A volatile mix of competing factions within Yemen’s major Islamist party is preventing the group from developing a clear platform. Tribal, Muslim Brotherhood, and Salafi elements within the Yemeni Congregation for Reform (Islah) has led to a lack of unity and hampered the party’s performance, explains Amr Hamzawy in a new paper.
Originally an ally of the ruling General People’s Congress (GPC) and a junior member in the government following the unification of North and South Yemen in 1990, Islah joined the opposition in 1997 in protest over the government’s lack of progress on democratic reforms. It has continued to switch sides on key policy issues between the ruling party and the opposition ever since.
Key Conclusions:
• Although Islah has emerged as the strongest opposition group in Yemen, it has failed to secure any major legislative accomplishments since leaving the ruling coalition in 1997.
• Islah emphasizes peaceful political participation. It recognizes the rights of secular movements and supports democracy as compatible with Islam. Islah has also democratized its internal procedures and decision-making processes.
• Since moving into the opposition, Islah, which started its political participation calling for the Islamization of state and society, has focused less on religious and moral legislation, instead prioritizing political, social, and economic reforms.
• Like many Arab Islamist movements, Islah has created religious, charitable, and educational institutions to enlarge its base by delivering social services.
• To counter Islah’s growing strength, the GPC has sought to deepen the rifts between Islah’s various factions, and to limit the group’s control over mosques.
• Yemeni Salafis are skeptical of democratic participation, but continue to view Islah as their best available option, and have voted for its candidates in recent presidential and local elections.
“Although Islah’s long-standing internal divisions have hindered the party’s parliamentary prospects, more than anything, the concentration of power in the hands of President Saleh and the ruling GPC has stifled its legislative success,” Hamzawy cautions. “At this level, the experience of Islamists in Yemen corresponds to the wider regional pattern of Islamist parties and movements, which have proven ineffective in opposition to authoritarian regimes.”
Showing posts with label yemen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yemen. Show all posts
Friday, November 13, 2009
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Yemen: New degree to put gender back into development
Date: Sunday, August 02, 2009
Source: Yemen Times
SANA'A - In a country repeatedly rated last in the Global Gender Gap report, a new master's degree at the University of Sana'a promises Yemeni women a brighter future, by combining gender and development studies.
The Gender-Development Research and Study Center is encouraging university graduates with high levels of English proficiency to apply for its program in Gender and International Development, to start in February 2010.
"Our Masters students will have the capacity for critical thinking, to see the problem of development deeply," said Dr. Husnia Al-Kadiri, head of the center.
"If women participate in the master's, they will not represent all Yemeni women, but they will work on how to push education for girls," said Al-Kadiri, "which is the most important tool to make women's participation visible in development."
"Women are playing a role in development, but it is silent- not visible," she said.
Only 55 percent of Yemeni girls are enrolled in basic education compared to 75 percent of boys, according to the government's latest statistics.
Although United Nations statistics increase both these percentages by around 10 percent, they report that girls' attendance in basic education reaches no more than 41 percent.
The disempowerment of women and children was one of the four underlying reasons for the poor outcomes of development interventions in Yemen, according to the UN's 2005 Common Country Assessment.
The three others were lack of transparency and participation, inequitable and unsustainable use of water resources, and the growth of unemployment in a rapidly expanding population.
The two-year master's program is the first of its kind in the region, said Al-Kadiri, although the American universities of Cairo and Beirut also offer gender-based courses.
The International Development Center at Roskilde University in Denmark is supporting the program, and international specialists will teach for the first few years while they train a permanent staff.
"Gender in development is making sure men and women both participate in development," said Dr. Saed Al-Saba, head of documentation and information at the center. "It is ensuring both women and men are given equal opportunities."
The course is definitely not only for women, she said, because the presence of men is vital for women to be able to seize their right to participate in development.
"Men must understand that gender in development is not dangerous to men, it is just about equal opportunity between the sexes," she said.
Women and men think differently, explained Al-Kadiri, but the potentials of both are complementary. Both sexes must be included in development so that half a country's potential is not lost along the way.
"If we give the chance to women to participate, the potential of both sexes will accelerate the wheel of development," she said.
"When you integrate gender, you can solve a lot of problems," added Aisha Saeed, head of the Protection Program at Save the Children, who worked with the center in 2008 on research on gender-based violence.
BETTER GENDER BUDGETING
"[The news master's] is very important because people don't know how to integrate gender in development," said Khadija Radman, deputy minister for women affairs at the Ministry of Social Affairs.
The program will help integrate gender-related considerations into government and non-governmental organization plans, according to Radman, notably through gender budgeting.
"They don't know how to do it!" she said of gender budgeting, or equal and fair distribution of resources between men and women-centered projects in Yemen.
Only 33 percent of governmental, non-governmental and international organizations took gender into consideration while drawing up their budgets, according to a 2009 survey by the Yemeni Strategic Development Center on gender-responsive budgeting.
"Gender budgeting is the biggest issue in development," said Al-Kadiri, who explains that with it, a majority of problems could be solved.
The program aims to teach students about gender budgeting, as well as more development-orientated subjects such as conflict resolution.
EVIDENCE-BASED STUDIES
Part of the Gender-Development Research and Study Center's work over the last few years has been very productive, said Al-Kadiri.
Campaign-orientated research into early marriage in particular bore fruit, as it contributed the beginning of a discussion on a minimum age for marriage. Although a law that sets 17 as the minimum legal age to marry is now being stalled in parliament, the discussion is an achievement, she said.
When you have statistical evidence of early marriage, female genital mutilation or gender-based violence, it is harder for people to ignore the problem, she said.
Hard facts and dialogue are a key to closing the gender gap, from the family-level to government.
In Yemen, only one of the 301 seats in parliament is held by a woman, and two ministries -the Ministry of Human Rights and the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs- are headed by women.
To date, women are outnumbered four to one in legislatures around the world, according to the UN.
"Despite the progress that has been made, six out of ten of world's poorest people are still women and girls, less than 16 percent of the world's parliamentarians are women, two thirds of all children shut outside the school gates are girls," according to the United Nations' Development Program's Web site.
Over 60 percent of all unpaid family workers globally are women, women still earn on average 17 percent less than men, and about one-third of women suffer gender-based violence during their lives, it says.
ACTION NOT WORDS
The program has received support from the University of Sana'a, said Al-Kadiri, but it seeks more technical support from international donors and UN agencies.
"This is the nucleus for changing society," she said. "This center with other partners will be a good change agent for Yemen, even regionally where conflict is high."
Al-Kadiri also urged local women's rights organizations to support the center's efforts and show a greater presence at its meetings.
"Talking about gender equality is important, but doing is more important," she said.
Although it showed improvement in scores from previous years, Yemen was ranked 130 out of 130 countries in the 2008 Global Gender Gap Report, an annual report issued by the World Economic Forum.
Source: Yemen Times
SANA'A - In a country repeatedly rated last in the Global Gender Gap report, a new master's degree at the University of Sana'a promises Yemeni women a brighter future, by combining gender and development studies.
The Gender-Development Research and Study Center is encouraging university graduates with high levels of English proficiency to apply for its program in Gender and International Development, to start in February 2010.
"Our Masters students will have the capacity for critical thinking, to see the problem of development deeply," said Dr. Husnia Al-Kadiri, head of the center.
"If women participate in the master's, they will not represent all Yemeni women, but they will work on how to push education for girls," said Al-Kadiri, "which is the most important tool to make women's participation visible in development."
"Women are playing a role in development, but it is silent- not visible," she said.
Only 55 percent of Yemeni girls are enrolled in basic education compared to 75 percent of boys, according to the government's latest statistics.
Although United Nations statistics increase both these percentages by around 10 percent, they report that girls' attendance in basic education reaches no more than 41 percent.
The disempowerment of women and children was one of the four underlying reasons for the poor outcomes of development interventions in Yemen, according to the UN's 2005 Common Country Assessment.
The three others were lack of transparency and participation, inequitable and unsustainable use of water resources, and the growth of unemployment in a rapidly expanding population.
The two-year master's program is the first of its kind in the region, said Al-Kadiri, although the American universities of Cairo and Beirut also offer gender-based courses.
The International Development Center at Roskilde University in Denmark is supporting the program, and international specialists will teach for the first few years while they train a permanent staff.
"Gender in development is making sure men and women both participate in development," said Dr. Saed Al-Saba, head of documentation and information at the center. "It is ensuring both women and men are given equal opportunities."
The course is definitely not only for women, she said, because the presence of men is vital for women to be able to seize their right to participate in development.
"Men must understand that gender in development is not dangerous to men, it is just about equal opportunity between the sexes," she said.
Women and men think differently, explained Al-Kadiri, but the potentials of both are complementary. Both sexes must be included in development so that half a country's potential is not lost along the way.
