Africa

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Zakia Soman and Dr Noorjehan Safia Niaz are determined to ensure Muslim women take their rightful place in society.

By Mariya Salim
NEW DELHI, India, Dec 10 2021 (IPS)

Discriminated in society and concerned about the discrimination of women in their homes, the two women who co-founded the Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) started the movement to further Muslim women’s leadership and help them reclaim their rights.

In an exclusive interview with IPS, Dr Noorjehan Safia Niaz and Zakia Soman say they started the BMMA or the Indian Muslim Women’s Movement to address communal tensions and prejudice within India and the inherent patriarchal prejudices faced within their homes and beyond.

Both Niaz and Soman say the ‘communal’ tensions, parlance for prejudice and violence against the Muslim minority in India, shaped their understandings of gender and identity. This led them to stand firmly on principles of gender justice and reforms – leading to the formation of BMMA. Since 2007 this movement has grown to more than 50,000 women.

Soman says she became conscious of her Muslim identity while interacting with women survivors of the Gujarat riots in 2002 in Ahmedabad. During these riots, many Muslim women were singled out and subjected to sexual violence.

“Gujarat riots were preceded by 9/11 (the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York in 2001) and the so-called war on terror. I felt a huge burden of my identity. My Muslim name invoked curiosity wherever I went,” Soman says.

She realised she was not alone, and many Muslim women shared her feelings.

“On the one hand, there was communalism and communal violence coupled with state neglect. On the other hand, we faced discrimination at home and within the family, wrongly in the name of religion.”

Soman says she was in an “abusive relationship”, and she and other Muslim women “decided to join hands and take charge of our situation.”

BMMA members in a leadership training program. The organisation has grown to more than 50 000 women and they have achieved significant successes.

The BMMA was born out of these sentiments to change a communal, patriarchal world.

For Niaz, the journey began in 1992, just after Babri Masjid, a mosque in Ayodhya, was demolished. What followed was communal violence across the country. Eighteen Muslims were murdered in Ayodhya following the demolition and houses and shops torched. Across the country, including in Mumbai, around 2,000 people were killed.

This communal violence and insecurity were the reasons Muslim women emerged as community leaders, she said.

“By this time, there was also a deeper understanding of all issues, especially of the core basic need for education, livelihood, health, security,” Niaz says. “Additionally, we also had seen from close quarters the legal discrimination that Muslim women faced because of lack of a codified Muslim family law.”

This became the core demand of the  BMMA because “we knew that if we don’t demand it, nobody else will. ‘Our Struggle, Our Leadership’ became our slogan. Muslim women must lead based on the values of the Holy Quran and the Indian Constitution. (She must) demand her rights which emanate from her religion and her identity as a citizen of this country,” Niaz says in an exclusive interview with IPS.

“Zakia approached me with the idea of a national platform, and that is how it all began. We worked for two years on the vision, mission, objectives, values and principles that would govern the movement, with other women leaders,” she said.

After speaking to other Muslim women leaders in various states and after two years of deliberations, in 2007, BMMA was formally launched.

Since its formation, BMMA has been leading change from within on various fronts.

Soman and Niaz recall the various victories and associate these with the relentless struggle of the members who continued to fight for their rights despite little to no resources and often felt the community’s ire for “daring to demand their rights’.

One such victory was the Haji Ali judgement which reversed a prohibition of women’s entry into the sanctum sanctorum of the religious shrine, Dargah/Shrine. BMMA had filed the Public Interest Litigation or PIL to stop the discriminatory practice. It was a victory endorsed by the Supreme Court of India and paved the way for women from other communities to demand the end of discrimination at religious places.

Another significant achievement was the filing of a PIL against triple divorce, polygamy and halala. The BMMA was a significant group that had the practice of triple divorce, a method where Muslim men could divorce their wives by merely pronouncing the term ‘Talaaq’ or divorce, thrice to them, abolished in 2019.

Forming Darul-Uloom-e-Niswaan and training 20 women to become qazis or religious scholars is a first in India and considered by both as a major achievement.

“Some of the women whom we have trained have even performed Nikahs (religious weddings), challenging patriarchal norms,” adds Niaz.

Despite the resource crunch and criticism, the leaders in the states and members continue to work with the most marginalised women, addressing issues ranging from applying scholarship schemes for their children and training them in livelihood skills to empowering them with information on Constitutional and Quranic rights

Most of the leaders run centres from their homes, many in poor ghettos to reach those in most need.

The movement and its leaders have been criticised for addressing women’s rights when Islamophobia and communal violence are on the rise.

Change and reform are slow and require continuous efforts and support from the larger community and progressive forces, according to Soman.

“It is not easy to take on the patriarchal religious establishment that has ruled over the community mindsets for decades. Neither is it easy to fight a discriminatory communal order in the face of state apathy,” says Soman.

“I do not care about the opinions of vested interests. I am satisfied when I look at how dozens of the riot survivor women have turned out to be fiery activists in the last two decades,” Soman says. BMMA has created leaders across the country.

“These women were voiceless in the cacophony of conservative men of religion. (The leaders) have now shown the whole world that gender justice is intrinsic to Islam. They have changed the perception about their religion in the eyes of ordinary Indians,” she says.

The path chosen was never easy. They were asked why the State should be involved in matters of shariah. They were insulted and called stooges of the right-right-wing Hindutva. This criticism came from both religious groups and the so-called secular-liberal feminists

With the additional challenge of COVID-19, Niaz is confident that the path chosen is the right one.

“Amid the heightened Islamophobia, lynchings and open calls for annihilating the community by the state and state-backed Hindutva forces, how can BMMA continue to speak for family law reforms in favour of Muslim women,” they were asked

Niaz’s answer is emphatic.

“Because if we don’t continue to speak and highlight the issue, nobody else will.”

The two women and the leaders from the Indian states, bound by shared objectives of empowering and uplifting Muslim women, find strength in each other. Niaz reflects on this relationship.

“We bond with each other within BMMA. I would like to believe we are soul-mates born with a common divinely sanctioned purpose. Just being with each other, talking to each other gives us strength.”

 

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• The Struggle to End Female Genital Mutilation: A Dark Secret No More

By Marty Logan
KATHMANDU, Dec 10 2021 (IPS)

I suspect that most of you have at least heard of female genital mutilation, or FGM. It’s a practice that happens in numerous African countries, in which girls’ genitalia are removed or cut, for cultural or religious reasons. FGM has been condemned globally for years and campaigners continue working to end it.

