As the world observes the first International Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Day, Amnesty International has appealed to all governments to ensure effective protection of girls from female genital mutilation (FGM). "Governments are responsible for protecting women and girls' physical and mental integrity. Moving against FGM should be part of a comprehensive approach to protect women from violence and assert their equal status in society," Amnesty International said. During its last meeting in February 2003, the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC) adopted a "Declaration of Zero Tolerance to FGM on the African Continent".

"I cannot pretend that every thing is rosy in a polygamous marriage. There is a lot of misery and hatred which is sometimes beyond description." These were the sentiments of a wife in a polygamous family with three other women in Mangochi. "I am often subjected to mistreatment just because I'm now regarded as a spent force," says Rosemary Jamali, the first wife to a small-scale fisherman in the lakeshore district. Polygamy, says Linly Kantengeni, a women's rights activist, does not only pose a physical threat to most women but is also a psychological ailment.

Meseret, from the Lalibela district in northern Ethiopia, was only 13 when she became pregnant. Married at 12, her underdeveloped body was not ready for the stress of giving birth. After six days of gruelling labour her child was finally born, but it was dead. As a result of the long labour, Meseret suffered crippling injuries.

"The process of globalisation has been affecting the Indian society in various ways. Though it is primarily an economic phenomenon, its impact in other walks of life is being strongly felt and there seems no possibility of its disappearance. Taking the northwest region of India as the focus of analysis, this volume brings together sixteen contributions made by the scholars working in this area to focus on four issues, namely, identity formation, development, gender and the diaspora.

"Within the large perspective of each aspect that has been examined, various issues and controversies have been provided scholarly treatment. In the backdrop of the fact that globalisation is here to stay, the issue of how to handle it so as to benefit from its positive aspects is a normative one that requires certain policy measures. In the process, the political economy of development and the role of the state have remained the major focus of investigation. The transnationalisation of the Indians has gained recognition in the light of the recent announcement by the Prime Minister that the government was taking into consideration the issue of granting dual citizenship to diasporic Indians. The growth in the studies on the Indian diaspora has also lent credence to the view that diaspora communities are important components of the globalisation process." (jacket)

* Edited by Paramjit S. Judge, S.L. Sharma, Satish K. Sharma and Gurpreet Bal
New Delhi, Rawat, 2003, x, 302 p., tables, $30. ISBN 81-7033-811-5

Through its digital diaspora initiative, Unifem is setting up the E-quality Fund for African Women and Innovation. Unifem Director Noeleen Heyzer launched an appeal for an E-quality fund during the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) Gender Caucus high level panel.

Women's Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace (WLP) is an international, non-governmental organisation (NGO) that empowers women and girls in the Global South to re-imagine and re-structure their roles in their families, communities, and societies. WLP's quarterly eNewsletter features interviews with prominent women leaders and updates on WLP's programs implemented in cooperation with our partner organisations.

The abduction of women and children in African military conflicts is on the rise, according to a United Nations report released last week. "Young girls are being taken hostage and abducted for marriage to military commanders and long-haul truck drivers," said the Economic Commission for Africa , a UN body based in Ethiopia .

Efforts to fight the HIV/Aids epidemic are failing because they are not reaching women and girls, who are most affected in the poorest countries, according to Peter Piot, Executive Director of the United Nations Aids Programme. Dr Piot was speaking at the launch of a new body called the Global Coalition on Women and Aids, which aims to take up the cause of women in Africa and Asia who do not have status or economic power, and are so subordinate to their man that they cannot negotiate even the use of a condom within marriage.

Ghanaian women's rights groups have called for stronger laws against female genital mutilation (FGM) following two landmark rulings in northern Ghana against the traditional practice.

War, and peace, aren't what they used to be. In civil wars, the targets are mainly civilians. And when strife erupts in one of the world's dozens of trouble spots, Rosalind Boyd says, all too often it's women and children first - in the worst possible ways. "Men and women experience wars differently," said Boyd, director of the Centre for Developing-Area Studies at McGill University. "Men are primarily the ones who are holding the guns, and women and children are primarily the victims."

Parents of 40 girls who fled from their homes in Marakwet District to escape female genital mutilation (FGM) are locked in a dispute with a human rights organisation. And now the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (CHRD) is strongly protesting against the alleged harassment of its staff by the girls’ parents, who are demanding their daughters back. The centre’s executive director, Mr Ken Wafula, has told a news conference that his staff had been threatened with unspecified consequences if they do not return the girls to their homes.

AMANITARE, the African Partnership for sexual and reproductive health and rights, celebrates African Women’s Health and Rights Day on February 4th 2004. Women’s organisations across Africa will mark the day which this year commemorates the 10th anniversary of the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) to raise awareness of sexual and reproductive health and rights at the local and national levels with the slogan: “I Celebrate, Protest, Demand – A decade of celebrating progress and reclaiming our rights”. This year’s activities will also call on the governments to fully implement the 20-year ICPD Programme of Action (PoA). http://www.amanitare.org

Hadija begs for money in the bustling alleys of the ancient walled city of Rabat, Morocco's capital. "My husband repudiated me when I was three months pregnant," she says. Under Morocco's old family code Khadija's husband and thousands of other Moroccan men could verbally divorce their wives at any time, and their decision was legally binding. Khadija was thrown out of her family home.

A judge in northern Ghana has sentenced a 70-year-old woman to five years in prison for violating a ban on circumcising girls, saying the tough sentence should deter an "outmoded custom." Ghana in 1994 outlawed the practice of cutting away parts of girls' sexual organs, but the long-held rite of passage has continued in parts of West Africa, mostly in rural areas where education campaigns are only beginning to reach largely illiterate and highly traditional populations. Prosecution is rare, throughout West Africa.

Maria do Ceu Silva Monteiro, a 38-year-old woman judge, has been appointed president of the supreme court of Guinea-Bissau, filling a post that had been vacant for more than two years. She was elected on Monday on a six to one vote by other senior judges in this former Portuguese colony of 1.3 million people on the coast of West Africa.

More than 4,000 women delegates will gather in Nairobi next month for a conference on Aids. The three-day meeting will empower participants with the skills to fight the scourge, Health minister Charity Ngilu has announced.

Obesity is so revered among Mauritania's white Moor Arab population that the young girls are sometimes force-fed to obtain a weight the government has described as "life-threatening". A generation ago, over a third of women in the country were force-fed as children - Mauritania is one of the few African countries where, on average, girls receive more food than boys.

On the surface, Mende Nazer is a bright, bubbly, confident young woman, quick to break into a beautiful infectious smile, which lights up her whole face. Nothing to suggest that she spent eight years of her life as a slave after being captured from her village in Sudan's Nuba Mountains.

Condemning the recent murders of women and children in clan-related conflicts in southern Somalia, a senior United Nations official has called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

The Global Fund for Women (GFW) aims to support women's groups that advance the human rights of women and girls. GFW is a grant making foundation supporting women's human rights organisations around the world working to address critical issues such as gaining economic independence, increasing girls' access to education and stopping violence against women.