"If we give the chance to women to participate, the potential of both sexes will accelerate the wheel of development," she said.
"When you integrate gender, you can solve a lot of problems," added Aisha Saeed, head of the Protection Program at Save the Children, who worked with the center in 2008 on research on gender-based violence.
BETTER GENDER BUDGETING
"[The news master's] is very important because people don't know how to integrate gender in development," said Khadija Radman, deputy minister for women affairs at the Ministry of Social Affairs.
The program will help integrate gender-related considerations into government and non-governmental organization plans, according to Radman, notably through gender budgeting.
"They don't know how to do it!" she said of gender budgeting, or equal and fair distribution of resources between men and women-centered projects in Yemen.
Only 33 percent of governmental, non-governmental and international organizations took gender into consideration while drawing up their budgets, according to a 2009 survey by the Yemeni Strategic Development Center on gender-responsive budgeting.
"Gender budgeting is the biggest issue in development," said Al-Kadiri, who explains that with it, a majority of problems could be solved.
The program aims to teach students about gender budgeting, as well as more development-orientated subjects such as conflict resolution.
EVIDENCE-BASED STUDIES
Part of the Gender-Development Research and Study Center's work over the last few years has been very productive, said Al-Kadiri.
Campaign-orientated research into early marriage in particular bore fruit, as it contributed the beginning of a discussion on a minimum age for marriage. Although a law that sets 17 as the minimum legal age to marry is now being stalled in parliament, the discussion is an achievement, she said.
When you have statistical evidence of early marriage, female genital mutilation or gender-based violence, it is harder for people to ignore the problem, she said.
Hard facts and dialogue are a key to closing the gender gap, from the family-level to government.
In Yemen, only one of the 301 seats in parliament is held by a woman, and two ministries -the Ministry of Human Rights and the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs- are headed by women.
To date, women are outnumbered four to one in legislatures around the world, according to the UN.
"Despite the progress that has been made, six out of ten of world's poorest people are still women and girls, less than 16 percent of the world's parliamentarians are women, two thirds of all children shut outside the school gates are girls," according to the United Nations' Development Program's Web site.
Over 60 percent of all unpaid family workers globally are women, women still earn on average 17 percent less than men, and about one-third of women suffer gender-based violence during their lives, it says.
ACTION NOT WORDS
The program has received support from the University of Sana'a, said Al-Kadiri, but it seeks more technical support from international donors and UN agencies.
"This is the nucleus for changing society," she said. "This center with other partners will be a good change agent for Yemen, even regionally where conflict is high."
Al-Kadiri also urged local women's rights organizations to support the center's efforts and show a greater presence at its meetings.
"Talking about gender equality is important, but doing is more important," she said.
Although it showed improvement in scores from previous years, Yemen was ranked 130 out of 130 countries in the 2008 Global Gender Gap Report, an annual report issued by the World Economic Forum.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Yemen: SCER, IFES discuss electoral cooperation ties
SABA- 13 May 2009
Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum (SCER) and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) discussed here on Wednesday aspects of the bilateral cooperation in the fields of democracy and election. SCER members Mohammed al-Sayani and Abdu al-Jandi held talks with the director of IFES office in Yemen Peter Williams on the possibility of supporting the SCER plans and programs during the next phase in fields of institutional building, training, rehabilitation and electoral awareness as well as promoting women's participation in the elections.
Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum (SCER) and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) discussed here on Wednesday aspects of the bilateral cooperation in the fields of democracy and election. SCER members Mohammed al-Sayani and Abdu al-Jandi held talks with the director of IFES office in Yemen Peter Williams on the possibility of supporting the SCER plans and programs during the next phase in fields of institutional building, training, rehabilitation and electoral awareness as well as promoting women's participation in the elections.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Yemen: Program of supporting women's access to parliament launched
SANA'A, May 10 (Saba) - The Cultural Development Foundation in cooperation with the Partnership Program of the European Union inaugurated here on Sunday the program of supporting women's access to parliament.
Chairwoman of the foundation Raufah Hassan reviewed the situation of the women political participation and activities of the foundation in order to promote this participation.
She also pointed out to the objective of establishing "supporters networks" which was set up to create awareness over the importance of women participation in political life as well as to increase the number of women candidates for elections.
For his part, the European Commission charge de affairs Michele Cervole d'UrSo noted to the important role of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in finding solutions to support the representation of the women in Parliament.
The executive director of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) Peter Williams reviewed the experiences of a number of European and third world countries in this area, affirming the need to seek a support for the Yemeni women regardless of the electoral support.
He considered the Quota system is the best in Yemen.
FJ/AH
Saba
Chairwoman of the foundation Raufah Hassan reviewed the situation of the women political participation and activities of the foundation in order to promote this participation.
She also pointed out to the objective of establishing "supporters networks" which was set up to create awareness over the importance of women participation in political life as well as to increase the number of women candidates for elections.
For his part, the European Commission charge de affairs Michele Cervole d'UrSo noted to the important role of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in finding solutions to support the representation of the women in Parliament.
The executive director of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) Peter Williams reviewed the experiences of a number of European and third world countries in this area, affirming the need to seek a support for the Yemeni women regardless of the electoral support.
He considered the Quota system is the best in Yemen.
FJ/AH
Saba
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Morocco: In Morccco, breaking down barriers in the Arab world
boston.com Passport
By Fatema Haji-Taki
May 5, 2009
IFRANE, Morocco -- For the past five days, a group of Moroccan students and young-adult activists from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Tunisia and Algeria have been working intensely together in workshops building bridges among themselves and improving skills for creating interfaith community programs in their own countries.
From working to ease interfaith tensions in Egypt and Yemen to advancing women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, these activists are dedicated to sharing their expertise and acquiring new skills on how to effectively plan events, launch campaigns, and secure funding for their field work to promote religious and political freedom in their countries. The workshops emphasize how to translate their online activism to real-world organizing and leadership skills that participants can put to work in practical ways in their home communities.
Ironically, some participants were unable to attend because their visa applications were not approved in time, or, in the case of a prominent Baha’i activist from Egypt, it became too dangerous for her to travel. The empty seats were a stark reminder of the lack of religious and political freedom in most Arab countries.
Jesse Sage, Nasser Weddady and Lauren Murphy from Hands Across the Middle East Support Alliance, a Boston-based nonprofit, and I organized and are facilitating the conference, “Interfaith Leadership Seminar: From the Virtual to the Real World,” at Al Akhawayn University, an English-language college in Ifrane.
Jewish in the Arab world
During the conference the participants met Moroccan Raphael Elmaleh, believed to be the only Jewish tour guide in the Arab world. He is also a founder of the only Jewish museum in the Arab world in Casablanca. Elmaleh’s passion in life is to research the Jewish heritage of Morocco and restore the synagogues and other sites that were left behind by the Jews more than 40 years ago.
“I’m proud to be a Jew in an Arab country,” he says. On Sunday, all the participants had a chance to visit Fez while he showed us the old Jewish Quarter and the cemeteries and the synagogues left behind. For many, this was the first time they had been exposed to the Jewish heritage in an Arab country. By the end of the day, the bond that he created with the rest of the group was heartening.
At first, he acknowledged he was nervous talking about his work to a group of Arab young people from across the Middle East whom he had never met before. But working with the group for two days has changed his mind and he is excited to talk about how Jews and Muslims coexisted peacefully in Morocco and what that means for the future. During dinner yesterday, all of the participants gave him a standing ovation for his dedication while the Moroccan students sang the national anthem. The expression on Elmaleh’s face was invaluable.
Freedom of the press in Yemen
Unfortunately, on Monday, we also learned that an independent newspaper run by one of the Yemeni participants, Abdullah Abdulwahab Naji Qaid, was shut down by Yemeni authorities. Abdullah is a founding member and the General Activity Supervisor of the al-Tagheer Organization for Rights and Freedom Defense, an NGO based in Yemen. He has previously participated in seminars on religious freedom which addressed discrimination against Yemen's Zaidi community.
(Fatema Haji-Taki/UUSC photo)
Yemeni journalist Abdullah Abdulwahab Naji Qaid
When the news broke, the mood among all of us turned solemn. It was a grave reminder of the difficult circumstances these activists work in and the challenges ahead of them after they return home. As the night wore on, the solidarity between all of us for Qaid’s work was palpable. Many are working to organize a campaign for him while others are planning to spread the word through Facebook, their blogs and other online networks.
As a non-Arab Muslim-American human rights activist, I am humbled by the work of my peers. Through the last few days, I’ve seen them work together, debate their differences, sing and dance together. They have created a support network for each other. They are all invested in each others’ success because they all are committed to religious and political freedom in the Arab world.
What they have experienced together as a team will stay with them for the rest of their lives. As they go back, they will face obstacles and there will be times when they will want to give up. My only hope is they will remember the solidarity they experienced this past week and keep soldiering on because they are the future leaders of the Arab world.