But what might surprise you is that FGM happens in Asia too. And not just in one or two countries. According to today’s guest, Keshia Mahmood from Malaysia-based non-profit ARROW, the practice occurs in as many as 13 countries in both Southeast Asia and South Asia. That shocked me. I think I’m pretty well informed, and I lived in Malaysia for four years, but I didn’t know about FGM happening there. Interestingly, the United Nations joint programme to eliminate FGM works in 17 countries, but none of them are in Asia.

Keshia explains why FGM in Asia — which she refers to as FGM/C, or female genital mutilation or cutting — has been so under-exposed, but how that started changing after its elimination was included in one of the Sustainable Development Goals, whose deadline is 2030. Still, ending it will be a huge challenge, in part because practising communities believe that it is a much less invasive version of FGM than those performed in African countries. Another impediment is the growing medicalization of the practice, which lends it an air of legitimacy.

Keshia also discusses a new initiative co-led by ARROW called the Asia Network to end FGM/C, and some of the avenues it is pursuing to support partners working on the ground to end the practice. They have their work cut out for them: every year more than 1 million girls in Asia are cut in the name of culture and religion.

 

 

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A worker checks the fans at the cryptocurrency farming operation, Bitfarms, in Quebec, Canada (image: Alamy)

By Joe Coroneo-Seaman
LONDON, Dec 10 2021 (IPS)

On 14 April this year, the price of a single Bitcoin reached a then all-time-high of around US$64,870. Just over a month later, the price of the world’s most popular digital currency had tumbled to $34,259.

A significant driver behind this sudden drop was the news that China had begun a sweeping crackdown on the cryptocurrency industry, driven by concerns about financial risk and excessive energy consumption. Bitcoin “mining” – the process by which transactions are verified and new coins are created – is highly energy intensive, leading to criticism of the currency’s oversized carbon footprint.

Before the clampdown, China accounted for two-thirds of Bitcoin mining worldwide. In the months since, mining companies have been quick to move their operations overseas. Recent data suggests that energy consumed by Bitcoin has increased in the US, Canada and Kazakhstan, and with it, pressure to address the currency’s soaring electricity appetite.

 

Power-hungry Bitcoin mining

Bitcoin is a decentralised digital currency, meaning that each time money is sent or received, the transaction is kept on a public record, rather than with a bank. But in the absence of a trusted authority to verify each transaction, the responsibility falls to participants in the Bitcoin network known as “miners”.

Herein lies Bitcoin’s energy problem. The more computing power you can muster, the more often you will be first to solve the puzzle and earn the Bitcoin. And the machines used to mine Bitcoin – application-specific integrated units (ASICs) – consume a lot of energy, to say the least.

To verify transactions, miners connect computers to the cryptocurrency network and use them to solve incredibly complex, randomly generated mathematical puzzles. But not just any computer will do the job: Bitcoin mining requires running multiple specialised computers almost 24/7 in order to achieve the computing power needed to find the solution.

Whoever solves the puzzle first is allowed to add a “block” of transactions to the global ledger, and is rewarded with a small amount of newly minted Bitcoin.

Herein lies Bitcoin’s energy problem. The more computing power you can muster, the more often you will be first to solve the puzzle and earn the Bitcoin. And the machines used to mine Bitcoin – application-specific integrated units (ASICs) – consume a lot of energy, to say the least.

In one year, the entire Bitcoin network consumes around 120 terawatt hours (TWh) of energy, or more than the whole of the Netherlands, according to estimates by Cambridge University’s Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI). If Bitcoin were a country, it would rank 32nd in the world by annual electricity consumption.

“That’s the price we pay to secure transactions,” says Anton Dek, cryptoasset and blockchain lead at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, and one of the creators of the index. Bitcoin’s energy usage isn’t an accidental by-product, he explains. Mining Bitcoin is purposefully designed to be costly – both in terms of electricity and money – to prevent would-be hackers from taking over the network.

So far, it seems to have worked. “We haven’t seen any double spending or any attacks on the network, partially because this attack would be too expensive. So it kind of makes sense, though that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be of concern,” says Dek.

 

Bitcoin mining: A climate disaster?

Bitcoin’s energy footprint has skyrocketed in recent years. In 2017, economics blog Digiconomist estimated that the network of specialised mining computers used 29 TWh annually, equal to 0.13% of total global electricity consumption. This had grown to around 0.65% by May this year, according to CBECI data.ƒcbeci

Unchecked, Bitcoin mining operations in China alone were set to generate 130.5 million metric tons of CO2 by 2024, around the same as the total annual emissions of the Czech Republic, according to a 2021 study in the journal Nature.

 

Crackdown

Since President Xi Jinping pledged last year that China would aim to be carbon neutral by 2060, the government’s stance on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining has hardened.

The first sign came in March this year, when Inner Mongolia announced it would phase out cryptocurrency mining entirely after the province failed to meet its 2020 target for reducing energy consumption.

Then in May, China’s Vice Premier Liu He declared at a State Council meeting that the government intended to “crackdown on Bitcoin mining and trading”.

Regional governments were quick to act, revoking licences of companies involved in cryptocurrency mining, cutting off power to mining facilities and in some cases giving firms just seven days to shut down their operations. By the end of June, one industry expert estimated that 90% of China’s Bitcoin mining centres – more than half of the global total at the time – had gone offline. In the same month, Bitcoin’s total electricity footprint was cut in half, according to CBECI data.

 

Mass exodus

“The crackdown in China has resulted in a mass exodus of miners,” explains Peter Wall, CEO of North American cryptocurrency mining firm Argo Blockchain. “Displaced Chinese miners are searching the globe for appropriate hosting sites for their machines.”

Countries with access to cheap electricity like Canada, Russia, Kazakhstan and, especially, the United States are now seeing a surge in interest from Chinese miners looking to partner with local firms. Latin American nations with similarly affordable electricity rates and a weak institutional framework for the industry are also emerging as destinations for the industry.

Venezuela and Paraguay are among those looking to attract miners unable to operate in China and Argentina could become a global bitcoin mining destination, with Canada-based Bitfarms announcing it had begun construction of a 210 MW Bitcoin mining facility in Argentina, the largest in the country. The mine will source its power directly from the Maranzana gas power station.

In September, El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele made headlines when he adopted the currency as legal tender, despite experts voicing concerns that the attendant increase in demand for electricity would make the country more dependent on energy imports than it already is.

So how will this “great mining migration”, as it is described in cryptocurrency circles, shape Bitcoin’s carbon footprint?

“We hope that the long-term impact of this migration is the re-installation of machines in jurisdictions in which mining operations can be powered by renewable energy,” says Wall.

