Yearly Archives: 2011

The Guatemalan elections on 11 September 2011 mark an important point in the country’s political life. It will be the elections with the most women candidates ever and, for the first time, voters will be predominantly female: 51 percent women and 49 percent men. The time for women to shape politics in Guatemala seems to have come.

A former domestic worker for more than 20 years, founding member and President of Jamaica Household Workers’ Association (JHWA) Shirley Pryce has taken great strides to advocate for the rights of women domestic workers. On 7-8 September 2011, Pryce will take her work a step further by representing her organization at a regional conference in Kingston, Jamaica, under the theme: “Migrant Domestic Workers at the Interface of Migration and Development: Action to Expand Good Practice.”

In May 1983, biopharmaceutist Maria da Penha Fernandes was fast asleep when her husband shot her, leaving her a paraplegic for life. Two weeks after her return from the hospital, he tried to electrocute her.
The case da Penha filed languished in court for two decades, while Maria’s husband remained free. Years later, in a landmark ruling, the Court of Human Rights criticized the Brazilian government for not taking effective measures to prosecute and convict perpetrators of domestic violence. In response to this, the Brazilian government in 2006 enacted a law under the symbolic name “Maria da Penha Law on Domestic and Family Violence.”

UN Women is supporting the participation of HIV-positive women leaders from China, Indonesia, India, Viet Nam and the Philippines in the regional response to the AIDS pandemic. As governments, donors, and civil society gather for the 10th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, being held in Busan, South Korea, 26–30 August 2011, UN Women is advocating for greater investment in key affected women, particularly HIV-positive women.

To further the participation of women in decision-making processes, the Afghanistan National Parliament has committed to establishing a resource centre for women parliamentarians on its premises this month in Kabul with support from UN Women.

A Europe-wide UN competition calling for advertisements on ending violence against women has selected its 30 finalists from 15 countries. Organized by the United Nations Regional Informational Centre (UNRIC) for Western Europe and UN Women, the competition Create4theUN received more than 2,700 entries from 40 countries.