Human Security

The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS)

Submitted by asklar on Fri, 04/27/2012 - 10:20am

On average, 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States, based on a survey conducted in 2010. Over the course of a year, that equals more than 12 million women and men. Those numbers only tell part of the story—more than 1 million women are raped in a year and over 6 million women and men are victims of stalking in a year. These findings emphasize that sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence are important and widespread public health problems in the United States.

URL:

http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/nisvs/

Violence Against Women in Melanesia and Timor-Leste Progress made since the 2008 Office of Development Effectiveness report

Submitted by asklar on Fri, 04/27/2012 - 10:15am

This report builds on an earlier report published in 2008 by the Office of Development Effectiveness (ODE) of AusAID that assessed current approaches to addressing violence against women and girls in five of Australia’s partner countries: Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Timor-Leste.

URL:

http://www.icrw.org/publications/violence-against-women-melanesia-and-timor-leste

Member Organization:

International Center for Research on Women

Monthly State Update: Major Developments in 2012

Submitted by asklar on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 11:04am

This monthly update provides information on legislation, as well as relevant executive branch actions and judicial decisions in states across the country. For each of the topics, the number of states in which legislation has been introduced is given, as are the names of the states in which subsequent action has been taken. Detailed summaries are provided for legislation that has been passed by at least one house of a legislature and for major court decisions; actions for the current month are in bold.

Abortion
Adolescents
Contraception & Prevention
Pregnancy & Birth
Refusal Clauses
Reproductive Health and Environmental Hazards

URL:

http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/updates/index.html

Black Women, Sexual Assault and the Art of Resistance

Teaser:

Brooke Axtell examines the implications of the statistic that 60 percent of Black girls have experienced sexual abuse before the age of 18.

Editorial:

From Forbes:

According to an ongoing study conducted by Black Women’s Blueprint, sixty percent of Black girls have experienced sexual abuse before the age of 18. More than 300 Black women nationwide participated in the research project. A similar study conducted by The Black Women’s Health Imperative seven years ago found the rate of sexual assault was approximately 40%.

The pervasive nature of this trauma could translate into an increased risk for Black women and girls to experience depression, PTSD and addiction, common symptoms experienced by many survivors of rape.

The Department of Justice estimates that for every white woman that reports her rape, at least 5 white women do not report theirs; and yet, for every African-American woman that reports her rape, at least 15 African-American women do not report theirs.

There are many reasons why Black women may choose not to report incidences of sexual assault. Survivors of all races often fear that they will not be believed or will be blamed for their attack, but Black women face unique challenges.

[...]

Source:

Forbes

URL:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/shenegotiates/2012/04/25/black-women-sexual-assault-and-the-art-of-resistance/

Date:

April 25, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Shelters turn women away as domestic violence escalates

Teaser:

Slashed funding, strapped donors, underwater mortgages and high unemployment are all causing domestic violence victim's shelters in Florida to turn women away at a time when the need may is greater than usual.

Editorial:

From the Herald-Tribune:

Domestic violence has risen during the economic downturn, and services are eroding.

According to the National Center for Victims of Crime, 92 percent of victim service providers have seen an increased demand in the last year, while 84 percent reported that cutbacks in funding were directly affecting their work.

In Florida, the state’s 42 domestic violence shelters had to turn away 3,352 women in the last fiscal year, said Leisa Wiseman, director of communications and government affairs for the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

[...]

Source:

Herald-Tribune

URL:

http://health.heraldtribune.com/2012/04/23/shelters-turn-women-away-as-domestic-violence-escalates/

Date:

April 24, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Female Circumcision: Police Investigating Claims UK Doctors Advised On Illegal Practice

Teaser:

A report by the Sunday Times says that as many as 100,000 woman in the UK may have been victims of female genital mutilation.

Editorial:

From the Huffington Post UK:

Claims that UK doctors were secretly filmed offering to perform and facilitate female circumcision are being investigated by police.

A report by the Sunday Times said that as many as 100,000 woman in Britain may have been victims of the practice, which is illegal.

Female circumcision is performed on young women around the world, but particularly in Africa, on cultural and religious grounds.

The News International newspaper claims to have recorded a dentist in Birmingham, Omar Sheikh Mohamed Addow, describing how the operation could be performed, including details on how the clitoris could be pierced and clamped.

[...]

Source:

Huffington Post UK

URL:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/04/23/female-circumcision-police-investigation-uk-doctors_n_1444958.html

Date:

April 24, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

A cover-up in the beautiful game

Teaser:

The Globe and Mail article discusses the International Football Association Board's unanimous recommendation to rescind the hijab ban first introduced by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association in 2007.