By Fatema Haji-Taki
May 5, 2009
IFRANE, Morocco -- For the past five days, a group of Moroccan students and young-adult activists from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Tunisia and Algeria have been working intensely together in workshops building bridges among themselves and improving skills for creating interfaith community programs in their own countries.
From working to ease interfaith tensions in Egypt and Yemen to advancing women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, these activists are dedicated to sharing their expertise and acquiring new skills on how to effectively plan events, launch campaigns, and secure funding for their field work to promote religious and political freedom in their countries. The workshops emphasize how to translate their online activism to real-world organizing and leadership skills that participants can put to work in practical ways in their home communities.
Ironically, some participants were unable to attend because their visa applications were not approved in time, or, in the case of a prominent Baha’i activist from Egypt, it became too dangerous for her to travel. The empty seats were a stark reminder of the lack of religious and political freedom in most Arab countries.
Jesse Sage, Nasser Weddady and Lauren Murphy from Hands Across the Middle East Support Alliance, a Boston-based nonprofit, and I organized and are facilitating the conference, “Interfaith Leadership Seminar: From the Virtual to the Real World,” at Al Akhawayn University, an English-language college in Ifrane.
Jewish in the Arab world
During the conference the participants met Moroccan Raphael Elmaleh, believed to be the only Jewish tour guide in the Arab world. He is also a founder of the only Jewish museum in the Arab world in Casablanca. Elmaleh’s passion in life is to research the Jewish heritage of Morocco and restore the synagogues and other sites that were left behind by the Jews more than 40 years ago.
“I’m proud to be a Jew in an Arab country,” he says. On Sunday, all the participants had a chance to visit Fez while he showed us the old Jewish Quarter and the cemeteries and the synagogues left behind. For many, this was the first time they had been exposed to the Jewish heritage in an Arab country. By the end of the day, the bond that he created with the rest of the group was heartening.
At first, he acknowledged he was nervous talking about his work to a group of Arab young people from across the Middle East whom he had never met before. But working with the group for two days has changed his mind and he is excited to talk about how Jews and Muslims coexisted peacefully in Morocco and what that means for the future. During dinner yesterday, all of the participants gave him a standing ovation for his dedication while the Moroccan students sang the national anthem. The expression on Elmaleh’s face was invaluable.
Freedom of the press in Yemen
Unfortunately, on Monday, we also learned that an independent newspaper run by one of the Yemeni participants, Abdullah Abdulwahab Naji Qaid, was shut down by Yemeni authorities. Abdullah is a founding member and the General Activity Supervisor of the al-Tagheer Organization for Rights and Freedom Defense, an NGO based in Yemen. He has previously participated in seminars on religious freedom which addressed discrimination against Yemen's Zaidi community.
(Fatema Haji-Taki/UUSC photo)
Yemeni journalist Abdullah Abdulwahab Naji Qaid
When the news broke, the mood among all of us turned solemn. It was a grave reminder of the difficult circumstances these activists work in and the challenges ahead of them after they return home. As the night wore on, the solidarity between all of us for Qaid’s work was palpable. Many are working to organize a campaign for him while others are planning to spread the word through Facebook, their blogs and other online networks.
As a non-Arab Muslim-American human rights activist, I am humbled by the work of my peers. Through the last few days, I’ve seen them work together, debate their differences, sing and dance together. They have created a support network for each other. They are all invested in each others’ success because they all are committed to religious and political freedom in the Arab world.
What they have experienced together as a team will stay with them for the rest of their lives. As they go back, they will face obstacles and there will be times when they will want to give up. My only hope is they will remember the solidarity they experienced this past week and keep soldiering on because they are the future leaders of the Arab world.
Yemen: Yemen escapes Worst of the Worst list of not free countries
Yemen Times
By: Nadia Al-Sakkaf and Freedom House
May 6 — Maintaining the same position as last year in the Freedom House annual survey on the state of global political rights and civil liberties, Yemen has escaped the list of 42 countries designated as “not free.”
Each year 193 countries are judged based on events from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31. As last year Yemen is described as “partially free” with a rating of five for both political rights and civil liberties rates, and an average combined rating of five based on a 1 to 7 scale, with 1 representing the most free and 7 the least free.
“We are publishing this report to assist policymakers, human rights organizations, democracy advocates, and others who are working to advance freedom around the world. We also hope that the report will be useful to the work of the United Nations Human Rights Council,” announced the team behind the report.
Of the 51 “not free” territories and countries, 17 countries and four territories were selected as Worst of the Worst due to systematic and pervasive human rights violations. With an average combined political rights and civil liberties ratings of 6.5 or 7, these countries comprise 10 percent of the world’s nations and 24 percent of the world’s population. Six of those 17 countries are Arab: Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Syria.
None of the Arab countries were categorized as free, while only seven countries including Yemen were defined as partially free: Djibouti, Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Morocco and Kuwait. The remaining 13 countries in addition to the Palestinian territories were defined as not free.
According to the report, at the beginning of 2009, of the 193 countries in the world, 89 countries -46 percent- are free and can be said to respect a broad array of basic human rights and political freedoms. An additional 62 countries -32 percent- are partly free, with some abridgments of basic rights and weak enforcement of the rule of law.
In all, some 3 billion people -46 percent of the world’s population-live in free states in which a broad array of political rights are protected.
“The fundamental violations of rights presented in this report are all the more alarming because they stand in sharp contrast to the significant expansion of human liberty over the last three decades. In that period, dozens of states have shed tyranny and embraced democratic rule and respect for basic civil liberties,” said Jennifer Windsor, executive director at Freedom House.
The survey rates each country and territory on a seven-point scale for both political rights and civil liberties, with 1 representing the most free and 7 the least free, and then assigns each country and territory a broad category status of free (for countries whose ratings average 1.0 to 2.5), partly free (3.0 to 5.0), or not free (5.5 to 7.0).
The ratings process is based on a checklist of 10 political rights and 15 civil liberties questions. The political rights check list includes questions about the electoral process, political pluralism and participation, functioning of the government and other discretionary political rights questions. The civil liberties checklist includes questions about freedom of expression and belief, associational and organizational rights, rule of law, and personal autonomy and individual rights.
“The Freedom in the World ratings are not merely assessments of the conduct of governments, but are intended to reflect the reality of daily life,” reads the report. “Freedom can be affected by state actions as well as by non-state actors. Thus, terrorist movements or armed groups use violent methods which can dramatically restrict essential freedoms within a society. Conversely, the existence of non-state activists or journalists who act courageously and independently despite state restrictions can positively impact the ability of the population to exercise its freedoms.”
Consequently, Freedom House and UN Watch strongly urge United Nations members to block seven countries from obtaining seats on the Human Rights Council, including China, Cuba and Saudi Arabia rated among the world’s most repressive regimes.
The non government organizations released a report in New York this week that indicates that nearly two-thirds of the 20 countries running for seats in next week’s election either have poor or questionable human rights records.
The study found seven countries not qualified: Azerbaijan, Cameroon, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Russia and Saudi Arabia. The governments of three of those countries—China, Cuba and Saudi Arabia—rank among the world’s most repressive regimes, suppressing nearly all fundamental political rights and civil liberties, according to Freedom House’s Worst of the Worst report. An additional six countries have questionable or mixed human rights records: Bangladesh, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria and Senegal.
The report raised further concern that a majority of the candidates may gain seats on the influential council despite their records, because of a lack of competition from democratic states. However, each candidate must first secure an absolute majority of the General Assembly, or 97 votes, to win a seat.
“General Assembly members who care about human rights must not resign themselves to approving these noncompetitive slates,” said Paula Schriefer, Freedom House advocacy director. “We urge member states to restore credibility to the council by rejecting those nations that do not uphold basic standards for human rights.”
On May 12, the UN General Assembly is expected to elect 18 new countries to the Human Rights Council, more than a third of its total membership. Each regional group is apportioned a specific number of seats. However, in three of the five regional groups—Asia, Latin America and the Western European and Others group—the number of countries running does not exceed the number of open seats.
The General Assembly is instructed to elect council members based on their ability to “uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights” and their ability to “fully cooperate” with the council.
As a result, UN Watch and Freedom House evaluated each of the 20 candidates based on its record of human rights protection at home and its record of human rights promotion at the UN.
The evaluation included the countries’ rankings in Freedom House and UN Watch analyses, as well as reports from Reporters San Frontières, The Economist Democracy Index and the Democracy Coalition Project.
By: Nadia Al-Sakkaf and Freedom House
May 6 — Maintaining the same position as last year in the Freedom House annual survey on the state of global political rights and civil liberties, Yemen has escaped the list of 42 countries designated as “not free.”
Each year 193 countries are judged based on events from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31. As last year Yemen is described as “partially free” with a rating of five for both political rights and civil liberties rates, and an average combined rating of five based on a 1 to 7 scale, with 1 representing the most free and 7 the least free.
