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Stop Violence Against Women -
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National
VAW Monitors who contributed to this month’s newsletter include: Armenia.
STOPVAW Website News
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Expert’s
Corner: Presentations from the 2008 Conference on Domestic Violence Legal
Reform
Twenty-four
presentations from women’s advocates, police, judges, lawyers, and
representatives of NGOs and IGOs have been added to the 2008 Regional
Conference on Domestic Violence Legal Reform. (More information) |
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International and Regional News
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Four NGOs
Issue Collective Statement against Sexual Exploitation at the 52nd Session of
the UN Commission on the Status of Women
On
February 28, 2008, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, the
Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, UNANIMA
International, and the Mouvement pour l’Abolition de la Prostitution et la
Pornographie issued an oral collective statement at the Fifty-Second Session
of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. The statement urged
the Commission take immediate action to address sexual exploitation by
changing international laws and policies, as well as implement political and
economic stipulations, to fully criminalize the sex industry. (More information) |
Women Are
Still Discriminated against in All Countries, Says UN Human Rights Chief
Laws
that discriminate against women are still to be found on the statute books of
virtually every country in the world, and repeated promises by states to
revise or repeal them are not being honoured, the UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights Louise Arbour said Friday. Arbour, who was speaking on the eve
of International Women's Day, said a newly released report commissioned by
OHCHR shows that "the effects of this failure to create true legal
parity between men and women in all sorts of social, economic and political
arenas is having a detrimental effect on women in many countries – sometimes
to a devastating degree." (More information) |
New UN
Campaign Calls on Men to End Violence against Women
UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced a new global initiative to end
violence against women. The “UNITE to End Violence Against Women” campaign
will extend through 2015, and targets men in government, sports, business,
religion, and the arts. (More information) |
UN Human
Rights Council Update for 19 March 2008
The
morning session of the Human Rights Council (the Council) saw the opening of
Item 9 on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of
intolerance, and follow-up and implementation of the Durban Declaration and
Programme of Action. The midday meeting of the Council began with a
presentation of the report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Durban
Intergovernmental Working Group on the elaboration of complementary
standards, although discussion on the matter was suspended until the general
debate under Item 9 on Tuesday 25 March. (More information) |
UN Human
Rights Council Update for 18 March 2008
The
Human Rights Council (the Council) heard comments on the report of the
Special Adviser on the prevention of genocide, presented on the previous day.
The Council reviewed several mandates. The afternoon meeting was devoted to a
panel discussion on ‘intercultural dialogue on human rights.’ (More information) |
UN Human
Rights Council Update for 17 March 2008
The
Human Rights Council (the Council) spent most of this morning meeting in
closed session, discussing the report of the Working Group on Situations as
part of the complaint procedure. The afternoon meeting of the Council was
dedicated to the interactive dialogue on the report of the Special Rapporteur
on the situation of human rights in the Sudan. (More
information) |
UN Human
Rights Council Update for 14 March 2008
The
morning meeting of the Human Rights Council (the Council) began with the
conclusion of the general debate on Item 4 relating to the situation of human
rights in specific countries. In the afternoon, the Council continued the
review of mandates, which it had started at its 6th session in September
2007, including the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women. (More information) |
Women with
Missing Relatives: Recognizing the Plight of Those Left Behind
Since
the vast majority of those who are killed or disappear are men, the burden of
trying to find out what happened to them usually falls to the women in their
family. On International Women's Day (8 March), the International Committee
of the Red Cross (ICRC) highlights its commitment to easing the plight of
these women. (More information) |
Combating
HIV and Violence against Women: Women Won't Wait
Women
Won't Wait (WWW) is a global campaign by organizations and networks from the
global North and South that addresses the intersection between HIV and AIDS
and violence against women. The Campaign recently marked its first
anniversary. The Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) has
interviewed Shamillah Wilson, the Campaign's Communications Manager about the
journey so far. (More information) |
Global
Campaign Launched to End Violence against Women
Launching
a multi-year campaign to end violence against women, United Nations
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made an urgent call this morning to world
leaders, Member States, lawmakers, United Nations entities, civil society,
the private sector, the media and individuals to work together to end such
violence. (More information) |
