Women in the Central African Republic (CAR) are struggling to improve their status in society. One of the ways in which they are trying to achieve this is to form associations to fight their cause. The Association of Women lawyers (Association des Femmes Juristes de Centrafrique) is one of these bodies at the forefront of the endeavour.

Sao Tome and Principe President Fradique de Menezes last Thursday appointed Maria das Neves the archipelago's first woman Prime Minister, news agencies reported.

Senior leaders of the ruling African National Congress have asked President Thabo Mbeki to appeal to his Nigerian counterpart, President Olusegun Obasanjo, to grant a pardon to Amina Lawal, the woman living under threat of being stoned to death for alleged adultery.

In spite of laws against mutilation of females, this ill-treatment continues in many parts of Africa. Different organisations working against the practice, stress the need of thorough information on the damage this tradition generates on women. The practice tends to go underground when its only limitation rests on the law.
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When Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe began his fast-track land-reform program more than two years ago, he promised that female-headed households would receive 20 percent of redistributed land. That apparently hasn't happened.

The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) has planned for a 30 per cent representation of women to be in political and decision-making structures by 2005. This was said Sunday by the co-ordinator of the regional sector on Gender, Christine Warioba.

The Global Fund For Women, a United States based Grantmaking organization has announced that: "The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced today a $1 million grant to the Global Fund for Women, a grantmaking foundation that will provide smaller, strategic grants to women's groups striving to transform their communities by improving access to quality health care, education and economic opportunity for women." 

Save the Children is launching an ambitious campaign to ensure that the United States government does more to protect women and children who are the victims of war worldwide. You can donate to the campaign, write to world leaders or send an e-card to a friend telling them about the campaign.

Within the framework of the Women on the Net (WoN) and in co-operation with UNESCO Communication Development Division, the Society for International Development working with partners in ZaWon, Zanzibar, Tanzania, Help Resources and DAWN Pacific, Port Morseby and Centre for Women's Development Studies (CWDS) New Delhi will conduct a series of training WoN workshops in November, December 2002 and January 2003 for rural and poor urban women's groups working for gender equality and women's human rights. The training workshops will provide practical guidance to the participants of the use of Internet for advocacy, networking, and sharing of information and know how on women's rights and gender equality in each location. The workshops will provide training resources and support for women's groups who are involved with community women at grassroot level to build their analysis, knowledge and skills in using ICTs in support of promoting women's gender equality and human rights.

Circumcised women experience sexual arousal and orgasm as frequently as uncircumcised women, according to a study in Nigeria. The researchers also found no difference in the frequency of intercourse or age of first sexual experience between the two groups of women. These findings remove key arguments used to defend the practice, they say.

The Eastern and Southern African Symposium on Young Women and HIV/AIDS will focus on the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic on young women and design strategies for greater practical action to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS among young women.

The high cost of the female condom is forcing Zimbabwean women, particularly commercial sex workers, to reuse the device to save money, despite the risks associated with reuse, AIDS activists have warned.

Niko's is a dingy 24-hour brothel in Zambia's southern tourist town of Livingstone. It is here that young girls, with few other opportunities to make money, live and work.

They say that it takes a thief to catch another thief. Conversely, when it comes to HIV it can be said that it is much easier for a person living with the HI-virus to convincingly offer counselling and support to a recently diagnosed individual, or to one another. Khopotso Bodibe of Health-e News Service, spent time with two AIDS counsellors at the clinic during a debriefing session and spoke with them about the benefits of giving their time to helping other HIV-infected women.

This book dited by Wolfgang Benedek, Esther M. Kisaakye and Gerd Oberleitner examines the international instruments that deal with the human rights of women and, in addition, the specifically African experience in trying to implement them. Beginning with an analysis of human rights and gender issues generally, standards of equality, the work of the United Nations, and other specialised agencies, the discussion moves on to the European human rights system in comparison with other regional instruments. The book then focuses on the legal and administrative systems in African countries through which standards are implemented nationally and monitored internationally. Specific topics such as female genital mutilation, human rights of women in armed conflict, refugee women as well as women and Islam are discussed.

Improving the status of women not only betters the lives of billions worldwide, but also creates many social and environmental benefits, reports a new study by the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization. This review of projects from around the world shows that policies that improve women’s lives can enhance human rights as well as produce a handsome harvest of other effects, such as lower population growth, reduced child mortality, better management of natural resources, and healthier economies.

We note with concern that a number of women have called our offices to register their displeasure with the practice by the Registrar General requiring them to first change their surnames from their maiden ones to their married ones before they can be issued with birth certificates for their children or new passports. We would like to make it clear that there is no legal basis for this practice.

Women from an impoverished community in Zululand are being inundated with orders from overseas countries for their fashionable hats and accessories made from discarded plastic shopping bags.

Angolan women politicians, deputies and social organization representatives started Monday a seminar on basic conflict resolution techniques being run by Angolan Women Network.

A discussion forum on Gender and Nepad is currently taking place and will continue for another two weeks. Access background information and details about how to make your voice heard by following the link below.