The short-term reality may not be so rosy. In July, Beijing-based crypto-mining giant Bitmain agreed to move a batch of its mining machines to a 180 megawatt (MW) facility in Kazakhstan whose electricity is supplied by a local coal power plant. Given that just 1% of Kazakhstan’s energy mix is renewables, this may not be a one-off. In Canada, oil and gas company Black Rock Petroleum has agreed to host up to 1 million Bitcoin-mining machines relocated from China, with the first 200,000 units sourcing power directly from a natural gas well.

The new global hub of Bitcoin mining, however, is expected to be the US state of Texas. The state’s governor, Greg Abbott, is actively courting the cryptocurrency industry, tweeting in June that “Texas is open for crypto business.” Shenzhen-based BIT Mining plans to invest $26 million in a 57 MW facility in the state.

Texas offers “huge possibilities for mining to utilise renewable sources” says Wall. He points out that in the west of the state, wind turbines power 90% of the grid. Overall, however, the Texas energy grid is made up of just over one-fifth renewable energy, and has proven fragile in extreme weather conditions.

 

Greening Bitcoin

CBECI data now shows Bitcoin’s electricity consumption is climbing once again. As the network becomes more distributed across the globe, what options remain for tackling the currency’s carbon footprint?

One solution may be to rethink how Bitcoin transactions are verified. The current method is called “Proof of Work” because participants must do the work of mining to verify transactions.

The most commonly proposed alternative is “Proof of Stake”. This removes computing power from the equation. Instead of competing against each other, participants who have first made a deposit in Bitcoin are selected at random to verify transactions. The larger the deposit, the greater the chance of being selected and earning the reward.

Several smaller cryptocurrencies already use this method. Ethereum, one of Bitcoin’s main competitors, is expected to make the switch later this year, but some in the industry remain sceptical.

“We have no plans to shift away from Proof of Work,” says Wall. Miners will inevitably migrate to the cheapest electricity available on the grid and increasingly that is not coal, oil or gas plants, he argues. “We are at a point where renewable power is the same price or lower than power generated by fossil fuels.”

“It may be too late for existing digital currencies like Bitcoin to change their methods of confirming transactions,” agrees Truby, of Qatar University. The best option is to “focus on mitigating mining devices’ energy consumption by improving the devices and providing them with renewable energy,” he says.

Norway and Iceland, with their plentiful supply of geothermal, hydroelectric and wind power, have been using renewable energy to power cryptocurrency mining for years. El Salvador also claimed that its Bitcoin mining operations would be powered by “100% clean, 100% renewable, 0 emissions energy” from a volcano.

Against a backdrop of growing pressure on energy-intensive industries of all kinds to address their contribution to global carbon emissions, Wall is frank about the need for cryptocurrency to adapt: “Proving that crypto can be sustainable is pivotal to its success. The future of energy is green and renewable, so the future of crypto must reflect that.”

This article was originally published by ChinaDialogue

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Biofortified crops address the world’s ‘hidden hunger. Credit: CGIAR, formerly the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research.

By Jan Low
WASHINGTON DC, Dec 10 2021 (IPS)

When one in five pre-school children is stunted due to chronic undernutrition, it is clear that global diets urgently need to improve and diversify to include more nutrient-rich fruits, vegetables and animal-source foods.

Yet with healthy diets out of reach for three billion people worldwide, resulting in insufficient vitamin and mineral intakes and bouts of illness, this shift cannot happen overnight. Instead, improving diets and nutrition must be seen as a holistic process.

Breeding staple foods, which are already accessible and affordable, with additional vitamins and micronutrients – known as “biofortification” – is a fundamental way to support better nutrition for all, but especially those who struggle to achieve a more diverse and nutritious diet.

Many factors contribute to inadequate diets around the world, from cost to climate change, all of which require a comprehensive and systemic transformation with innovation at every stage of the food chain, from incentives and new technologies for producers to education and improved livelihoods for consumers.

But to combat hunger, people simply need sufficient calories, and through biofortification, calories that are easiest to come by can also be source of key vitamins and minerals essential for good growth and strong immune systems.

In drought-stricken southern Madagascar, for example, which is experiencing the first climate-induced famine, a new effort is under way to deploy biofortified varieties of sweetpotato, which are enriched with vitamin A and fast maturing.

Since sweetpotato is a hardy crop that is already widely eaten, the biofortified version is a way to deliver crucial nutrition quickly in a form that Madagascans recognize and are likely to adopt.

A project backed by World Food Programme (WFP) and partners in Nyaruguru district in southern Rwanda is empowering women with agricultural and business skills. Cedit: WFP/JohnPaul Sesonga

The orange-fleshed sweetpotato has already helped make inroads in improving nutrition across Africa with more than six million households benefitting from the crop in 15 countries over the past 10 years. Just one small root, or 125g, of orange-fleshed sweetpotato meets the daily vitamin A needs of a young child.

Meanwhile, the biofortification of rice is expected to provide up to 30 per cent of vitamin A requirements in the Philippines, where it has recently been approved for cultivation and where more than 15 per cent of children under six are vitamin A deficient because fresh fruit and vegetables are often unaffordable.

Biofortification also offers a way to preserve and enhance the nutritional value of the most consumed cereals, including rice, wheat, millet, and sorghum.

One under-reported consequence of rising levels of CO2 emissions is the degradation of nutritional quality of staple foods, with some studies indicating that future CO2 concentrations could reduce levels of protein, iron and zinc in cereals by up to 10 per cent.

Biofortifying grains with zinc can ensure good growth and support more than 200 enzyme systems, which is especially important given that nutrient declines in crops could result in an additional 175 million people being zinc deficient by mid to late century.

Zinc-enhanced wheat not only offers up to 40 per cent higher concentrations of zinc, but is also high yielding and disease resistant, meaning it not only safeguards the crop’s nutritional value against climate change, but it safeguards its productivity as well.

Finally, iron enriched crops such as beans, millets, and potato can help support the proper cognitive development of children as well as their physical development, allowing them the best possible chance to reach their full potential and a prosperous, healthy future.

Almost one-fifth of the population in Rwanda are now eating iron-enhanced beans, which provide 80 per cent of the iron needs of young children and non-pregnant women.

By getting nutrition right in the early years, millions of children will be able to escape the limitations of inadequate diets.

Good nutrition through a diet rich with fruits, vegetables and animal-source foods is the foundation of a healthy, productive society. Yet poor households in low-income countries spend up to 70 per cent of their income on food, and having calories to prevent hunger is their first priority.