In Women's
Commission, Deputy Secretary-General Launches Pledge to End Female Genital
Mutilation
Launching
an appeal by 10 United Nations agencies to eliminate female genital
mutilation, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro called on Member States
to join the Organization as full partners in the fight to end the practice,
respond to its consequences and hold those who perpetrated it criminally
responsible for inflicting harm on girls and women. (More information) |
UN Economic
and Social Council Encourages Women's Participation in Conflict Prevention
and Peacebuilding
Women
must be allowed to participate fully in peacebuilding and conflict prevention
in order to end sexual violence against women as a method of warfare and
ensure women’s full legal, socio-economic and political rights after the
fighting was over, several speakers told the Commission on the Status of
Women this morning. (More information) |
|
National News
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Armenia
· Extracts From “Most
of the Pimps are Former Prostitutes” (More information) · Annual Income
Received From Trafficking is 32 Million Dollars (More information) · Presentation on
Regional Project on Combating Trafficking Will Take Place in Yerevan (More information) · Criminal Mosaic
11.01.2008 (More information) · Gender Issues From
Different Standpoints (More information) · “It is Not
Customary” (More information) · Experts: Gender Inequality in Armenia Leads to
Domestic Violence (More information) |
Czech Republic
· Brno Seeks to Double
Sheltered Accommodation for Victims of Domestic Abuse (More information) · Czech Chamber Passes
EU-required Anti-discrimination Bill (More information) |
India
· Indian Government
Pays Families to Improve Gender Balance (More information) |
Lebanon
· Lebanese Non-Profit
Organization Launches Family Violence Legal Reform Campaign (More information) |
Pakistan
· PAKISTAN: Domestic
violence endemic, but awareness slowly rising (More information) |
USA
· Domestic Violence
Custody Cases Could Go to the Supreme Court (More information) |
Uzbekistan
· Uzbek Parliament
Adopts Trafficking Law (More information) |
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New Research and Reports
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European
Union Statistics Looking at Gender Gaps
Eurostat,
the Statistical Office of the European Communities, has released the
publication "The life of women and men in Europe." (More information) |
New Report
States That Violence Is a Barrier to Girls' Education
Amnesty
International recently released “Safe Schools: Every Girl’s Right,” a new
report that documents how girls are denied their right to education because
of violence. (More information) |
Latest
Report on Addressing Sexual Violence in Military Academies
In
a report on the progress made by the nation’s military academies in
addressing sexual assault and harassment, the Government Accountability
Office (GAO) concluded that much work is needed. The Department of Defense
(DOD) has put into place some important institutional structures, such as
sexual assault response coordinators and training programs. However, there
are still serious problems with reporting and analyzing data as well as
program assessment. (More information) |
Sexual and
Domestic Violence Have Lasting and Serious Effects
Several
studies recently published in medical journals show that sexual and domestic
violence impact health care costs, the likelihood of needing medical care,
and the dangers of pregnancy and childbirth. (More information) |
State-by-State
Teen Dating Violence Report Card 2008
Break
the Cycle, a Californian NGO centered on ending domestic and dating violence
and promoting healthy relationship among teens, issued a report that assesses
“the climate of each state’s civil domestic violence restraining order laws
and their impact on teens seeking protection from abusive relationships.” (More information) |
Grace,
Tenacity, and Eloquence: The Struggle for Women’s Rights in Africa
The
book "Grace, Tenacity, and Eloquence: The Struggle for Women's Rights in
Africa," affirms the common perception that women in Africa face deep
challenges. Some of these challenges include: being the main victims of
violence in conflicts, death due to pregnancy and childbirth, being three
times more likely to contract HIV/AIDS than men, and enduring female genital
mutilation in rates higher than anywhere else in the world. (More information) |
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to The VAW Monitor
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The VAW Monitor is a free,
monthly newsletter sent out on the first of each month. Printable versions of
The VAW Monitor are also available on the website at http://www.stopvaw.org/The_VAW_Monitor.html.
To subscribe to The VAW Monitor, please
fill out the form provided at http://www.stopvaw.org/The_VAW_Monitor.html. |
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About
STOPVAW
|
The Stop Violence Against Women website (STOPVAW)
is a forum for information, advocacy and change. Minnesota
Advocates for Human Rights developed this website as a
tool for the promotion of women's human rights in the countries of Central
and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the the former Soviet Union (FSU), Current staff members of
Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights involved with the development of STOPVAW
include Angela Bortel, Mary Ellingen, Mary Ellison,
Mary Hunt, Rosalyn Park, Robin Phillips, and For more
information about STOPVAW, please contact the Website Administrator at stopvaw@advrights.org. |
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