WUNRN
http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2015
Human Rights Watch World Report 2015 – Women??
Direct Link to Full 660-Page Report: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2015_web.pdf
INDIVIDUAL COUNTRY REPORTS INCLUDED
World
Report 2015 is Human Rights Watch’s 25th annual review of human rights
practices around the globe. It summarizes key human rights issues in more than
90 countries and territories worldwide.
WUNRN
would like to see far more GENDER/WOMEN inclusion in this important report.
Though there are some references to women’s rights and issues (See below –
Afghanistan), there is limited gender specificity or intersectionality.
However, Human Rights Watch does state:
The World Report does not have separate chapters
addressing our thematic work
but instead incorporates such material directly into
the country entries. Please
consult the Human Rights Watch website for more
detailed treatment of our work
on children’s rights, women’s rights, arms and
military issues, business and
human rights, health and human rights, disability
rights, international justice, terrorism
and counterterrorism, refugees and displaced people,
and lesbian, gay, bisexual,and
transgender people’s rights.
Excerpt from Country Chapter: AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan - Women’s Rights
Women’s rights remained under threat in 2014. In
January, a provision in Afghanistan’s draft criminal procedure code became the
latest in a series of attempts to roll back the already fragile legal
protections for women and girls. As passed by parliament, article 26 of the
draft code included “relatives of the accused,” among a list of people who “cannot
be questioned as witnesses” in criminal proceedings, thereby making successful
prosecutions of those committing domestic violence extremely unlikely. In late
February, President Hamid Karzai signed the law but amended article 26 by
decree to state that relatives of the accused are permitted to testify
voluntarily. It also allows compelled testimony from any “complainant or
informant regarding the crime” and slightly narrows the definition of “relatives.”
However, the amended article still exempts many family members from being
called as witnesses. In June, the government rejected recommendations from UN
member countries to abolish prosecution of women for so-called moral crimes.
Other setbacks for
women’s rights in 2014 included a continuing series
of attacks on, threats toward, and assassinations of, high-profile women,
including police women and
activists, of Afghanistan’s landmark 2009 Law
on the Elimination of Violence Against Women remained poor, with many cases of
violence against women ignored or resolved through “mediation” that denied
victims their day in court. More positively, women’s rights activists through
hard work and constant advocacy were able to inject some discussion of women’s
rights into the election process. This included a successful effort by the
Afghan Women’s Network (AWN) to obtain signatures from Ashraf Ghani and
Abdullah Abdullah, after both survived the first election round, to commit to
following 30 recommendations that support women’s rights. AWN and its member
organizations planned to follow up with the new president to ensure his
compliance.