Using biofortified staples is a no-brainer way to get major micronutrients into the diet at low cost, a vital pathway towards better long-term, sustainable nutrition and health.

Jan Low is Principal Scientist, CGIAR’s International Potato Center, and 2016 World Food Prize Laureate.

 

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Gladys Acosta, a Peruvian lawyer and sociologist who is the chair of the CEDAW Committee, considered the fundamental charter of women's rights in the world, stands on a stretch of the Costa Verde boardwalk in Lima after her interview with IPS. The Convention celebrated its 40th anniversary in September 2021. CREDIT: Mariela Jara/IPS

By Mariela Jara
LIMA, Dec 10 2021 (IPS)

“The level of injustice in the world cannot go on like this…I am not pessimistic about the future,” said Gladys Acosta, president of the CEDAW Committee, in an interview with IPS in the Peruvian capital.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) celebrated its 40th anniversary in September of this year as the binding legal tool for women’s rights for all 189 states parties.

Acosta, a Peruvian feminist lawyer and sociologist, chairs the Committee of 23 independent experts with four-year mandates to monitor the implementation of the Convention.

After an intense period of sessions, Acosta is in Lima and will return in 2022 to her duties in Geneva, where the Committee operates, to finish her term. Until then, she will enjoy her view of the Pacific Ocean and the soothing murmur of the waves for a few weeks.

After stating that she is not pessimistic about the future, she adds that, on the contrary, “I am very critical and pessimistic about what is happening today.”

“We are reaching the limit of an era that is in its death throes because the level of injustice in the world cannot go on like this,” said the expert, who has previously held senior regional positions in United Nations agencies.

Among the issues addressed in her conversation with IPS, Acosta mentioned the importance of analyzing gender-based violence as part of the systemic discrimination against women, and said the pandemic is marking a before and after not only in relation to this problem, but also a change of era where the question of caring for people becomes much more of a priority.

IPS: Do you consider that the covid-19 pandemic marks a before and after in relation to discrimination against women, a step backwards in terms of achievements? Is it possible to make this interpretation?

GLADYS ACOSTA: I think that this will be the case for everything, not just for women, discrimination or human rights; I dare to think that it will be seen as a change of era. We are coming from an era with the greatest concentration of wealth in the history of the world, with a population in growing poverty, which is reaching unsustainable levels.

It is very important to develop this awareness, because we have been sold the idea that having money or buying goods is the non plus ultra of everything. We are in a post-neoliberal world and nobody knows for sure how far we have come, but we are at a breaking point because this economy based on the exploitation of territories, of people, of knowledge is a constant illicit appropriation of everything, and today with the pandemic it has come to light that human beings need care.

This has become a central focus and has been put on the agenda; the pandemic has clearly demonstrated that the presence of this virus has been exacerbated in the absence of care.

(Acosta vehemently recalled that many years ago feminist economics proposed that the economic system could not live without women’s work, especially unpaid work. And she called for an analysis of the current situation with fresh eyes and making better connections in order to, for example, “stop looking at the growing problem of violence against women as something dislocated, a loose wheel”.)

When we in the Committee took a position regarding Nov. 25 (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women), we saw that three forms of violence have been exacerbated: femicides, domestic violence and violence online, which has become widespread.

So, yes, there are some new things, but it is very clear that we have not resolved the basic forms of discrimination that are at the basis of society, which include social, political, economic, racial and cultural violence – and in places where there are castes: caste-based violence. There is a discriminatory base that is at its peak and I think it is a serious moment of very unequal and very unjust power relations that I view with great concern.

IPS: At the moment you describe, there is resistance put up by different population groups – young people, feminists, indigenous people – but it is difficult to bring them together in a concerted effort, as seen in Peru and other Latin American countries. Is this a great challenge?

GA: We are living in a highly conflictive time, it is not that we are being swept away by a right wing with no resistance. No. We are in a time of open conflict between political sectors, economic sectors, social sectors and there is a very clear resistance. And I am thinking on a global level, more globally as part of the Committee, not only with regard to what is happening in Peru. The environmental crises are very serious and covid has to do with that.

This is not an epidemic that can be seen as detached from human aggression against nature. Environmental crises accelerated in the twentieth century due to the model of industrialization, production and economic development. Now they are trying to reverse the situation, but global agreements are not easy and do not bear the desired fruits quickly because there are enormous economic interests involved.

Interests that are prepared to kill the planet! They say: “What does it matter, in thirty years we won’t be here.” Just like that, with an atrocious pragmatism. And within these environmental conflicts, we women bear the brunt.

Secondly, there is the social conflict that takes place within and outside these circumstances. And there is an atmosphere of conflict, I would say violent, armed, in different parts of the world and it has to do with this madness of arms production, because this is a war-economic model that produces and sells arms left and right.

And the big countries, even those that seem very democratic and progressive – and I say this because I see it in the Committee – are big producers of arms and sell them to countries that have conflicts and this has repercussions on women’s lives.

(Acosta explained that the Committee would address this problem with arms-producing nations and expects the resistance movement to grow. “The problem I find is that this perversity in the economy is unfortunately linked to a dominance in mass media and with a top-level technology. And I think that these elements, which are more macro, have to be included in the analysis of women’s issues”.)

Gladys Acosta sits on Lima’s malecon or boardwalk after an intense year as chair of the CEDAW Committee, made up of 23 independent experts who monitor compliance with the Convention against all forms of discrimination against women. CREDIT: Mariela Jara/IPS

IPS: Ecofeminists warn of the risk to the sustainability of life, indigenous peoples warn of the threat to nature as long as there are weak or complicit States. How does the Committee contribute to this reflection?

GA: First of all, States still exist. Although the economic power of transnational corporations is enormous, this is the sphere in which we move, we discuss with the States Parties, of which there are 189 in this Convention, in an interesting dynamic of pressure to respect international human rights standards, among which international standards for the protection of women’s rights are very important.

Women’s rights have an enormous connection with the sustainability of life, but not from an essentialist point of view. You brought up the issue of indigenous peoples and it seems to me that in many ways we are discussing a general recommendation on the rights of indigenous women and girls. There is an ancestral indigenous wisdom, especially that of women, which must be protected in a more effective sense.

There is an enormous knowledge about nature, food, seeds and seed reproduction; knowledge about how nature is suffering – they know the symptoms of this suffering and how we could do things differently. It is knowledge that has been handed down through the generations and that fortunately still exists and must be protected.

IPS: In another interview with IPS, in 2009, when you were regional representative of the predecessor organization of UN Women, you said that policies should not see women as a vulnerable sector; do you think there has been progress against that vision described as paternalistic?