“We are publishing this report to assist policymakers, human rights organizations, democracy advocates, and others who are working to advance freedom around the world. We also hope that the report will be useful to the work of the United Nations Human Rights Council,” announced the team behind the report.
Of the 51 “not free” territories and countries, 17 countries and four territories were selected as Worst of the Worst due to systematic and pervasive human rights violations. With an average combined political rights and civil liberties ratings of 6.5 or 7, these countries comprise 10 percent of the world’s nations and 24 percent of the world’s population. Six of those 17 countries are Arab: Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Syria.
None of the Arab countries were categorized as free, while only seven countries including Yemen were defined as partially free: Djibouti, Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Morocco and Kuwait. The remaining 13 countries in addition to the Palestinian territories were defined as not free.
According to the report, at the beginning of 2009, of the 193 countries in the world, 89 countries -46 percent- are free and can be said to respect a broad array of basic human rights and political freedoms. An additional 62 countries -32 percent- are partly free, with some abridgments of basic rights and weak enforcement of the rule of law.
In all, some 3 billion people -46 percent of the world’s population-live in free states in which a broad array of political rights are protected.
“The fundamental violations of rights presented in this report are all the more alarming because they stand in sharp contrast to the significant expansion of human liberty over the last three decades. In that period, dozens of states have shed tyranny and embraced democratic rule and respect for basic civil liberties,” said Jennifer Windsor, executive director at Freedom House.
The survey rates each country and territory on a seven-point scale for both political rights and civil liberties, with 1 representing the most free and 7 the least free, and then assigns each country and territory a broad category status of free (for countries whose ratings average 1.0 to 2.5), partly free (3.0 to 5.0), or not free (5.5 to 7.0).
The ratings process is based on a checklist of 10 political rights and 15 civil liberties questions. The political rights check list includes questions about the electoral process, political pluralism and participation, functioning of the government and other discretionary political rights questions. The civil liberties checklist includes questions about freedom of expression and belief, associational and organizational rights, rule of law, and personal autonomy and individual rights.
“The Freedom in the World ratings are not merely assessments of the conduct of governments, but are intended to reflect the reality of daily life,” reads the report. “Freedom can be affected by state actions as well as by non-state actors. Thus, terrorist movements or armed groups use violent methods which can dramatically restrict essential freedoms within a society. Conversely, the existence of non-state activists or journalists who act courageously and independently despite state restrictions can positively impact the ability of the population to exercise its freedoms.”
Consequently, Freedom House and UN Watch strongly urge United Nations members to block seven countries from obtaining seats on the Human Rights Council, including China, Cuba and Saudi Arabia rated among the world’s most repressive regimes.
The non government organizations released a report in New York this week that indicates that nearly two-thirds of the 20 countries running for seats in next week’s election either have poor or questionable human rights records.
The study found seven countries not qualified: Azerbaijan, Cameroon, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Russia and Saudi Arabia. The governments of three of those countries—China, Cuba and Saudi Arabia—rank among the world’s most repressive regimes, suppressing nearly all fundamental political rights and civil liberties, according to Freedom House’s Worst of the Worst report. An additional six countries have questionable or mixed human rights records: Bangladesh, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria and Senegal.
The report raised further concern that a majority of the candidates may gain seats on the influential council despite their records, because of a lack of competition from democratic states. However, each candidate must first secure an absolute majority of the General Assembly, or 97 votes, to win a seat.
“General Assembly members who care about human rights must not resign themselves to approving these noncompetitive slates,” said Paula Schriefer, Freedom House advocacy director. “We urge member states to restore credibility to the council by rejecting those nations that do not uphold basic standards for human rights.”
On May 12, the UN General Assembly is expected to elect 18 new countries to the Human Rights Council, more than a third of its total membership. Each regional group is apportioned a specific number of seats. However, in three of the five regional groups—Asia, Latin America and the Western European and Others group—the number of countries running does not exceed the number of open seats.
The General Assembly is instructed to elect council members based on their ability to “uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights” and their ability to “fully cooperate” with the council.
As a result, UN Watch and Freedom House evaluated each of the 20 candidates based on its record of human rights protection at home and its record of human rights promotion at the UN.
The evaluation included the countries’ rankings in Freedom House and UN Watch analyses, as well as reports from Reporters San Frontières, The Economist Democracy Index and the Democracy Coalition Project.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Yemen: Promoting Yemeni Women’s Political Participation through Media Tools
MEPI
Yemeni women have been successful in removing many legal obstacles to their political advancement. However, they still have a long way to go in terms of overcoming social barriers that pose a serious challenge to their integration in the public sphere. Moreover, gender stereotyping often undermines women’s capacity to lead by misrepresenting their genuine talents and aptitudes. In Yemen, the burden often lies on civic groups to collaborate and deliver information that breaks down cultural biases against women and eradicates discriminatory practices. One such group in Yemen, the Awam Development and Cultural Institution, a non-governmental not-for-profit organization, organized a media awareness campaign, supported by the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) local grants program. The project used audio and audiovisual tools to alleviate misguided perceptions on women and encourage their representation in upcoming parliamentary elections.
“This project is for the sake of women in a society that believes in women as effective participants in political decision making”, Thoraya Dimaj, Executive Director of Awam, commented to local press. As part of the MEPI-funded project, Awam partnered with a local TV production company to produce a documentary film on Yemeni women’s achievements in various fields, and a comedy sketch portraying socio-cultural factors that block women’s political advancement. In addition, Awam invited Sanaa University students to participate in a contest to produce an original script for a 30-second public service announcement (PSA). The script delivered a message of awareness and urge for change and action to eliminate social inequality and raise women’s status in the political field. Out of 60 PSA scripts, eight were chosen to have the most compelling messages, out of which one was awarded to a female student for producing the greatest script.
“The importance of announcing the women’s political empowerment script winner is that it will encourage the delivery of a media awareness message that targets all sectors of society through various media tools”, commented Ms. Dimaj. She added that the winning script will be broadcast on local radio stations, and the other scripts will be edited and also broadcast. The documentary on women’s achievements is expected to be completed in May 2009.
Activities of this MEPI lcoal grant project were covered extensively in Yemeni local press including 14October, SabaNews, and Mareb Press.
Yemeni women have been successful in removing many legal obstacles to their political advancement. However, they still have a long way to go in terms of overcoming social barriers that pose a serious challenge to their integration in the public sphere. Moreover, gender stereotyping often undermines women’s capacity to lead by misrepresenting their genuine talents and aptitudes. In Yemen, the burden often lies on civic groups to collaborate and deliver information that breaks down cultural biases against women and eradicates discriminatory practices. One such group in Yemen, the Awam Development and Cultural Institution, a non-governmental not-for-profit organization, organized a media awareness campaign, supported by the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) local grants program. The project used audio and audiovisual tools to alleviate misguided perceptions on women and encourage their representation in upcoming parliamentary elections.
“This project is for the sake of women in a society that believes in women as effective participants in political decision making”, Thoraya Dimaj, Executive Director of Awam, commented to local press. As part of the MEPI-funded project, Awam partnered with a local TV production company to produce a documentary film on Yemeni women’s achievements in various fields, and a comedy sketch portraying socio-cultural factors that block women’s political advancement. In addition, Awam invited Sanaa University students to participate in a contest to produce an original script for a 30-second public service announcement (PSA). The script delivered a message of awareness and urge for change and action to eliminate social inequality and raise women’s status in the political field. Out of 60 PSA scripts, eight were chosen to have the most compelling messages, out of which one was awarded to a female student for producing the greatest script.
“The importance of announcing the women’s political empowerment script winner is that it will encourage the delivery of a media awareness message that targets all sectors of society through various media tools”, commented Ms. Dimaj. She added that the winning script will be broadcast on local radio stations, and the other scripts will be edited and also broadcast. The documentary on women’s achievements is expected to be completed in May 2009.
Activities of this MEPI lcoal grant project were covered extensively in Yemeni local press including 14October, SabaNews, and Mareb Press.
Yemen: Lifting the Voices of Yemen’s Women and Youth
Internews
(November 12, 2008) In 2007, Yemen ranked last out of the 128 countries considered in the World Economic Forum’s annual Gender Gap Index, signifying the persistence of serious gender-based inequalities.
To address these inequalities and bring women’s voices to the fore, Internews Network is empowering Yemeni youth and media professionals to explore sensitive issues concerning gender, society, and human rights.
In partnership with the Yemeni Women’s Media Forum (YWMF), Internews Network has begun holding a series of town hall meetings across Yemen to address these issues. Young people and professional journalists will be trained in radio production through the project, “Yemeni Voices: Women and Youth in Support of Free Media.” The project will culminate with the production of 15 thirty-minute radio programs, which will be aired on national and mainstream media.
