Globalization, Human Rights & Security

Women make up a majority of the world’s poor; more than half of immigrants, refugees and casualties of armed conflicts; and they are often the first to feel the brunt of economic, political, environmental and humanitarian crises. At the same time, women are essential partners for promoting conflict resolution, reducing extremism and promoting post-conflict reconstruction and sustainable development. However, governments and international organizations often overlook the significant contributions and vital perspectives of women and girls, thereby undermining effective security policies and peace-building initiatives. Human rights advocates and security experts are calling for more efforts to invest in women, implement gender-sensitive laws and policies and ensure that women are included at decision-making tables. Explore the resources listed below, including Related Categories links, or use the Keyword Search for more information.

Report on a 2020 Perspective for Women in Turkey (2011/2066(INI))

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 05/24/2012 - 11:19pm

The European Parliament this week adopted a report urging Turkey to follow up on its recent work toward securing gender equality and women's rights.

The report, written by Socialists & Democrats Member of European Parliament Emine Bozkurt, lays out a series of goals for Ankara to accomplish by 2020 in raising the status of women to fully equal members of Turkish society as Brussels and Ankara seek to breathe life into the country's stalled EU accession bid.

The Dutch lawmaker's report was accepted unanimously by the legislative body's Women's Rights and Gender Equality Commission in March, and Tuesday was approved by the entire EP meeting in a plenary session, with 590 votes in favor, 28 against and 53 abstentions, the Italian news agency ANSAmed reported.

(From UPI)

URL:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+REPORT+A7-2012-0138+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN

Gina Rinehart, the world's richest woman, will one day own it

Teaser:

Gina Rinehart is now the richest woman in the world, surpassing the $25 billion of Christy Walton, the widow of Wal-Mart founder John Walton, who still has a major stake in the US retail giant.

Editorial:

From the Herald Sun:

Riding Australia's resources boom like no one else, BRW magazine's annual rich list yesterday revealed the 58-year-old mining magnate's wealth has ballooned by an unparalleled $18.87 billion in the past year to $29.17 billion.

That equates to $598 a second, more than $1 million for every half an hour - and almost $52 million a day.

Ms Rinehart is now the richest woman in the world, surpassing the $25 billion of Christy Walton, the widow of Wal-Mart founder John Walton, who still has a major stake in the US retail giant.

Ms Rinehart's meteoric rise led experts to speculate she is a serious contender to become the world's richest person. She would have to pass the $69 billion fortune of Mexican telco mogul Carlos Slim.

Source:

Herald Sun

URL:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/companies/gine-rinehart-the-worlds-richest-woman-will-one-day-own-it/story-fndgp8b1-1226365081475

Date:

May 23, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Unveiling the Revolutionaries: Cyberactivism and Women’s Role in the Arab Uprisings

Submitted by asklar on Wed, 05/23/2012 - 10:35am

Over the course of 2011’s momentous Arab Spring uprisings, young women in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Bahrain and Yemen used social media and cyberactivism to carve out central roles in the revolutionary struggles under way in their countries, according to a new study commissioned by Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

The study, “Unveiling the Revolutionaries: Cyberactivism and Women’s Role in the Arab Uprisings,” explores the activism of several key figures, including Egypt’s Esraa Abdel Fattah, who became widely known as “Facebook girl,” as well Libya’s Danya Bashir, Bahrain’s Zeinab and Maryam al-Khawaja and Tunisia’s Lina Ben Mhenni, who became known as the uprising’s “Twit

URL:

http://bakerinstitute.org/publications/ITP-pub-CyberactivismAndWomen-051712.pdf

G(irls) 20 Summit: Catching Up With Women Farmers

Teaser:

Dr. Rekha Mehra of the International Center for Research on Women recounts her visit to a village in Tanzania and growing international support for women farmers.

Editorial:

From the Huffington Post:

Like their sisters all over the developing world, women farmers work hard to grow food for themselves and their families, and for sale. They plant and tend, fertilize and weed, harvest and process -- in short, do all it takes to produce a crop. But they don't get much in return. Their yields are low and, even if some crops are sold, the women may not see any income since men who take the crop to market may not feel obliged to share it.

When international development projects come around to try to change these conditions, they don't always reach out to women farmers. They assume that the women are not the "real" farmers because they don't own land or go to market, or because they have other household responsibilities such as fetching water and caring for children.

However, studies done in many developing countries show that women undertake a variety of farm work along with their household chores. Despite this reality, women are left out of projects that offer new technologies, improved fertilizers or training in practices that could help them produce more. Other studies show that when women have the same access as men to such farming resources, women could produce more, earn more and live better lives.

Fortunately, there is growing support for women farmers like those I met in Tanzania. It comes from the highest levels in global agreements like the G8 L'Aquila Food Security Initiative -- which committed $20 billion over three years for sustainable agriculture development -- and policies such as the United States Agency for International Development's Feed the Future initiative.

[...]

