Reporting on Conflict | Media Watch Blog

• News source:
• originally published February 2010
• BarTalk | Canadian Bar Association, BC Branch
• By James M. Bond

Legal Aid is in crisis in this province. The funding model for the Legal Services Society doesn’t work and as a result there is simply not enough money to fund the current system. As a result, there are fewer and fewer lawyers (particularly more experienced lawyers) who are willing to take on legal aid cases. Those that do so in any significant way undoubtedly believe it as the right thing to do, not the financially sound thing to do.

The Legal Services Society has cut service areas, cut staff and in the very near future will close offices everywhere but in Vancouver. There has also been an attempt to shift the form of legal aid delivery from a lawyer model to a “self-help” model. The results of “self-help” are being felt in courtrooms across the province. They are being clogged with unrepresented litigants…

It’s time to get the public involved in a real and meaningful discussion about Legal Aid in our province – what the framework should be, what should be covered, who should deliver it and how it should be funded. Last spring, a group of justice system stakeholders passed a resolution (which was adopted by the British Columbia Branch) calling on the government to hold an inquiry into the state of Legal Aid in British Columbia…

We have begun discussions with other justice system stakeholders to establish a Public Forum on Legal Aid in British Columbia. While it is still in the planning stages, this Public Forum would travel the province and hear from members of the public and others who understand the problems of the current Legal Aid system.

• News source:
• 8 March 2010
• UN News Centre

Top United Nations officials are marking International Women’s Day by calling for greater support to women, particularly in developing countries, so that they can be empowered and contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the eight globally agreed anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline.

In his message for the Day, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed that “the third Millennium Development Goal – to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment – is central to all the rest. When women are denied the opportunity to better themselves and their societies, we all lose.

• News source:
• 8 March 2010
• Hamilton Spectator
• By Lee Prokaska

Until all of us have made it, none of us have made it.

– Rosemary Brown, 1930-2003, Canadian politician

It is important on International Women’s Day we mark the progress made by so many women the world over.

Today provides an opportunity for all of us to celebrate the accomplishments of women, past and present, who fought for women’s rights, who pushed their way into old boys clubs to become members of government or doctors or astronauts.

• News source:
• 8 March 2010
• Canoe.ca

Canadian men on average get paid more than 20% more than their female colleagues, giving the country one of the highest gender gaps among the 30 OECD nations.

Only Korea, Japan and Germany rank higher than Canada in paying men more than women. Canada is in fourth place along with the United Kingdom, according to Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development statistics.

• News source:
• 8 March 2010
• Vancouver Sun
• 'In all thy sons command' sends a message that is both insidious and sexist, while 'In all of us command' hurts no one
• By Shelley Fralic

Ironic, isn’t it, given that today is International Women’s Day, when the world stops for a moment to reflect on the advances society has made on the rocky path to gender equality.

In Canada, like most modern industrialized countries, there are many achievements to celebrate this past century, even as there is still much work to be done: Women can vote, they work outside the home, they wear what they want in public and they speak up with impunity about injustice and inequity, the universal goal that of rectifying the social, economic and sexual prejudices of the past.

• News source:
• 8 March 2010
• Global News Journal
• By Sangeeta Shastry

Men are still paid more than women in Europe but the European Union is promising to narrow the gap.

The executive European Commission set out its plans to address the pay gap between men and women at a news conference to coincide with International Women’s Day, saying women were on average earning only 82 percent of male rates in the EU.

European Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Commissioner Viviane Reding said the Commission would work with member states to raise awareness and did not rule out using legislative measures to promote wage equality.

• News source:
• 8 March 2010
• Nepalnews.com

The political standing of women has “improved” in Nepal in comparison to many countries in Asia and the Pacific where works are being done to enhance women’s participation in politics, according to a new Asia Pacific Human Development Report on Gender.

“The political voice of women has improved in Nepal with the recent secured 1/3 quota in the Constituent Assembly. In comparison, only about 1/3 of countries in Asia and the Pacific have quota systems to enhance women’s participation in politics,” says the report titled, “Power, Voice and Rights: A Turning Point for Gender Equality in Asia and the Pacific” launched on the occasion of International Women’s Day in the capital on Monday.

• News source:
• 8 March 2010
• IPS
• By Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI – With assured backing from India’s main opposition groups, the ruling Congress party hopes to see voted through in the upper house of Parliament Monday a bill reserving 33 percent of seats in national and provincial legislatures for women.

• News source:
• 8 March 2010
• Huffington Post
• By Indra Adnan

Is there a connection between the lack of soft power in public life and the lack of women in top leadership positions? Are women inherently more capable of soft power than men? With soft power increasingly becoming the ‘weapon of choice’ for international as well as community relations, is it an imperative to bring more women into public life? This was one of the key questions which prompted Lee Chalmers and myself to begin the The Downing Street Project, one year ago.

With 51% of the electorate yet only 19% of MPs in the UK Parliament female, it seemed like a worthwhile exploration.

• News source:
• 8 March 2010
• Huffington Post
• By Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Secretary General, NATO

On this International Women’s Day, it is fitting that we reflect upon United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, adopted almost ten years ago. With this resolution, the United Nations recognized that conflict disproportionately impacts civilians, and particularly women. It remains a powerful call to protect those who are most vulnerable in conflicts and their aftermath, and to enhance the participation of women in building peace and security.