Internews and the Yemeni Women’s Media Forum held the first town hall meeting in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, on October 22. Over 30 different organizations and NGOs were represented by more than 50 delegates from across Sana'a.
The participants formed three working groups to discuss topics for the radio programs in the areas of education, health, the environment, and human rights. Each group offered 12 to 15 ideas for future production. Suggested program topics ranged from child marriage to the use of weapons in Sana’a neighborhoods.
Participants were universally enthusiastic about the program. "The idea of creating working groups and coming up with results is the best way to show the transparency of the programs, and I hope that at least one of my ideas will be realized with this project through a real radio program," said Radia Khairan, a member of the Hood Organization.
“Yemeni Voices: Women and Youth in Support of Free Media” is supported by a grant from the US Department of State.
(November 12, 2008) In 2007, Yemen ranked last out of the 128 countries considered in the World Economic Forum’s annual Gender Gap Index, signifying the persistence of serious gender-based inequalities.
To address these inequalities and bring women’s voices to the fore, Internews Network is empowering Yemeni youth and media professionals to explore sensitive issues concerning gender, society, and human rights.
In partnership with the Yemeni Women’s Media Forum (YWMF), Internews Network has begun holding a series of town hall meetings across Yemen to address these issues. Young people and professional journalists will be trained in radio production through the project, “Yemeni Voices: Women and Youth in Support of Free Media.” The project will culminate with the production of 15 thirty-minute radio programs, which will be aired on national and mainstream media.
Internews and the Yemeni Women’s Media Forum held the first town hall meeting in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, on October 22. Over 30 different organizations and NGOs were represented by more than 50 delegates from across Sana'a.
The participants formed three working groups to discuss topics for the radio programs in the areas of education, health, the environment, and human rights. Each group offered 12 to 15 ideas for future production. Suggested program topics ranged from child marriage to the use of weapons in Sana’a neighborhoods.
Participants were universally enthusiastic about the program. "The idea of creating working groups and coming up with results is the best way to show the transparency of the programs, and I hope that at least one of my ideas will be realized with this project through a real radio program," said Radia Khairan, a member of the Hood Organization.
“Yemeni Voices: Women and Youth in Support of Free Media” is supported by a grant from the US Department of State.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Yemen: Giving a Voice To The Women Activists In Yemen
Rising Voices
The Republic of Yemen is an Arab country of more than 23 million people located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia. It is the only republic on the Arabian Peninsula (not led by a hereditary monarch) and is one of the poorest countries of the region. Its capital is Sana'a and the language is Arabic. Yemen is so often ignored by the international media and people know little about the country. With an internet penetration of less than 2% we do not usually get alternative perspectives from the citizen journalists. This has so often led to stereotyping of Yemenis.
For example Yemenis enjoy some unique freedom as an expat blogger Jalilah informs:
The veiling of women is not law in Yemen as it is in Saudi Arabia. Many younger, educated women merely cover their heads, but not their faces, and some do not veil at all. Those who do, do so in deference to tradition, not to law. [..]
Yemeni Arabic is quite different from other Arabic dialects and the women additionally speak a dialect all their own. I later learned that this was to insure more privacy and to avoid being understood by the men!
Women constitute only 30 percent of the Yemeni workforce and approximately 70 percent of women in Yemen are illiterate. The gap between men and women is very wide in terms of political empowerment and economic participation but the literacy rate is not that different from men. Various social, religious and political factors are responsible for women's low status (source) and women rarely have the platforms to voice their opinions.
But the Yemeni women are fighting back. For example, Yemeni women activists are fighting against the fundamentalists to prove that Islam does not contradict the use of contraceptives an family planning. But these activities are not much visible to the world. It is the high time when they start to harness the power of internet to help spread their activism and widen their campaigns.
Ghaida'a Al Absi plans to change the situation with a Rising Voices micro grant. She writes in her blog:
Human rights are being violated in many countries of the world, particularly developing countries, but there are a lot of people do not tolerate it and is trying to promote what is happening in their countries and to the whole world […] But..Yemen has several cases of gross human rights violations are not known to the world, and because of the weakness of civil society institutions and their lack of knowledge of right-wing.
In the project proposal Ghaida'a mentioned that her goal is:
to prepare and conduct a training course in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen. The project will focus on the Politicians women and the women workers in the field of Human Rights. In addition, the main objective of the project is to strengthen the capacity of those women to be able to express their own thoughts through the Internet. The training course will be conducted monthly for four days, two hours a day.
The targeted community is the activists women who work in politics or in the field of human rights. The trainings will give the targeted community the ability to use Internet in order to publish their point of views, documenting their activities and will give them the space to publish the issues they are fighting for.
Now let us learn more about Ghaida'a. She works at the SOUL Organization for Women and Children Development as WIT program assistant. The WIT (Women in Technology) program is about empowering Women in Technology. She is also doing some voluntary work in the organization like preparing training sessions in various topics for the Yemeni girls in WIT Forum.
She is also a volunteer in Yemeni Observatory for Human Rights, and the founder and coordinator of the Hand in hand Initiative, which is which is a forum of a group of youths engaged in raising awareness and rehabilitation of young people to make them able to change the future for the better, through education, information and capacity-building. In addition, she is a member of the MEPI Alumni.
We interviewed her recently in Germany at a conference on new media activism in the Middle East. In this interview she introduces herself and discusses the contents of the workshops, the challenges the project will face, and what she expects from the Rising Voices community.
The contents of the curriculum of this project will cover the use of Internet in publishing the issues concerning the activists and will be generated by three experts (including Ghaida'a) in new media. The guide will be in Arabic language, and will be arranged in handouts to be distributed to the targeted community.
The participants will be taught to create blogs to document their activities, voice their opinions and create a community of activists.
We are eager to follow the activities of the “Empowerment of Women Activists in Media Techniques” project and wish its success.
The Republic of Yemen is an Arab country of more than 23 million people located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia. It is the only republic on the Arabian Peninsula (not led by a hereditary monarch) and is one of the poorest countries of the region. Its capital is Sana'a and the language is Arabic. Yemen is so often ignored by the international media and people know little about the country. With an internet penetration of less than 2% we do not usually get alternative perspectives from the citizen journalists. This has so often led to stereotyping of Yemenis.
For example Yemenis enjoy some unique freedom as an expat blogger Jalilah informs:
The veiling of women is not law in Yemen as it is in Saudi Arabia. Many younger, educated women merely cover their heads, but not their faces, and some do not veil at all. Those who do, do so in deference to tradition, not to law. [..]
Yemeni Arabic is quite different from other Arabic dialects and the women additionally speak a dialect all their own. I later learned that this was to insure more privacy and to avoid being understood by the men!
Women constitute only 30 percent of the Yemeni workforce and approximately 70 percent of women in Yemen are illiterate. The gap between men and women is very wide in terms of political empowerment and economic participation but the literacy rate is not that different from men. Various social, religious and political factors are responsible for women's low status (source) and women rarely have the platforms to voice their opinions.
But the Yemeni women are fighting back. For example, Yemeni women activists are fighting against the fundamentalists to prove that Islam does not contradict the use of contraceptives an family planning. But these activities are not much visible to the world. It is the high time when they start to harness the power of internet to help spread their activism and widen their campaigns.
Ghaida'a Al Absi plans to change the situation with a Rising Voices micro grant. She writes in her blog:
Human rights are being violated in many countries of the world, particularly developing countries, but there are a lot of people do not tolerate it and is trying to promote what is happening in their countries and to the whole world […] But..Yemen has several cases of gross human rights violations are not known to the world, and because of the weakness of civil society institutions and their lack of knowledge of right-wing.
In the project proposal Ghaida'a mentioned that her goal is:
to prepare and conduct a training course in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen. The project will focus on the Politicians women and the women workers in the field of Human Rights. In addition, the main objective of the project is to strengthen the capacity of those women to be able to express their own thoughts through the Internet. The training course will be conducted monthly for four days, two hours a day.
The targeted community is the activists women who work in politics or in the field of human rights. The trainings will give the targeted community the ability to use Internet in order to publish their point of views, documenting their activities and will give them the space to publish the issues they are fighting for.
Now let us learn more about Ghaida'a. She works at the SOUL Organization for Women and Children Development as WIT program assistant. The WIT (Women in Technology) program is about empowering Women in Technology. She is also doing some voluntary work in the organization like preparing training sessions in various topics for the Yemeni girls in WIT Forum.
She is also a volunteer in Yemeni Observatory for Human Rights, and the founder and coordinator of the Hand in hand Initiative, which is which is a forum of a group of youths engaged in raising awareness and rehabilitation of young people to make them able to change the future for the better, through education, information and capacity-building. In addition, she is a member of the MEPI Alumni.
We interviewed her recently in Germany at a conference on new media activism in the Middle East. In this interview she introduces herself and discusses the contents of the workshops, the challenges the project will face, and what she expects from the Rising Voices community.
