Announcements

WLUML is deeply concerned that the first public act of the Libya's National Transition Committee has been to proclaim on October 23rd, 2011, that henceforth, a number of laws will be considered annulled and that 'sharia law' is to replace them. Libya’s National Transition Committee is an interim government – what it has responsibility for – and what its first action should have concerned, is to put into place a mechanism for elections for the new government after the fall of the Gaddafi regime.

"We, the undersigned human rights, women’s rights and health organizations, welcome the report (A/66/254) of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Anand Grover, to the UN General Assembly presented on 24 October 2011 as a milestone in the struggle for the full realization of the right to health for all.

"The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (the Observatory) releases today its 14th Annual Report on the situation of human rights defenders during a press conference held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. While the revolutions that took place in the Arab world in 2011 reminded the international community of the emergency to put the issue of human rights back at the top of its political agenda, utmost attention must be paid to the alerts made by human rights defenders worldwide, and no compromise must be made towards the harassment they face.

We, the Women’s Major Group representatives* at the Asia Pacific Regional Preparatory Meeting for Rio+20 call on governments to reaffirm their commitments to Agenda 21 and the Beijing Platform for Action, and fulfill their obligations to the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 

The Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on Wednesday Sept 28, 2011 that reaffirms the international community’s commitment to mainstreaming human rights into efforts to prevent maternal mortality and morbidity.  

This Call for Action captures the key recommendations of the High Level Meeting on Increasing Accountability and Development Effectiveness through Gender-Responsive Planning and Budgeting convened by the Government of Rwanda, the European Union and UN Women in Kigali, Rwanda last week.

No for Military Trials group, El Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, Nazra for Feminist Studies, New Women Foundation and Hisham Mubarak Law Center filed a law suit before of the Administrative Court against the Commander in Chief of the Military Forces and the Minister of Defense and others appealing the decision of forcing women to examine their virginity in military prisons and detention places for Armed Forces.

Feminists, gender equality and women’s rights activists and organizations mobilizing on the road to the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF4) to be held in Busan on 29 Nov - 1 Dec 2011 reaffirm their vision for transformation and offer concrete recommendations for improving the international development cooperation architecture in a set of key demands.

Update (July 2): We have received information that members of the FWRM retreat are all safe and have managed to clear up the situation.

July 1, 2011

"Police closed down the Fiji's Women's Rights Movement's (FWRM) retreat and planning at the Pearl resort in Pacific harbor this morning.

Maryam Majd, an Iranian photojournalist, who disappeared on her way from Tehran, Iran, to Dusseldorf in Germany is being held in Tehran's notorious Evin prison.