• News source:
• 5 March 2010
• Media Global
• By Allyn Gaestel

Women in post-conflict Rwanda are working with Women for Women International, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting development for women survivors of conflict, to improve all aspects of their lives through the Commercial Integrated Farming Initiative (CIFI). The CIFI program creates links between the public, private, and nonprofit sector to empower women as autonomous economic actors. CIFI will work with 3000 Rwandan women over a three-year implementation period.

• News source:
• originally published 26 February 2010
• Huffington Post
• By Sasha Galbraith

It was always just a matter of time. As more women graduated with advanced degrees, entered the workforce and gained relevant experience, we would see an abundance of talented women rise to the top of big corporations. But the so-called pipeline has sprung a leak and/or has an anti-female filter attached to it. A recent survey by Catalyst, a non-profit organization that works to promote women and diversity in business, found that women with MBA degrees lag behind their male counterparts in both advancement and compensation, and they don’t ever catch up…

The report pins the blame on implicit bias in the recruiting, selection, job assignment and promotion processes. Women start their post-MBA careers at overwhelmingly lower levels in the organization than men, and they do not move up the ranks as quickly…

Not asking is a problem we women have. A study done at Hewlett-Packard found that women would not apply for promotion opportunities unless they felt they had 100 percent of the qualifications, whereas men applied as long as they met 60 percent of the requirements. In their book Women Don’t Ask, Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever found that the starting salaries of men graduating from the Carnegie Mellon University master’s program were $4,000 higher than the women. The reason was that eight times more men than women (57 percent of men versus 7 percent of women) negotiated their starting salaries.

• News source:
• 23 February 2010
• IntLawGrrls Voices
• By Fiona de Londras

• News source:
• Nobel Women's Initiative

Under the leadership of women Nobel Peace Prize Laureates and our partner organization, the Women’s League of Burma, the Nobel Women’s Initiative is planning an International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women in Burma.

The Tribunal will take place in New York City on March 2, 2010 and will coincide with the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women meeting. Eminent Judges (including Nobel Peace Laureates) will hear personal testimony from several women of Burma who will share their personal stories of having lived through a range of human rights violations under the military regime in Burma.

• News source:
• 15 February 2010
• War and Peace
• By Sidney Traynham

Back in 1998 when the Afghan Taliban was large and in charge, a British aid worker friend of mine was stopped past curfew at a checkpoint outside Kabul. He had traveled from Peshawar, Pakistan across the border with a Pashto translator and a bag full of “illicit and pornographic materials.”

My friend, Andy Bowerman, was taken and detained overnight as Taliban officials interrogated his translator and tried to determine what to do about these numerous sexual objects and disturbing images — also known as condoms and sexual health workshop materials.

“We ended up being put in a room with 30 Taliban officials from the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice,” said Andy, now an Anglican priest. He recalls how he and his translator were told: “Do your presentation for us and we’ll decide what we do with you afterwards.”

So Andy launched into the workshop of his life, showing slides on reproductive health and discussing the risks from various sexually transmitted diseases. He decided to close the session in his typical way with a game for these vice and virtue experts — and so one of the men was sent out to procure several cucumbers from the local bazaar.

• News source:
• 11 February 2010
• Amnesty International | Human Rights Now
• By Sarah Hager

On a day to day basis in Zimbabwe, police officers go about their business preventing crime and protecting citizens; but these officers are also deployed to repress those same citizens. Students, lawyers, trade unionists, political activists have all felt the unrelenting force of anti-riot batons as they violently disperse Zimbabweans gathering in the streets to demand human rights, equitable treatment, and greater civil liberties.

Because they march so frequently, the members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) are often the target of this violent repression. WOZA is a grass roots movement of primarily women activists that demand a better life for all Zimbabweans through non-violent civic activism. They are grandmothers, sisters, daughters, aunts and cousins who sing and dance in the streets calling for a future for their children, families, friends and neighbors that incorporates strong human rights standards and civil liberties. And because of this, they are frequently violently beaten by the anti-riot police.

• News source:
• 10 February 2010
• Change.org
• By Amanda Kloer

This week, athletes from countries around the world are converging upon Vancouver, Canada, in the hope of bringing home a gold medal and Olympic glory for their country. Also this week, human traffickers in the form of pimps are flooding to the city hoping to bring home a very different kind of gold — the cash they get from selling women and children in prostitution.

• News source:
• 10 February 2010
• Amnesty International | Human Rights Now
• By Daphne Jayasinghe

I was honored to attend the event to mark the re-introduction of the International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA) on Thursday February 4th. There was quite a turn out – politicians, activists and advocates all committed to ending the global scourge of violence against women and all gathered to celebrate the long awaited introduction of this landmark legislation.

• News source:
• 9 February 2010
• Common Ground News Service
• By Maha Akeel

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia – Perhaps one of the most misunderstood and stereotyped countries in the world is Saudi Arabia, particularly when it comes to its women.

Some of the negative perceptions surrounding Saudi women could be justified. After all, we are the only country that does not allow women to drive, though the government has declared numerous times that it has no objections to giving women licenses. Saudi women are also denied many of the rights granted to women in Islam. Under the Saudi system, male guardians control decisions concerning a woman’s education, employment, travel, marriage, divorce, childcare, legal proceedings and health care–basically, every aspect of her life. It is a system that renders half the country’s population helpless dependents.

Nevertheless, there are Western perceptions of Saudi women that need to be addressed objectively.

• News source:
• abstract added 8 February 2010
• Abstract on Zunia
• By WHO

The relationship between gender and violence is complex. Evidence suggests, however, that gender inequalities increase the risk of violence by men against women and inhibit the ability of those affected to seek protection…