GA: I would say there are both. It seems to me that the mobilization today in the world in favor of women’s rights is much more powerful, broader and more political. I think that in different countries you find everything, equality policies that have been very positive and that have opened the way for greater respect of women’s rights and greater access to education, university and work.

I would even say that the issue of parity has advanced despite the fact that something that worries me is also appearing, which is that some very retrograde sectors are taking advantage of the issue and want to make it their own when in reality the only thing they are looking for is more power for themselves. Women end up being nothing more than decorative elements within their political stance.

(Acosta highlighted in this context the emergence of younger movements, of young people who demand more power, and who have more vision about which direction to take than adults and older people, and said she had confidence in these movements, while clarifying that she meant the ones that take a “critical stance”.)

That is why I am not pessimistic about the future. I am very critical and pessimistic about what is happening today, but I do not think that this will remain the same. That is why I say that we are reaching the limit of an era that is in its death throes because the level of injustice in the world cannot go on like this.

This is going to explode and hopefully the damage to people will be minimal. But I know that the level of conflict will not remain unchanged.

Excerpt:

Mariela Jara interviews GLADYS ACOSTA, Chair of the CEDAW Committee. This article is part of IPS coverage of the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence that began on Nov. 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and end on Dec. 10, Human Rights Day.

Loharano has avoided the fate of many in southern Madagascar through the use of new farming methods.

A selection of the best photos from the African continent and beyond.

By External Source
Dec 9 2021 (IPS-Partners)

Helen Grant became actively involved in politics in 2006 and was elected as Member of Parliament for the Kent constituency of Maidstone & The Weald at the 2010 General Election.

Helen was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Sport and Civil Society from October 2013 to March 2015. She was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Minister for the Courts and Victims and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Women and Equalities from September 2012 to October 2013.

In January 2021 Grant was appointed as the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Girls’ Education, leading the UK’s efforts internationally to ensure all girls get 12 years of quality education. One of her goals is to drive a global campaign to improve learning and get 40 million more girls into school around the world by 2025. Helen is also the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Nigeria.

ECW: Why is the UK putting girls’ education at the top of its international development agenda and where does education in emergencies and protracted crises fit into this?

Helen Grant: Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 – realizing the right to quality education for all by 2030 – is a major priority for the UK government. We have particularly focused on girls’ education not only because girls are more likely than boys to miss out on education but also because it is a particularly powerful investment that can create healthier societies, increase per capita GDP and reduce violence. The UK used its G7 presidency to ask G7 leaders and other partners to sign up to ambitious targets of 40 million more girls in school and 20 million more reading by the end of primary school, by 2026. We also published our Girls’ Education Action Plan that sets out our roadmap to achieving these targets.

However, we will not deliver education for all without reaching children affected by crisis. We know that children in fragile and conflict-affected countries are more than twice as likely to be out of school compared with those in countries not affected by conflict [1]. This is particularly acute for girls; current trends also show that girls are particularly affected and will not reach 100% lower secondary completion in crisis-affected countries until at least 2063 [2].

That is why education in emergencies and protracted crises is a priority for the UK. It is also why I am proud that the UK is a founding member and the current largest donor to Education Cannot Wait

ECW: The climate crisis is an education crisis, especially for girls. Through the UK’s leadership of the November climate talks (COP26), new efforts are being taken to bring together actors and connect the dots between education, climate change and humanitarian relief. Why is connecting the dots so important for achievement of the SDGs and Paris Agreement targets, especially between girls’ education and climate action?

Helen Grant: Globally, at least 200 million adolescent girls are currently living on the frontline of climate crisis as they belong to the poorest households in the poorest areas and are therefore most vulnerable to the negative impacts. We also know that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe, disrupting the education of nearly 40 million children a year. As climate shocks become more frequent and severe, disrupting the education of millions of children, we will need a fully resourced and effective emergency response to provide protection and keep children learning.

It is so important to connect all of these dots as educating girls can make a huge difference in addressing climate change and its impact. When girls go to school, they and their families can cope better with severe weather events. Education also allows girls and women to participate much more in decisions and leadership in relation to climate resilience, adaption, and mitigation.

This is why the UK is committed to action and at COP26 we launched a wide-ranging consultation to guide the UK’s future work on these critical issues. We want to listen and learn from all involved, from young people affected by this crisis as well as teachers and civil society organisations. As the UK Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Girls’ Education, I am personally committed to highlighting the links between climate change and girls’ education and will continue to do so in 2022 and beyond.

ECW: In January 2021 you were appointed as the UK Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Girls’ Education, leading the UK’s efforts internationally to ensure all girls get 12 years of quality education. For the UK, and yourself personally, why is it crucial that we invest in girls’ education now in emergencies & protracted crises? What can be done to accelerate efforts to achieve equitable, inclusive education by 2030?

Helen Grant: I am hugely honoured to be the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Girls’ Education. In this role I globally champion the message that providing every girl on the planet with 12 years of quality education is one of the best ways of tackling many of the problems facing the world today such as poverty, climate change and inequality.

It is crucial to invest in girl’s education in crisis affected countries; only 27% of refugee girls are enrolled in secondary schools and 20 million girls are at risk of dropping out in the next year due to conflict and crisis [3]. Out-of-school girls are at greater risk of violence, sexual abuse, early and forced marriage and human trafficking. All of this creates a very real risk of a lost generation of girls.

The scale of the challenge, especially in emergencies and crisis, means that coordinated and concerted global effort is needed. Specifically, we need predictable funding for funds like ECW that enables long-term planning and action to ensure girls in conflict and crisis receive quality education. We also need high-quality and sustainable interventions which means ensuring a comprehensive package of support that moves away from simply providing textbooks but includes a focus on learning, protection and the wellbeing of children and school staff.

ECW: An estimated 4.2 million children are out of school in Afghanistan, including 2.2 million girls. What are the UK’s plans for girls’ education in Afghanistan?

Helen Grant: Education has been at the heart of Afghanistan’s development gains of the last 20 years, helping to transform women’s role in society and push back poverty. We must ensure that Afghanistan’s education systems are operational as soon as possible. This includes opening secondary schools and other education spaces for girls so that they can continue to access 12 years of quality education; and ensuring that schools are protected as safe places. It is also imperative that female teachers are able to work safely and without barriers.

The UK is working with international partners to help coordinate the education response in Afghanistan. I’m proud that ECW was able to swiftly stand up a First Emergency Response for Afghanistan to support internally displaced children which will reach 38000 children with temporary learning.

