Category: Women

Equality drive launched by African women leaders at landmark conference

UN Women/Ryan | Brown African women leaders are playing a key role in transforming the continent. 14 February 2023 Women Women leaders called for swift, concerted action to advance gender rights at the first International Conference on Women’s Transformational Leadership, in Juba, South Sudan on Tuesday. Almost 400 women leaders from 15 African countries joined the UN-backed […]

‘We are not afraid’: Indigenous Brazilian women stand up to gender violence

21 January 2023 Women Women from Brazil’s indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable to gender-based violence, but UN-backed initiatives, and a change in the law, are encouraging them to seek protection. In Parque das Tribos, an indigenous neighbourhood in Manaus, the capital of Brazil’s Amazonas state, violence against women is not uncommon. “As a leader, I […]

‘World is failing adolescent girls’ warns UNFPA chief, as report shows third of women in developing countries give birth in teen years

Nurse taking women's blood pressure

Nearly a third of all women in developing countries, start having children at the age of 19 or younger, and nearly half of first births to adolescents, are to children or girls aged 17 or under, new research released on Tuesday by UNFPA, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, reveals.  While total fertility across the […]

The crisis behind closed doors: a look into the ‘shadow pandemic’

Although we are currently facing a public health crisis, COVID-19 has also caused a surge in intimate partner violence (IPV), negatively affecting our world’s pursuit of SDG #5: Gender Equality. While stage three restrictions have been reinforced in order to control the pandemic’s spread in Metropolitan Melbourne, stay-at-home mandates have also left many women and […]

UN programme to help spare millions from child marriage, extended to 2023

©UNFPA-UNICEF Nepal/KPanday Millions of girls have been able to avoid “an unwanted marriage and an unwelcome end to their childhood”, since the launch four years ago, of a joint UN agency programme, the head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday. The UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to End Child Marriage, a multi-country initiative to help […]