The contents of the curriculum of this project will cover the use of Internet in publishing the issues concerning the activists and will be generated by three experts (including Ghaida'a) in new media. The guide will be in Arabic language, and will be arranged in handouts to be distributed to the targeted community.
The participants will be taught to create blogs to document their activities, voice their opinions and create a community of activists.
We are eager to follow the activities of the “Empowerment of Women Activists in Media Techniques” project and wish its success.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Yemen: Parliament ratifies amended Yemeni citizenship law
Written By: Abdul-Aziz Oudah
Article Date: Apr 4, 2009 - 7:03:58 AM
The parliament ratified in it session held on Tuesday a legal article on Yemeni citizenship, the original article item No. 3 of the law No. 6 issued in 1990 over Yemeni citizenship has now been amended to stipulates that any person born to a Yemeni father or mother has the right to hold Yemeni citizenship.
According to the law, any person born in Yemen to a woman has the right to carry Yemeni citizenship and the child’s relation to his/her father does not need to be proved. Indeed anyone born in Yemen to unknown parents is also considered Yemeni and has the right to acquire citizenship.
The law gives the right to any emigrant holding Yemeni citizenship upon departure and continuing to maintain citizenship, to gain the citizenship if he/she so requires even if he/she has a citizenship from another country.
Anyone that has citizenship via their mother and reaches the age of maturity is given the right to choose whether to maintain the Yemeni citizenship or to join that of his/her father.
The parliament’s session, headed by Speaker Yahya Arra’i ratified the law on the bases of the Constitutional and Law Committee’s report. The session was attended by a number of concerned government officials.
Article Date: Apr 4, 2009 - 7:03:58 AM
The parliament ratified in it session held on Tuesday a legal article on Yemeni citizenship, the original article item No. 3 of the law No. 6 issued in 1990 over Yemeni citizenship has now been amended to stipulates that any person born to a Yemeni father or mother has the right to hold Yemeni citizenship.
According to the law, any person born in Yemen to a woman has the right to carry Yemeni citizenship and the child’s relation to his/her father does not need to be proved. Indeed anyone born in Yemen to unknown parents is also considered Yemeni and has the right to acquire citizenship.
The law gives the right to any emigrant holding Yemeni citizenship upon departure and continuing to maintain citizenship, to gain the citizenship if he/she so requires even if he/she has a citizenship from another country.
Anyone that has citizenship via their mother and reaches the age of maturity is given the right to choose whether to maintain the Yemeni citizenship or to join that of his/her father.
The parliament’s session, headed by Speaker Yahya Arra’i ratified the law on the bases of the Constitutional and Law Committee’s report. The session was attended by a number of concerned government officials.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Yemen: Sanaa’s First Woman Lawyer
28/03/2009
By Arafat Madabish
Sanaa, There have been a number of important stages in the life of Shada Nasser – the first female lawyer to work in Sanaa, and the first female lawyer to stand before the [Yemeni] courts unveiled – that have helped build her character and refine her talent, which has allowed her to become one of the most feted Yemeni lawyers on both the national and international levels. Perhaps many people recall the picture of Shada Nasser taken less than a month ago when she jointly received an international prize in New York [Woman of the Year Prize from Glamour Magazine] along with Najood Ali. Shada Nasser represented Najood Ali in court, successfully securing a marriage annulment for the girl who was only ten years old at the time. This resulted in the two receiving international fame, since this was an unprecedented event in Yemen and has encouraged other girls [in the same situation as Najood] to do the same.
Shada Nasser was born on 1 May 1964 in Aden, which at the time was a British colony. Her father, Mohamed Nasser Mohamed, was a well-known politician and diplomat who died under mysterious circumstances in an airplane accident in 1973 along with a number of other diplomats from South Yemen. Shada graduated with a Law degree from Charles University in Prague in 1989, and completed a one-year postgraduate degree from the same university. Shada worked as Director of the Drafting Committee for Legal Affairs for the University of Sanaa between 1990 and 1996, and she also founded the first female only law firm in March 1996. Shada Nasser also participated in the Yemeni parliamentary elections of April 1997, acting as Assistant Secretary-General of Technical Affairs for the Electoral Oversight Commission.
Shada Nasser was one of three female Yemeni lawyers to found the pioneering female law firm in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, where it was unprecedented for women to work in law, in comparison to the city of Aden where women work as lawyers, judges, and police officers.
Shada believes that her determination is what has allowed her to overcome these professional obstacles and barriers to become the first female lawyer in the city of Sanaa.
The first day of Shada Nasser's professional life as a lawyer was a strange and busy one. Shada told Asharq Al-Awsat, “I hailed a taxi cab and asked the driver to take me to the Bani Al-Harith Court which is located in the north of the city. The driver was very curious, and what served to increase his curiosity was that I was unveiled. This was ten years ago when I was younger and more beautiful! The driver asked me 'You must have a case in court?' I answered yes. He said 'Are you filing for divorce?' I said no, I'm a lawyer. He did not believe me and continued to believe that I was going to court to file for divorce. He continued to ask me questions and in the end he said to me 'If it won't embarrass you, tell me who your husband is, and I will hit him for you!’”
Inside court Shada Nasser found a number of tribal men and others who were waiting for their legal cases to be heard. They looked at her in shock and said ‘What is this girl doing here?’
Perhaps Shada Nasser was frightened at the prospect of standing before a traditional Yemeni judge who would not have been used to dealing with female lawyers. However she was surprised as the judge was completely calm. Of her first day in court Shada said, “In my first case, I was in front of Judge Mohamed Hamran, and to be honest he welcomed me as a member [of the court] and he encouraged me and my other colleagues, and we did not feel that he was treating us as women or girls with no experience or unable to handle our responsibilities. Some judges in Sanaa’s courts also [treated us] in the same way such as Judge Mohamed al Wadaey and Judge Mohamed al Sharfi, who encouraged the role of women.”
But judges and indeed Yemenis in general, are not all the same, and do not all encourage the role of women in the judicial system. One of these, according to Shada Nasser, was a judge who later went on to become a minister, and Shada Nasser has bad memories of him. Shada said, “He did not welcome me. Another judge would ask me to move from [sitting] in the front row to [sit] in the second row. When I asked why, he answered, ‘You are a woman, and the front row is for men only, no matter whether you are a lawyer or not.’ But my insistence in doing my job in a professional manner eventually forced him to respect me.”
Shada Nasser, who was born in Aden and studied in Eastern Europe, returned to her country at a time when North and South Yemen were being reunified, and the new capital city became the conservative Sanaa, rather than the liberal Aden. Shada Nasser, who grew up in liberal Aden, was thus free from the social customs and traditions that were and are still prevalent in Northern Yemen, including wearing the Hijab [headscarf] and the Niqab [face veil]. Speaking about this Shada remembers, “Once I was trying a case in front of a judge and suddenly my Hijab fell off my head – which I did not [ordinarily] wear in any case but had opted to cover my hair in accordance with society [in Sanaa]. The Secretariat of the Court asked me angrily ‘What is that on your head?’ meaning your Hijab has fallen off and you are standing in front of the judge with an uncovered head. Then I started to fasten a pin to my Hijab to avoid such situations [in the future].”
The daughter of a liberal politician and diplomat, it was expected that Shada Nasser would follow in the footsteps of her father, either into politics or diplomacy, or journalism. Her father was also a journalist and founded the newspaper ‘Al Tariq’ in Aden in 1966, which is now run by his son, Ayman Nasser. However Shada Nasser chose the path of law, and she confirms that she chose to enter law because her father died under mysterious circumstances which went uninvestigated, and she hoped to prosecute the persons who, in her own words, “killed my father.” This is not the only reason that Shada Nasser decided to enter law, but also because she wanted to stand up for the oppressed.
Shada Nasser is one of the few female [Yemeni] public figures not to have affiliated themselves with a political party, and she was particularly influenced by her father's political ideals. She explained this saying, “Since my childhood I lived in the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen [South Yemen] which was built almost along socialist lines. My father read widely and followed the news to the point that we had a small radio in our bathroom, and newspapers next to it, and he would listen to the news and read in the bathroom so as not to waste time. He dreamt of an equal society with regards to human rights and duties, he dreamt of helping the workers and peasants, but he was not a revolutionary!”
Despite the large number of legal cases that Shada Nasser has undertaken over the previous years, both nationally and internationally, her victory in the case of the child-marriage of Najood Ali represents a pivotal moment in her professional career, according to many observers in Yemen. Shada believes that Najood is just one example of a phenomenon that affects thousands of lives “but Najood was the only one to reach the court and say no to an early marriage, and her voice has reached the entire world.”