ECW: As a member of the UK Parliament, a mother of two and a lawyer, how can education secure other basic human rights for children and adolescents, especially for girls, who are among those left furthest behind and vulnerable in emergencies and protracted crises?

Helen Grant: Investing in girls’ education is a game changer. A child of a mother who can read is 50% more likely to live beyond the age of 5 years, twice as likely to attend school themselves, and 50% more likely to be immunised. Girls who are educated are more able to choose if, when, and how many children they have. Education also opens up employment opportunities for girls, helping to lift them and their families out of extreme poverty. Girls’ education is therefore vital to women and girls, but also in levelling-up society, boosting incomes and developing economies and nations.

These benefits are just as important, if not more so, for girls in emergencies and protracted crises.Quality education can also provide much needed practical knowledge and physical and psychological protection to girls and boys.Lastly, the evidence shows us that girls’ education can also decrease the likelihood of conflict and increase resilience to climate disasters – as such, education is a critical pillar in reducing the risk of future crises.

ECW: From your leadership vantage point, how can investments in education benefit the global economy, improve peace and security and help us build back better from the triple-C crisis threats of conflict, climate change and COVID-19?

Helen Grant: Even before the COVID-19 pandemic the world was facing a learning crisis. Tragically the pandemic has now become the largest disruptor of education in modern history, affecting 1.6 billion children and young people at the height of the pandemic. Without remedial support, a further 72 million children may fall behind. Children living in emergency and protracted crises affected countries are at particular risk; not only they are more likely to be out of school already, but they are also more vulnerable to threats such as food insecurity, climate change shocks and violence which we know can disrupt education further.

Getting all children into quality education is critical if we are to avoid undoing the global gains of the last two decades. Educating children is also key to breaking the cycle of conflict that exists in many countries in the world, with each year of education reduces the risk of conflict by around 20%. Finally, it can also help build children’s future resilience to climate change shocks. As such, education not only helps children today but protects the children of the future by supporting more peaceful and resilience societies.

Missing out on school has long-term consequences not only for individual children’s life prospects but also the prospects of nations. We must reopen schools as soon as possible to tackle the global learning crisis and protect children’s futures.

ECW: Our readers would like to know you a little better on a personal level and reading is a key component of education. Could you please share with us two or three books that have influenced you the most personally and/or professionally, and why you’d recommend them to other people to read?

Helen Grant: There is just one book that I would like to mention, which is Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngosi Adichie.

It is a novel set in the country of my father’s birth – Nigeria. And with an English mother, I’m extremely proud of both my British heritage and Nigerian heritage. I love visiting Africa.

The book touches on domestic violence, religious oppression and coming of age in a fast-changing country. I was a family lawyer for 23 years prior to politics, specialising in domestic violence and child abuse work. The writer has covered these issues with great subtlety and sensitivity. In addition to the physical suffering, it shows so clearly how violence and abuse crushes self-confidence and self-esteem in victims, wrecks families and ruins lives.

I recommend the book to others and will read it again myself for sure.

[1] GEM Report, Policy Paper 21, June 2015, p.2.
[2] INEE Mind the Gap Report – 2021
[3] INEE Mind the Gap Report – 2021

 

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A video of Kenyan police recruits acting in an intimidating fashion is widely condemned.

Credit: Albert Oppong-Ansah/IPS

By External Source
Dec 9 2021 (IPS)

Plastic waste of all shapes and sizes permeates the world’s oceans. It shows up on beaches, in fish and even in Arctic sea ice. And a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine makes clear that the U.S. is a big part of the problem.

As the report shows, the U.S. produces a large share of the global supply of plastic resin – the precursor material to all plastic industrial and consumer products. It also imports and exports billions of dollars’ worth of plastic products every year.

On a per capita basis, the U.S. produces an order of magnitude more plastic waste than China – a nation often vilified over pollution-related issues. These findings build off a study published in 2020 that concluded that the U.S. is the largest global source of plastic waste, including plastics shipped to other countries that later are mismanaged

On a per capita basis, the U.S. produces an order of magnitude more plastic waste than China – a nation often vilified over pollution-related issues. These findings build off a study published in 2020 that concluded that the U.S. is the largest global source of plastic waste, including plastics shipped to other countries that later are mismanaged.

And only a small fraction of plastic in U.S. household waste streams is recycled. The study calls current U.S. recycling systems “grossly insufficient to manage the diversity, complexity and quantity of plastic waste.”

As scientists who study the effects of plastic pollution on marine ecosystems, we view this report as an important first step on a long road to reducing ocean plastic pollution. While it’s important to make clear how the U.S. is contributing to ocean plastic waste, we see a need for specific, actionable goals and recommendations to mitigate the plastic pollution crisis, and would have liked to see the report go further in that direction.

 

Plastic is showing up in seafood

Researchers started documenting marine plastic pollution in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Public and scientific interest in the issue exploded in the early 2000s after oceanographer Charles Moore drew attention to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – a region in the central north Pacific where ocean currents concentrate floating plastic trash into spinning collections thousands of miles across.

More plastic garbage patches have now been found in the South Pacific, the North and South Atlantic, and the Indian Ocean. Unsurprisingly, plastic pervades marine food webs. Over 700 marine species are known to ingest plastic, including over 200 species of fish that humans eat.

Humans also consume plastic that fragments into beverages and food from packaging and inhale microplastic particles in household dust. Scientists are only beginning to assess what this means for public health. Research to date suggests that exposure to plastic-associated chemicals may interfere with hormones that regulate many processes in our bodies, cause developmental problems in children, or alter human metabolic processes in ways that promote obesity

 

A need for a national strategy

The new report is a sweeping overview of marine plastic pollution, grounded in science. However, many of its conclusions and recommendations have been proposed in various forms for years, and in our view the report could have done more to advance those discussions.

For example, it strongly recommends developing a national marine debris monitoring program, led by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program. We agree with this proposal, but the report does not address what to monitor, how to do it or what the specific goals of monitoring should be.

Ideally, we believe the federal government should create a coalition of relevant agencies, such as NOAA, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institutes of Health, to tackle plastic pollution. Agencies have done this in the past in response to acute pollution events, such as the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, but not for chronic problems like marine debris. The report proposes a cross-government effort as well but does not provide specifics.

 

In 2019 volunteers for the nonprofit Surfrider Foundation removed nearly 300,000 pounds of trash from U.S. beaches, nearly all of it plastic.
Surfrider Foundation, CC BY-ND

 

An underfunded problem

Actions to detect, track and remove plastic waste from the ocean will require substantial financial support. But there’s little federal funding for marine debris research and cleanup. In 2020, for example, NOAA’s Marine Debris Program budget request was $US7 million, which represents 0.1% of NOAA’s $5.65B 2020 budget. Proposed funding for the Marine Debris Program increased by $9 million for fiscal 2022, which is a step in the right direction.

