against gender violence’
