The AIDS response has taught the world the importance of protecting human rights and promoting gender equality when fighting a disease. COVID-19 has amplified that lesson. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, UNAIDS has repeated the call that governments must protect human rights and prevent and address gender-based violence—an issue that is even more...
Covid-19 has exposed just how much work remains to be done to wipe out female genital mutilation (FGM) around the world. Two million girls who would otherwise be safe from the practice are believed to be at risk over the next decade as a direct result of the virus. As lockdowns linger and economies tumble,...
AM TIMAM, Chad – Once, Adouia Brema was a child bride forced to leave school. Today, she gives her community the gift of light. Her journey – from vulnerable teen mother to solar cell electrician – shows the remarkable feats that marginalized women and girls can achieve when they are empowered with information and economic...
As we plan the return to the workplace and think about what work might look like after the shutdown, leaders must remember gender equality and representation. The lockdown offers a unique opportunity to supercharge progress on gender equity by deliberately reworking policies and practices to usher in a new chapter in the history of work...
The recent news making the rounds concerning the rape, assault, molestation, and murder of young Nigerian women as young as nine years old is overwhelming for any woman. Uwa, Tina, Jennifer, Barakat represent the limits that exist around women and the restrictions we must place on ourselves just to be considered worthy of humanity. As...
12 June 2020 Good morning, good afternoon and good evening. WHO is a global organization, but we are also proud and active members of the cities and communities we live in. Since the 20th of March, Geneva’s famous Jet d’Eau fountain has been switched off while the city was in lockdown. Yesterday I had the...
Women and girls are negatively and disproportionately impacted by disasters and conflict. These crises affect their life expectancy, education, maternal health, livelihoods, nutrition, and the levels of violence they experience. At the same time, women are also often first responders and leaders in humanitarian response, though they are often portrayed only as victims and passive beneficiaries...
Even as countries buckle under the devastating social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, they must consider the links between gender inequality and crisis, particularly in communities affected by climate change and conflict. That’s the premise of a new UN report which argues that understanding these connections can help policymakers and donors to mitigate...
“I am in a complicated situation. As a journalist, I take great personal risk by being out and about during the pandemic. As people confined to their homes clamor for information, I feel that it is my responsibility to help through my reporting. As the disease is still new, ministry officials and the medical teams...
Group of protesters on Friday stormed the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters in Abuja, and police command in Lagos to protest the rising spate of rape, sexual violence, assault against women, incest in the country. Unanimously, they demanded that there should be declaration of state-of-emergency on gender-based violence in the country. The protesters who demanded justice...
