August 08, 2008

The Global Campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women! (SKSW Campaign) welcome the news that the sentence of four Iranians to die by stoning has recently been commuted by the Iranian judiciary. The news was announced by the spokesman of the judiciary, Alireza Jamshidi, who also announced that the sentence of all other cases are also under review.

Equality Now has issued an update in its campaign against FGM in Mali, renewing its call on the Malian government to support the passage of a law criminalizing FGM as a matter of urgent priority.

Half-way to 2015 we are still far from achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals to halve extreme poverty, which range from providing universal primary care to environmental sustainablility. We need to get on track.

This campaign - MDG3 Global Call to Action – focuses on the third Millennium Development Goal (MDG 3) on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.

July 17, 2008

The polygamous communitis of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) - a branch of Mormonism - have openly practiced forced and underage marriages, incest, and abuse for decades. Under the clause of "religious freedoms", however, this practice has been permitted to continue in the Canadian province of British Columbia and lengthy court cases have been further delayed by repeated appointments of special investigators.

July 03, 3008

A local court in Istanbul ordered the closure of the Turkish lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender solidarity organization, Lambda Istanbul. The court ruled on 29 May in favour of a complaint by the Istanbul Governor's Office that Lambda Istanbul's objectives were against Turkish "moral values and family structure". An appeal challenging this ruling is currently pending.