• A chance for Congress to help Haitian women
    Commentary
    Jan 24, 2012
    Haiti desperately needs legal reform on gender-based violence. Haitian law prohibits domestic violence against minors but does not classify domestic violence against adults as a distinct crime. The penal code includes penalties for rape but does not address marital rape. Women and girls cannot seek protection orders from judicial officers.
  • Hope for Haiti's Women
    Commentary
    Jan 17, 2012
    Women's rights is one example of huge problems and work ahead, and yet it also shows why no one should give up on Haiti. Groundbreaking work is being done to promote the rights of women and girls -- who have suffered immeasurably in Haiti's disasters and instability -- through new legislation.
  • Kuwait: End Police Abuses Against Transgender Women
    Press release
    Jan 15, 2012
    Kuwaiti police have tortured and sexually abused transgender women using a discriminatory law, passed in 2007, which arbitrarily criminalizes “imitating the opposite sex.” The government of Kuwait should repeal the law, article 198 as amended in 2007, and hold police officers accountable for misconduct.
  • Egypt: Prosecute Sexual Assaults on Protesters
    Press release
    Dec 22, 2011
    There is an escalating pattern of physical attacks by Egyptian military and police officers against women and male protesters, journalists, and activists in Cairo, some of which are sexual in nature. News reports and images of protesters in Cairo being stripped, beaten, and dragged through the street in the past several days are just the latest incidents.
  • Yemen Could Seize Moment to Ban Child Marriage
    Commentary
    Dec 20, 2011
    Yemen's version of the Arab Spring has eclipsed urgent social concerns both in debates within Yemen and with donor countries. One of these issues is the widespread forced marriage of girls; very young girls in some cases.Now that President Ali Abdullah Saleh has agreed to cede power, there may be an opportunity to press for social reform as part of the transition process.
  • Healthcare is failing women
    Commentary
    Dec 20, 2011

    South Africa has one of the world's highest incidences of violence, including rape and domestic violence, against women. A study by Interpol estimates that, in South Africa, a woman is raped every 17 seconds and one in four South African women suffers domestic violence.

      

  • Ending Violence Against Women: A Public Health Imperative
    Journal Article
    Dec 16, 2011
    Sexual violence causes physical injury, disability, and even death. It can result in sexually transmitted disease, poor reproductive health, unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and depression. The public health community, including local and international health providers active in Haiti, needs to be prepared to handle the health and social consequences of violence against women, and to work to prevent this violence.
  • How many women does it take to win a Nobel peace prize?
    Commentary
    Dec 12, 2011
    In Norway on Saturday, three women stepped up to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2011. The awarding of the Nobel to Leymah Gbowee, Tawakkul Karman and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is a long-awaited and, some may think, overdue testament to women's courage. While just three women ascended to the podium in Oslo, the victory will be shared by many, many more -- and couldn't have come at a better time.
  • Beyond corrective rape
    Commentary
    Dec 12, 2011
    United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a simple but profound message in her United­ Nations speech in Geneva last week. Her message: human rights are indivisible and governments cannot selectively withhold rights.
  • South Africa: LGBT Rights in Name Only?
    Press release
    Dec 5, 2011
    Black lesbians and transgender men in South African townships and rural areas face an overwhelming climate of discrimination and violence despite protections promised them in the country’s constitution, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.