Source:

Huffington Post

URL:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-rekha-mehra/girls-20-summit-women-farmers_b_1525514.html?ref=impact

Date:

May 21, 2012

Affiliate:

Is Board Diversity Important for Firm Performance and Board Independence?: An exploratory study of Singapore Listed Company

Submitted by asklar on Mon, 05/21/2012 - 8:37am

Following the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the spate of corporate frauds and accounting scandals such as Enron, WorldCom, Parmalat, Satyam and China Aviation Oil (Singapore), there has been considerable research about the effectiveness of the board of directors in the corporate governance of firms. There are strong conceptual and business propositions for greater board diversity. In the corporate world, there has been anecdotal evidence from some large corporations such as IBM, Ford Motor, Nortel, Lucent, Sara Lee, Texaco, and DuPont that diversity at every level of the work force tothe board of directors of firms have been cited as an imperative for business success.

URL:

http://www.mas.gov.sg/resource/publications/staff_papers/Staff%20Paper%20No.52.pdf

Female terrorists' bios belie stereotypes, study finds

Teaser:

According to research published by the American Psychological Association, female terrorists are likely to be educated, employed and native residents of the country where they commit a terrorist act - much like their male counterparts.

Editorial:

From Phys.Org:

The findings contradict stereotypes presented in previous studies that describe female terrorists as socially isolated and vulnerable to recruitment because they are uneducated, unemployed and from a foreign land, psychologists reported in a study published online in the APA journal Law and Human Behavior. These assumptions are not supported by evidence, according to the study authors.

[...]

Source:

Phys.Org

URL:

http://phys.org/news/2012-05-female-terrorists-bios-belie-stereotypes.html

Date:

May 20, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Moving Forward with the Legal Empowerment of Women in Pakistan

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 05/17/2012 - 11:36pm

Summary

URL:

http://www.usip.org/publications/moving-forward-the-legal-empowerment-women-in-pakistan

Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 to 2010

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 05/17/2012 - 2:10pm

New maternal mortality estimates confirm that the number of women dying in pregnancy and childbirth is declining. Along with other indicators, this joint U.N. report validates the fact that we are making progress in saving mothers’ lives, even if progress is slower than what is called for by the Millennium Development Goals.

Rapid progress in some countries demonstrates that when governments take a strategic approach to the safe motherhood challenge -- by deploying trained midwives, ensuring adequate essential supplies, making family planning accessible and providing timely obstetric care to women with complications, we are getting results. Still, there is more work to be done in delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted and every childbirth is safe.

URL:

http://www.unfpa.org/public/home/mothers/MMEstimates2012

Cultivating Fear: The Vulnerability of Immigrant Farmworkers in the US to Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 05/17/2012 - 1:27pm

This 95-page report describes rape, stalking, unwanted touching, exhibitionism, or vulgar and obscene language by supervisors, employers, and others in positions of power. Most farmworkers interviewed said they had experienced such treatment or knew others who had. And most said they had not reported these or other workplace abuses, fearing reprisals. Those who had filed sexual harassment claims or reported sexual assault to the police had done so with the encouragement and assistance of survivor advocates or attorneys in the face of difficult challenges.

MAY 16, 2012

READ THE PRESS RELEASE

READ THE REPORT
ISBN: 1-56432-886-4

URL:

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2012/05/15/cultivating-fear

Women Exposed to Violence Might Have More Risky Sex

Teaser:

U. S. News and World Report reports on a study by researchers at the Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine at The Miriam Hospital in Providence, R.I., that finds that women who were exposed to community violence and those who suffered multiple forms of violence had the highest levels of risky sexual behavior.

Editorial:

From U.S. News and World Report:

Women who've witnessed or been the victims of violence may be more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior, according to new research.

The study included 481 women being treated at a sexually transmitted disease clinic who were assessed for a history of violence and current sexual risk-taking behaviors, such as having a high number of partners or having unprotected sex.

The researchers categorized the women as those having low exposure to violence (39 percent), those who were mainly exposed to community violence (20 percent), those who experienced childhood maltreatment (23 percent), and those who were victims of multiple forms of violence (18 percent).

Women who were exposed to community violence and those who suffered multiple forms of violence had the highest levels of risky sexual behavior, said the researchers at the Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine at The Miriam Hospital in Providence, R.I.

"Sadly, our results show that many women must cope with multiple forms of violence, and that some combinations of violent experiences put women at risk for HIV, other STDs or unplanned pregnancy -- not to mention the risks from the violence itself," lead author Jennifer Walsh said in a hospital news release.

[...]

Source:

U.S. News and World Report

URL:

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2012/05/11/women-exposed-to-violence-might-have-more-risky-sex

Date:

May 14, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

GET INVOLVED

What We Do

NCRW is a network of leading university and community based research, policy, and advocacy centers with a growing global reach dedicated to advancing rights and opportunities for women and girls. We also have a Corporate Circle comprised of senior diversity professionals from leading U.S. and global member companies and a Presidents Circle of college and university leaders who share our commitment. NCRW harnesses the collective power of its network to provide knowledge, analysis, and thought leadership on issues ranging from reducing women’s poverty to building a critical mass of women’s leadership across sectors.

NCRW Blog

Globalization, Human Rights & Security

Search NCRW