The environment that Shada Nasser was born into and grew up in is very different from the environment that she currently lives in, for society in general, and women in particular, had more freedom the ‘People's Democratic Republic of Yemen’ or ‘South Yemen’ but after the unification she moved to live in the new capital of Sanaa, which has been the capital of the ‘Yemen Arab Republic’ or ‘North Yemen.’ In Sanaa, she found many differences including high rates of illiteracy, and the oppression of women's rights, even though the law said that they – to some extent – are equal to men, reality showed otherwise.
The new reality faced by Shada Nasser may have caused some kind of shock in the beginning, and perhaps it can be said that she has adapted to [this new reality] today just as many of her counterparts have. Many men have also adapted to this new reality, whether they moved from Aden to Sanaa after the unification of the country, or whether they returned to Yemen after studying abroad. This is why we find many people, including Shada, who speak about the regime and the laws in the former South Yemen, and of the privileges that they experienced there that allowed Shada Nasser to study in Europe and go on to become a famed lawyer today. This is why she feels that there are “many oppressed people in our society, especially women and children; this includes a group female prisoners in the Central Prison in Sanaa who are imprisoned along with their children [after giving birth in prison].”
Even among the educated women of Yemen, Shada Nasser has been lucky to accomplish all that she has, especially in comparison to many girls who graduate from university in Yemen but are unable to enter the work force due to their husbands wishes. Shada Nasser is married to Dr. Mohamed Ali Al Saqqaf, a professor of international law and Sorbonne graduate; he is a “southerner” like her, who shares similar beliefs as her about living in a “male dominated” society, which does not occur within the tribal community alone, but can also be seen within the educated elites of Yemen.
There can be no doubt that Shada Nasser is proud of her many [legal] victories, but of course these are a drop in the ocean when looking at the reality of Yemen. What cannot be denied is that there are those [in Yemen] who see Shada Nasser merely as a woman, and there are those who completely disagree with her and the principles that she represents. However this does not preclude others from looking at Shada Nasser's experience and how this might influence the next generation of Yemenis, not only in Aden but in Sanaa also.
By Arafat Madabish
Sanaa, There have been a number of important stages in the life of Shada Nasser – the first female lawyer to work in Sanaa, and the first female lawyer to stand before the [Yemeni] courts unveiled – that have helped build her character and refine her talent, which has allowed her to become one of the most feted Yemeni lawyers on both the national and international levels. Perhaps many people recall the picture of Shada Nasser taken less than a month ago when she jointly received an international prize in New York [Woman of the Year Prize from Glamour Magazine] along with Najood Ali. Shada Nasser represented Najood Ali in court, successfully securing a marriage annulment for the girl who was only ten years old at the time. This resulted in the two receiving international fame, since this was an unprecedented event in Yemen and has encouraged other girls [in the same situation as Najood] to do the same.
Shada Nasser was born on 1 May 1964 in Aden, which at the time was a British colony. Her father, Mohamed Nasser Mohamed, was a well-known politician and diplomat who died under mysterious circumstances in an airplane accident in 1973 along with a number of other diplomats from South Yemen. Shada graduated with a Law degree from Charles University in Prague in 1989, and completed a one-year postgraduate degree from the same university. Shada worked as Director of the Drafting Committee for Legal Affairs for the University of Sanaa between 1990 and 1996, and she also founded the first female only law firm in March 1996. Shada Nasser also participated in the Yemeni parliamentary elections of April 1997, acting as Assistant Secretary-General of Technical Affairs for the Electoral Oversight Commission.
Shada Nasser was one of three female Yemeni lawyers to found the pioneering female law firm in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, where it was unprecedented for women to work in law, in comparison to the city of Aden where women work as lawyers, judges, and police officers.
Shada believes that her determination is what has allowed her to overcome these professional obstacles and barriers to become the first female lawyer in the city of Sanaa.
The first day of Shada Nasser's professional life as a lawyer was a strange and busy one. Shada told Asharq Al-Awsat, “I hailed a taxi cab and asked the driver to take me to the Bani Al-Harith Court which is located in the north of the city. The driver was very curious, and what served to increase his curiosity was that I was unveiled. This was ten years ago when I was younger and more beautiful! The driver asked me 'You must have a case in court?' I answered yes. He said 'Are you filing for divorce?' I said no, I'm a lawyer. He did not believe me and continued to believe that I was going to court to file for divorce. He continued to ask me questions and in the end he said to me 'If it won't embarrass you, tell me who your husband is, and I will hit him for you!’”
Inside court Shada Nasser found a number of tribal men and others who were waiting for their legal cases to be heard. They looked at her in shock and said ‘What is this girl doing here?’
Perhaps Shada Nasser was frightened at the prospect of standing before a traditional Yemeni judge who would not have been used to dealing with female lawyers. However she was surprised as the judge was completely calm. Of her first day in court Shada said, “In my first case, I was in front of Judge Mohamed Hamran, and to be honest he welcomed me as a member [of the court] and he encouraged me and my other colleagues, and we did not feel that he was treating us as women or girls with no experience or unable to handle our responsibilities. Some judges in Sanaa’s courts also [treated us] in the same way such as Judge Mohamed al Wadaey and Judge Mohamed al Sharfi, who encouraged the role of women.”
But judges and indeed Yemenis in general, are not all the same, and do not all encourage the role of women in the judicial system. One of these, according to Shada Nasser, was a judge who later went on to become a minister, and Shada Nasser has bad memories of him. Shada said, “He did not welcome me. Another judge would ask me to move from [sitting] in the front row to [sit] in the second row. When I asked why, he answered, ‘You are a woman, and the front row is for men only, no matter whether you are a lawyer or not.’ But my insistence in doing my job in a professional manner eventually forced him to respect me.”
Shada Nasser, who was born in Aden and studied in Eastern Europe, returned to her country at a time when North and South Yemen were being reunified, and the new capital city became the conservative Sanaa, rather than the liberal Aden. Shada Nasser, who grew up in liberal Aden, was thus free from the social customs and traditions that were and are still prevalent in Northern Yemen, including wearing the Hijab [headscarf] and the Niqab [face veil]. Speaking about this Shada remembers, “Once I was trying a case in front of a judge and suddenly my Hijab fell off my head – which I did not [ordinarily] wear in any case but had opted to cover my hair in accordance with society [in Sanaa]. The Secretariat of the Court asked me angrily ‘What is that on your head?’ meaning your Hijab has fallen off and you are standing in front of the judge with an uncovered head. Then I started to fasten a pin to my Hijab to avoid such situations [in the future].”
The daughter of a liberal politician and diplomat, it was expected that Shada Nasser would follow in the footsteps of her father, either into politics or diplomacy, or journalism. Her father was also a journalist and founded the newspaper ‘Al Tariq’ in Aden in 1966, which is now run by his son, Ayman Nasser. However Shada Nasser chose the path of law, and she confirms that she chose to enter law because her father died under mysterious circumstances which went uninvestigated, and she hoped to prosecute the persons who, in her own words, “killed my father.” This is not the only reason that Shada Nasser decided to enter law, but also because she wanted to stand up for the oppressed.
Shada Nasser is one of the few female [Yemeni] public figures not to have affiliated themselves with a political party, and she was particularly influenced by her father's political ideals. She explained this saying, “Since my childhood I lived in the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen [South Yemen] which was built almost along socialist lines. My father read widely and followed the news to the point that we had a small radio in our bathroom, and newspapers next to it, and he would listen to the news and read in the bathroom so as not to waste time. He dreamt of an equal society with regards to human rights and duties, he dreamt of helping the workers and peasants, but he was not a revolutionary!”
Despite the large number of legal cases that Shada Nasser has undertaken over the previous years, both nationally and internationally, her victory in the case of the child-marriage of Najood Ali represents a pivotal moment in her professional career, according to many observers in Yemen. Shada believes that Najood is just one example of a phenomenon that affects thousands of lives “but Najood was the only one to reach the court and say no to an early marriage, and her voice has reached the entire world.”
The environment that Shada Nasser was born into and grew up in is very different from the environment that she currently lives in, for society in general, and women in particular, had more freedom the ‘People's Democratic Republic of Yemen’ or ‘South Yemen’ but after the unification she moved to live in the new capital of Sanaa, which has been the capital of the ‘Yemen Arab Republic’ or ‘North Yemen.’ In Sanaa, she found many differences including high rates of illiteracy, and the oppression of women's rights, even though the law said that they – to some extent – are equal to men, reality showed otherwise.
The new reality faced by Shada Nasser may have caused some kind of shock in the beginning, and perhaps it can be said that she has adapted to [this new reality] today just as many of her counterparts have. Many men have also adapted to this new reality, whether they moved from Aden to Sanaa after the unification of the country, or whether they returned to Yemen after studying abroad. This is why we find many people, including Shada, who speak about the regime and the laws in the former South Yemen, and of the privileges that they experienced there that allowed Shada Nasser to study in Europe and go on to become a famed lawyer today. This is why she feels that there are “many oppressed people in our society, especially women and children; this includes a group female prisoners in the Central Prison in Sanaa who are imprisoned along with their children [after giving birth in prison].”