Even so, making progress on ocean plastic waste will require considerably more funding for academic research, nongovernmental organizations and NOAA’s marine debris activities. Increased support for these programs will help close knowledge gaps, increase public awareness and spur effective action across the entire life cycle of plastics.

 

Corporate responsibility and equity

The private sector also has a crucial role to play in reducing plastic use and waste. We would have liked to see more discussion in the report of how businesses and industries contribute to the accumulation of ocean plastic waste and their role in solutions.

The report correctly notes that plastic pollution is an environmental justice issue. Minority and low-income communities are disproportionately affected by many activities that produce plastic waste, from oil drilling emissions to toxic chemicals released during the production or incineration of plastics. Some proposals in the report, such as better waste management and increased recycling, may benefit these communities – but only if they are directly involved in planning and carrying them out.

The study also highlights the need to produce less plastic and scale up effective plastic recycling. More public and private funding for solutions like reusable and refillable containers, reduced packaging and standardized plastic recycling processes would increase opportunities for consumers to shift away from single-use disposable products.

Plastic pollution threatens the world’s oceans. It also poses direct and indirect risks to human health. We hope the bipartisan support this study has received is a sign that U.S. leaders are ready to take far-reaching action on this critical environmental problem.

Matthew Savoca, Postdoctoral researcher, Stanford University; Anna Robuck, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Lauren Kashiwabara, Master’s Degree Student in Biological Sciences, University of the Pacific

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Kenyan gay rights activists welcome Sauti Sol star Chimano's decision to "no longer live a lie".

Why fintech, healthcare and green economy hold the key for African economies in 2022.

Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait, on a recent visit to a refugee site in the village of Modale, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where children's education is being supported.  Sherif says for those living in protracted crises, the risks of GBV are compounded. Courtesy: Education Cannot Wait

By Joyce Chimbi
Nairobi, Dec 9 2021 (IPS)

The statistics are dire: One in three women have experienced a form of gender-based violence in their lifetime, be it sexual violence, physical violence, or child marriage. The message is clear: Women and girls deserve a safer, brighter future – free from gender-based violence.

For those living in protracted crises, the risks are compounded as these often create new risks for girls forced to travel long distances to and from schools and learning spaces, or the lack of safe and gender-segregated WASH facilities. These risks, in turn, often compel families to keep their girls out of school and even to marry them off as children to reduce the risk of gender-based violence in and around schools.

This is why Education Cannot Wait (ECW) – the UN global fund for education in emergencies – has become the first global fund to join the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies. The ‘Call to Action’ is a multi-stakeholder initiative to transform how gender-based violence is addressed in humanitarian emergencies. ECW made the announcement during the ‘16 Days of Activism against Violence against Women and Girls’ campaign that kicked off on November 25 and ends on December 10.

“To no one is the campaign so real as it is for girls and adolescent girls who want to go to school, but face gender-based violence in emergency and protracted crisis contexts. These girls fear for their lives, they fear for their security, and they desperately need safe learning spaces so they can reach their full potential and be assured of their inherent human right to live free from fear and violence and to quality education,” said Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait.

Yasmine Sherif, the Director of Education Cannot Wait, says girls often fear for their lives and are in desperate need of safe spaces so they can reach their full potential. Credit: ECW

Sherif is talking about the one in four children in Africa who live in conflict zones. She is also referring to UNESCO projections which show that 9 million girls between 6-11 years of age – compared with 6 million boys of the same age – living in sub-Saharan Africa will never go to school. These estimates were before the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with school closures and COVID-19 restrictions, the situation has worsened.

The United Nations estimates that women and girls together account for 72 per cent of all human trafficking victims reported globally. Three out of four child trafficking victims are girls. A majority of women and girls are trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Globally, 15 million adolescent girls, aged 15–19 years, have experienced forced sex.

ECW points out that in armed conflicts, forced displacement, climate-induced disasters and protracted crises, gender-based violence risks are exacerbated, increasing the challenges already faced by girls, adolescent girls and women, as they are disproportionately affected by the impact of emergencies on education.

Although education is a fundamental human right for all children and adolescents, ECW finds that families are more likely to prioritize boys’ education, choosing not to pay for girls’ school fees, uniforms and other supplies as a result of the economic impact of armed conflicts, forced displacement and other crises.

Sherif and other experts in girls’ education emphasize that better-designed education programmes with a strong, gender-sensitive, protection component can help mitigate such risk – by keeping girls and women safer and supporting them when they experience gender-based violence. This provides them with the skills and knowledge they need to improve their own lives.

Joining forces with more than 95 stakeholders including governments, UN agencies, international NGOs, donors, and local civil society organizations, ECW “aims to contribute to change and foster accountability from the humanitarian system to address gender-based violence from the earliest phases of a crisis.”

All girls have a fundamental right to access safe, quality and inclusive education. Education Cannot Wait believes women and girls need a brighter future, without fear of gender-based violence. Credit: Joyce Chimbi

As the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, ECW is positioned to make and implement bold commitments to support gender-based violence risk mitigation.

The 16 Days campaign, which this year has the theme, ‘Orange the world: End violence against women now!’, has become an important rallying point to raise awareness and make a difference.

Mary Chepkwony, a field coordinator for the Kenya-based Rural Women Peace Link tells IPS that bold commitments to safeguard the rights of women, girls and adolescent girls are timely and critical.

“Gender-based violence cases are on an unprecedented increase, hence the need to strengthen local- and rural-based women organizations to improve the safety and security of women and girls,” she says.

Concerns are rife that COVID-19-driven economic insecurity is increasing girls and women’s vulnerability to gender-based violence in homes globally. Additionally, school-related gender-based violence is a major obstacle to universal schooling and the right to education for girls.

Meaningful partnerships with local women organizations are crucial for the design and implementation of safe, quality and inclusive education to ensure that girls are not left behind.

“This week, Education Cannot Wait launched two new guidance notes on gender-based violence risk mitigation measures and meaningful engagement of local women organizations,” says Sherif. These guidance notes will help ECW and its partners to support commitments to eliminate gender-based violence risks among women, girls and adolescent girls.

These short and practical guidance notes are based on global best practices and are being systematically integrated in the design and implementation of EWC-supported investments.

