A new High-Level Taskforce on Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV for Eastern and Southern Africa was launched at the 16th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA). The Taskforce will engage in high-level political advocacy in support of accelerated country actions and monitoring the implementation of the draft Windhoek Declaration for Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV.

Malawi will review a series of controversial laws, including a ban on homosexual acts, Justice Minister Ephraim Chiume has said. Chiume said the review was in response to 'public opinion'. Western governments criticised Malawi last year for jailing a gay couple on sodomy charges.
On Tuesday last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US would use foreign aid to encourage countries to decriminalise homosexuality.

A group of Egyptian women’s rights advocates in Alexandria organised a protest recently calling for greater participation for women in public and political life, coinciding with the anniversary of the human rights declaration. The stand was organised by the Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women in Alexandria and took place outside the Alexandria library. The participants called for a parallel parliament for women, where their causes are presented and discussed away from the shortcomings of the current political system that helped eliminate female participation.

Alternatives Cameroon, an LGBTI organisation, reports that government policy makers last week convened to endorse a preliminary draft of a law that imposes harsher penalties for homosexual acts. The organisation revealed that the government convened a validation meeting on Friday 2 December during which a revision of the current law regarding homosexuality was discussed.

The results of the first round of parliamentary elections indicate that female representation will be minimal, if not nonexistent - a phenomenon experts and candidates attribute to cultural barriers. Not a single woman earned a seat in parliament in the first round, nor did any female candidates contest the run-offs.

The Women’s Leadership Academy will mobilise ambitious Kenyan women leaders in every village, town, county and constituency and build their skills to the level where they are able to compete with men for the various political positions in the constitution.

The feminisation of poverty, limited social mobility for women and discriminatory gender practices tied to culture are limiting factors for women's rights, says this article. With some political reforms in Morocco, can political statements contained in the new constitution be translated to tangible outcomes? And how long will it take to secure the promised women’s rights?

A recent study conducted by the African Women’s Development and communication Network (FEMNET) with support from Trust Africa has reviewed that a majority of African women still have relatively limited access to material assets, low incomes and very limited opportunities to engage in regional and foreign trade. The study was commissioned in five African countries (Egypt, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia) to assess the gender effects of the economic partnership agreements that the European Union is currently negotiating with different economic blocs in Africa, specifically how African women have benefitted from these new trade arrangements and their impact on women’s economic rights. Findings of the country studies indicates that trade arrangements in Africa and with its partners in other regions of the world has had different impacts on women and men and most often than not it affects women more negatively in their position as entrepreneurs, workers, consumers, producers, and care givers within the public and domestic spheres. Full report is available on request: [email][email protected]

The African Women’s Development and Communication Network has issued a press statement in observance of the campaign, appealing to ‘all African leaders to ensure that they uphold all international and regional instruments that protect women which they have ratified.’

'I am a woman trapped in a man’s body. People ask me whether I am a woman and I answer, no. I have no feelings to women, I prefer relationships with men.' Gulam Peterson sighs and takes a long drag from his cigarette: 'Transgender sex workers have a tough time. They often get beaten up and raped by so-called clients insisting on a full house. Going to the police is not even an option. Going to a clinic or a hospital even more so,' says the tall, lanky man, dressed today in khaki slacks and a body-hugging denim jacket.

This year, for the first time, the World Bank dedicated its 2012 annual flagship World Development Report to women as indispensable players in the global economy and launched a media campaign to 'think equal'. But while bold statements and glossy reports paint the picture of benevolent financial institutions throwing money behind the gender justice struggle, the paper trail of IFI investments leads elsewhere - down into mines and barren fields, where big business is reaping private profit at the expense of women's safety, equality and dignity.

The Nigerian senate on 29 November passed a bill prohibiting same-sex marriage. Termed Same-Sex Prohibition Bill, it stipulates a 10-year jail term for offenders. Announcing the passage of the bill, Senate president David Mark said that marriage between same sexes is alien to the Nigerian tradition and against all religious morals.

The State Council on Tuesday (29 November) adjourned till 27 December a case against the military institution to end the practice of virginity tests.The case was filed by a women who was subjected to a virginity test in military prison last March. The victim, Samira Ibrahim, was arrested by military police during a sit-in in Tahrir Square and was subject to a forced virginity test inside the military prison by unidentified military personnel.

Although there has been considerable progress towards reducing maternal and infant mortality, millions of women and children in Africa are still in need of better health services, food and sanitation. Some 250,000 mothers are estimated to die in Africa every year, leaving behind infants with reduced chances of making it beyond five years of age. Statistics by Save the Children, an international non-government organisation, reveal that African countries claim nine out of ten bottom places in a worldwide maternal health ranking that involves 164 countries.

A meeting organised by an African gay lobby group ahead of an AIDS conference in Ethiopia has sparked a rare spat between the government and religious groups. Religious leaders demand the cancellation of the gathering scheduled for Saturday, organised by African Men for Sexual Health and Rights, saying it would violate the country's conservative culture. State officials, however, are unwilling to budge having lobbied hard to win hosting rights for the influential 16th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa due to start a day later.

On the eve of the global 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, Colleen Lowe Morna is in Lusaka, Zambia, where she reflects on the numbers of victims. But she also hears about moving real-life stories, inspiring initiatives and some humour.

'Women in this second wave of the revolution are participating more, although it is more violent, they are challenging the protective circles that are built around them by the patriarchal society...On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women we are asking for your support to the Egyptian revolution, in its second wave, to move into a peaceful stage and continue our role in building our country and continue playing our role.'

Marking International Day Against Violence Against Women, Take Back the Tech! has launched an online map to document stories and experiences of women and girls who face violence online. Visit the website to find out more.

Torture has been widely viewed in the past in terms of pain and suffering inflicted on a person – usually assumed to be male – in the custody of the state. However, this narrow understanding excludes many forms of severe pain and suffering deliberately inflicted on women and girls. This report summarizes a two-day conference on the gender dimensions of the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Unconfirmed reports about the Nigerian National Assembly claim that the Nigerian Senate may have already voted on the controversial prohibition of Same-sex Marriage Bill. However, Nigeria LGBT human rights activists are uncertain about information on the status of the bill, which many believe to still be at the Senate committee on human rights and judicial matters.