Editorial:

From The Globe and Mail:

This rule had resulted in the banning of individual female players in FIFA-sanctioned games – including the forfeit of an Olympic qualifying match by the Iranian women’s team. Some (the Quebec Soccer Federation, for instance) used the FIFA edict as a pretext to ban the hijab from the soccer field for non-FIFA events.

The ban reversal followed intense lobbying by Jordan’s Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, a FIFA vice-president, who sought to allay safety concerns by working with Cindy van den Bremen, a Dutch designer of sports-safe hijabs, for a dozen years. Montrealer Elham Seyed Javad (who created a hijab for female martial arts athletes in 2008) has also submitted a design for consideration by FIFA. Muslim women, for whom soccer is a passion, welcomed the IFAB decision. After all, the “beautiful game” is the most universal of sports, encompassing cultures and nations.

Those who fought to have FIFA include hijab-clad players should also lobby Saudi Arabia to allow women to be part of its Olympic national team. Last week, the Saudis confirmed their opposition to sending Saudi women to the London Games. This, despite the Olympic Charter: “Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, sex or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.”

[...]

Source:

The Globe and Mail

URL:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/a-cover-up-in-the-beautiful-game/article2400352/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=Home&utm_content=2400352

Date:

April 18, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Rogge hopes Saudis will send women to London

Teaser:

Sports Illustrated reports that the International Olympic Committee is stilltalking to Saudi Arabia about sending women to the London Games, despite a report that the conservative Muslim country's national Olympic committee resists the idea.

Editorial:

From Sports Illustrated:

IOC President Jacques Rogge also said at a news conference on Sunday that the head of Syria's Olympic committee has been invited to the summer games, but that it will be up to Britain to decide whether to admit him.

Rogge's comments came 10 days after a Saudi newspaper reported that national Olympic committee President Prince Nawaf does "not approve" of sending female athletes.

"We're still discussing [this] with our colleague on the Saudi national Olympic committee. This is an ongoing discussion, but it is a bit too soon to come to conclusions," Rogge said.

Saudi Arabia is one of three countries that have never included women on their Olympic teams, along with Qatar and Brunei. The IOC has been hopeful that all three would send female representatives to London, marking the first time for every competing nation.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said last month that officials of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad who are on a European Union travel-ban list would be blocked from attending the July 27-Aug. 12 London games.

[...]

Source:

Sports Illustrated

URL:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/olympics/04/16/rogge-saudi-women.ap/index.html

Date:

April 16, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

The coming fight over violence against women

Teaser:

Salon outlines each partisan side in the new Violence Against Women Act reauthorization debate.

Editorial:

From Salon:

Reauthorizing the once-bipartisan Violence Against Women Act used to be a matter of Senate routine, but it has now gone the way of debt-ceiling negotiations — into the trenches of partisan warfare. Reading recent reports of the coming Capitol Hill showdown on the VAWA, you would either conclude that Republicans are broadening their assault on women, or Democrats have politicized the bill with various poison pills involving LGBT rights, immigration and Native American communities. What gets lost in both explanations is the merits of the actual changes.

While VAWA has not yet faced a full Senate vote, all Republicans on the Judiciary Committee voted in February against reauthorization. Democrats are clearly trying to use this to capitalize on the recent interest in Republican misogyny, which, legislatively speaking, has become mainstreamed in the party. Sen. Dianne Feinstein asserted on the Senate floor last week that “This is one more step in the removal of rights for women.” Majority Leader Mitch McConnell shot back Thursday, citing a Politico article to suggest Sen. Chuck Schumer “is sitting up at night trying to figure out a way to create an issue where there isn’t one … to help Democrats get reelected.”

[...]

Source:

Salon.com

URL:

http://www.salon.com/2012/03/20/the_coming_fight_over_violence_against_women/singleton/

Date:

April 16, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Women's Demand for Reproductive Control: Understanding and Addressing Gender Barriers

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 10:19am

Millions of women each year experience unintended pregnancies, and millions more have unmet need for family planning. One of the persistent gaps in knowledge is the role of gender barriers that women face in defining and achieving their reproductive intentions. This paper provides a gender analysis of women’s demand for reproductive control. This analysis illuminates how the social construction of gender affects fertility preferences, unmet need, and the barriers that women face to using contraception and safe abortion. It also helps to bridge important dichotomies in the population, family planning, and reproductive health fields.

Jennifer McCleary-Sills, Allison McGonagle, Anju Malhotra
2012

URL:

http://www.icrw.org/publications/womens-demand-reproductive-control

Member Organization:

International Center for Research on Women

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