“We firmly believe that education in emergencies and protracted crises can greatly contribute to reducing the incidence of gender-based violence by creating safer education in emergency programming. Girls’ access, retention, and learning outcomes can only increase, creating a lasting positive impact on their communities,” says Sherif.

She explains that education in emergencies programming and protection – particularly gender-based violence risk mitigation – reinforce each other and when combined, can lead to positive outcomes for girls and their communities.

Chepkwony applauds these efforts, saying ongoing risk mitigation efforts around the world are a step in the right direction for the safety of women and girls.

ECW already supports these risk mitigation measures across its broad global portfolio. For instance, in Syria and Somalia, referral mechanisms to the gender-based violence sub-cluster were established to ensure disclosure of cases are dealt with according to best practice.

 

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Amal Kabashi addressing the UN Security Council last week. Credit: United Nations

By Amal Kabashi
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec 9 2021 (IPS)

As a feminist activist and defender of women’s rights in Iraq, I would like to share with you my growing concerns about the assassinations, kidnappings, assaults, threats of assassination against and defamation of feminist activists and human rights defenders, which they have faced especially during the popular protests in October 2019–2020, all of which have occurred with impunity.

Over the last two years Iraqi women have faced daily challenges in realizing their full, equal and meaningful participation in establishing peace and securing protection from violence in Iraq.

As part of my work with the Iraqi Women Network, I have played a prominent role in drafting the first National Action Plan (NAP) for Resolution 1325 and in preparing the second NAP (2021–2024), which focuses on the role of Iraqi women in achieving stability, security, and peace, as well as combating terrorism and extremism.

Last week, I was invited to provide a civil society perspective and recommendations when the Security Council met to discuss the situation in Iraq. I focused on three key issues that must be addressed to end this cycle of discrimination and exclusion against Iraqi women.

First, the elections and the present negotiations for forming a new government are both critical for ensuring women’s meaningful participation and promoting democracy in Iraq.

The early elections in Iraq last month were organized in response to the demands of the peaceful protests that shook the country from October 2019–2020. Women played a key role in these protests and defied social norms. Protestors were confronted with excessive use of force that left over 600 dead and thousands wounded.

Despite the boycott of the elections that followed, they proceeded under wide monitoring by the United Nations (UN) and the European Union. 3,240 candidates, including 950 women, participated in the elections to compete for 329 seats in the House of Representatives.

The elections resulted in the emergence of new political movements and independent winners. Moreover, many women candidates received thousands of votes, indicating the general electorate’s support for women’s political participation. The results of the election have raised the percentage of women’s representation to more than 28%.

I can’t emphasize enough the critical role of and need for women as active participants in parliament and in negotiations to form the new government. Their meaningful representation must also be reflected through an increase in the number of women in ministerial positions and to ensure gender equality and equal opportunity, which the constitution affirms.

Second, while women’s engagement and increased participation in the electoral process is encouraging, an enabling environment for their participation is essential, as they still face serious barriers of discrimination, inequality and stereotyping of gender roles in the family, society, and law.

During the 2014–2021 parliamentary sessions we advocated for Parliament to pass a law against domestic violence. However, we failed. Despite the existence of such a law in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. This is due to the tyrannical mentality of many Iraqi legislators, who reject such efforts because they claim for the privacy of family life.

Yet the Iraqi constitution guarantees protection from all forms of violence and abuse in the family, school and society. These fundamental principles, as well as Iraq’s international legal obligations, require the establishment of national laws and regulations that protect women and girls from gender-based violence in all spheres of society.

This year has witnessed some encouraging legislation, such as the Yazidi Survivors’ Law. This law is part of the framework of transitional justice adopted by the Iraqi government to address the consequences of terrorism and violent extremism.

However, the law focuses on providing material compensation to women survivors and does not take the necessary measures to institutionalize psychological, health and social services for the survivors and their children.

The law also fails to address access to justice for survivors of gender-based violence and their children born to fathers affiliated with ISIS, particularly in terms of registering their births and obtaining civil documentation.

There are also gaps in the government program to implement rehabilitation and support the integration of ISIS families into their local communities. This has a profound impact on the ongoing stigmatization of women and girls forced to join ISIS or marry their fighters. The delay in resolving the situation of these families makes them ticking time bombs that threaten peace and societal security.

Stability in my country also needs strengthened law and justice enforcement institutions that are gender sensitive. This is essential for fighting impunity, corruption, and militarism, all of which negatively affect women’s rights and women’s participation in promoting social cohesion, reconciliation, and peacebuilding.

Third, a national mechanism to support inclusion of women is critical to ensure oversight of and adequate resources for implementing Iraq’s NAP on 1325. The absence of such a mechanism has contributed to the weakening of women’s participation in decision-making bodies, and in development programs.

We, as a national feminist movement, have called for the Iraqi government to form a National Council for Women’s Empowerment with representation of the government, Parliament, and the Supreme Judicial Council, as well as civil society organizations concerned with women and media.

This Council is needed to effectively lead work at the level of state institutions and local communities, realize the women, peace, and security (WPS) agenda, and invest in Iraqi women’s potential to reform the political process and build a state of equal citizenship and social justice.

In closing, I urged the UN Security Council to:

• Call on the Government of Iraq to fulfill its duty to provide the legal framework and the necessary mechanisms to protect women and girls, and support victims to access justice in line with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and Resolution 1325 (2000) and subsequent resolutions on WPS. This includes enacting the anti-domestic violence law, amending the Iraqi Penal Code and preventing attempts to legislate laws based on sectarian grounds to regulate personal affairs.
• Call upon the Government of Iraq to create the National Council for Women’s Empowerment and allocate the necessary budget to implement the NAP on 1325.
• Ensure the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) prioritizes protection for women’s rights in its support to the Government of Iraq for judicial and legal reform, as stipulated by Resolution 2576 (2021).
• Call on the Government of Iraq to ensure accountability for the killings of human rights defenders and civil society activists during the 2019–2020 protests and protect the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
• Call on the international community to fund women human rights defenders, their organizations and all civil society representatives and NGOs working to promote human rights, gender justice and the inclusion of women in peacebuilding and sustainable development.

We need sweeping and urgent action from the UN Security Council, the government of Iraq and the international community on all these fronts if we are to see truly sustainable and inclusive peace in Iraq. The futures of all Iraqis depend on it.

Amal Kabashi is the Executive Director of the Iraqi Women Network, which was established in 2004 as a civil society feminist alliance and includes more than 100 local organizations from all over Iraq.

 

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Aid workers faced extreme intimidation and were held at gunpoint by looters, the UN says.