Even among the educated women of Yemen, Shada Nasser has been lucky to accomplish all that she has, especially in comparison to many girls who graduate from university in Yemen but are unable to enter the work force due to their husbands wishes. Shada Nasser is married to Dr. Mohamed Ali Al Saqqaf, a professor of international law and Sorbonne graduate; he is a “southerner” like her, who shares similar beliefs as her about living in a “male dominated” society, which does not occur within the tribal community alone, but can also be seen within the educated elites of Yemen.
There can be no doubt that Shada Nasser is proud of her many [legal] victories, but of course these are a drop in the ocean when looking at the reality of Yemen. What cannot be denied is that there are those [in Yemen] who see Shada Nasser merely as a woman, and there are those who completely disagree with her and the principles that she represents. However this does not preclude others from looking at Shada Nasser's experience and how this might influence the next generation of Yemenis, not only in Aden but in Sanaa also.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Yemen: Workshop on women's role in public life in Hodeidah
[19 March 2009]
HODEIDAH, March 18 (Saba) - The participants in the Role of Women in Public Life workshop called for the implementation of free lessons to eradicate legal illiteracy as well as awareness campaigns on the concept of freedom at girl schools
The participants affirmed in the workshop which was organized by the volunteer initiative "I am for my country" in the celebration of Women's day in Hodeidah, the importance of the protecting women from political exploitation.
They outlined the role of media in raising awareness about the role of women, reversing the negative image toward women and approximation of male and female views to achieve change together. Moreover, they urged correct interpretation of Quranic verses regarding women and buildup of young female capacity.
Thirty participants addressed during the workshop three work papers on embowering women and fighting thoughts leading to poor participation of women.
FJ/FR
Saba
HODEIDAH, March 18 (Saba) - The participants in the Role of Women in Public Life workshop called for the implementation of free lessons to eradicate legal illiteracy as well as awareness campaigns on the concept of freedom at girl schools
The participants affirmed in the workshop which was organized by the volunteer initiative "I am for my country" in the celebration of Women's day in Hodeidah, the importance of the protecting women from political exploitation.
They outlined the role of media in raising awareness about the role of women, reversing the negative image toward women and approximation of male and female views to achieve change together. Moreover, they urged correct interpretation of Quranic verses regarding women and buildup of young female capacity.
Thirty participants addressed during the workshop three work papers on embowering women and fighting thoughts leading to poor participation of women.
FJ/FR
Saba
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Yemen: Over 2800 Yemeni girls join security forces
Recently published statistics have revealed that over 2,800 Yemeni girls have joined the country’s security forces, and the Ministry of the Interior has stated that the entry of women represents a massive gain for security forces.
During the opening of the Yemeni Women’s Conference, the Prime Minister said that the government is determined to ensure the empowerment of women in the political, economic, social and cultural fields because the government is aware of its humanitarian role and responsibilities. He called for increasing female political empowerment by increasing the number of female ministers, deputy-ministers, assistant-deputy ministers, executive general-directors and increasing their enrolment in the police forces. Mujawar also pointed to the governments’ advocacy of women’s issues, adding that there are also 76 female judges, and 414 female managers and technicians.
In a related issue, General Hussein al-Zozai, the Vice-Minister of the Interior, described the admission of woman to the country’s police forces as a massive gain in the ongoing communal security process.
The statement came on the occasion of the celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8, in which Zozai indicated that the skills of Yemeni police women are equal to those of men, adding that women are now found in all security fields, including counter-terrorism.
PM Mujawar also revealed the governments’ latest literacy figures which have seen a decrease in the number of illiterate women, from 76.3 percent in 1994 to 60 percent presently, in addition to the increase in the number of girls entering basic education. The percentage of girls in primary education now represents one third of the total number of children in school, while the proportion of girls in universities has increased to 28 percent.
Mujawar stated that the government has approved the implementation of the recommendations made by the International Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, in addition to approving a number of amendments supporting women’s rights.
He confirmed the government’s obligation towards recommendations made by the “Saido” Committee and expressed his hope that international technical support groups and organizations working in Yemen would donate money for the implementation of these recommendations. There is a need for joint efforts to achieve progress in these areas as part of the Millennium Development Goals.
During the opening of the Yemeni Women’s Conference, the Prime Minister said that the government is determined to ensure the empowerment of women in the political, economic, social and cultural fields because the government is aware of its humanitarian role and responsibilities. He called for increasing female political empowerment by increasing the number of female ministers, deputy-ministers, assistant-deputy ministers, executive general-directors and increasing their enrolment in the police forces. Mujawar also pointed to the governments’ advocacy of women’s issues, adding that there are also 76 female judges, and 414 female managers and technicians.
In a related issue, General Hussein al-Zozai, the Vice-Minister of the Interior, described the admission of woman to the country’s police forces as a massive gain in the ongoing communal security process.
The statement came on the occasion of the celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8, in which Zozai indicated that the skills of Yemeni police women are equal to those of men, adding that women are now found in all security fields, including counter-terrorism.
PM Mujawar also revealed the governments’ latest literacy figures which have seen a decrease in the number of illiterate women, from 76.3 percent in 1994 to 60 percent presently, in addition to the increase in the number of girls entering basic education. The percentage of girls in primary education now represents one third of the total number of children in school, while the proportion of girls in universities has increased to 28 percent.
Mujawar stated that the government has approved the implementation of the recommendations made by the International Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, in addition to approving a number of amendments supporting women’s rights.
He confirmed the government’s obligation towards recommendations made by the “Saido” Committee and expressed his hope that international technical support groups and organizations working in Yemen would donate money for the implementation of these recommendations. There is a need for joint efforts to achieve progress in these areas as part of the Millennium Development Goals.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Yemen: GPC tops political parties in terms of woman participation level
Almotamar.net - A government report revealed that the General People’s Congress GPC ruling party in Yemen tops the list of political parties and organisations in terms of the volume and level of women participation in the leading bodies of parties at a rate of 20%, next to it the Yemen Socialist Party by 14%, the Unionist Nasserite Organization by 7% then the Yemeni Congregation for Reform Islah by 4%.
The report on assessment of the level of carrying out the Woman Development Strategy and the 3rd five year plan, presented at the 4th national Conference of the Woman that concluded in Sana’a Sunday, clarified that the GPC scored the first place by 33% with regard to the woman presence in the leading positions of political parties and organisations.
The report also affirmed the increase in the proportion of women working at decision-making positions, the cabinet, undersecretaries and assistant undersecretaries, directors generals, judges and local councils from 0.57% in 2005 to 1.9% in 2006 and the increase of the proportion of women in the leading bodies of political parties from 6.8% to 9.9% for the same period.
According to Al-Mithaq newspaper in its today’s issue the woman participation is still very limited especially in the higher positions.
-- Al-Motamar.net
The report on assessment of the level of carrying out the Woman Development Strategy and the 3rd five year plan, presented at the 4th national Conference of the Woman that concluded in Sana’a Sunday, clarified that the GPC scored the first place by 33% with regard to the woman presence in the leading positions of political parties and organisations.
The report also affirmed the increase in the proportion of women working at decision-making positions, the cabinet, undersecretaries and assistant undersecretaries, directors generals, judges and local councils from 0.57% in 2005 to 1.9% in 2006 and the increase of the proportion of women in the leading bodies of political parties from 6.8% to 9.9% for the same period.
According to Al-Mithaq newspaper in its today’s issue the woman participation is still very limited especially in the higher positions.
-- Al-Motamar.net
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Yemen: Minimum age for marriage set at 17
By: Nadia Al-Sakkaf, Yemen Times
SANA’A, Feb. 11 — Nojood, 10, Arwa, 9, and Reem, 13, are three girls who went through traumatizing ordeals after being forced into marriage by their families. The three girls’ stories have been an issue of debate in social sessions, conferences and the media. But most importantly the matter was discussed in Parliament, where members have finally approved setting the minimum age for marriage for both boys and girls at 17 years old.
The new law stipulates:
“No child under seventeen years of age is to be married, unless the marriage is seen in the best interest of the child by the judge. The girl’s guardian who violates this law will be penalized. The judge conducting the marriage has to present the marriage document within one month of the marriage at most to the concerned body and the marriage contract must include related documents such as birth certificate, dowry and identity cards. The guardian of either the wife or husband will be financially penalized if they do not register the marriage certificate within the mentioned period. No marriage is to be carried out at any age without the consent of the woman.”
“It is a grand achievement for both women and men in Yemen,” said Hooria Mashour,deputy chairperson of the Women National Committee.
She excitedly agreed that such legislation will help promote better education and health of the citizen and will contribute to the development of the country as a whole.
“I am grateful to all the courageous people who fight for women’s rights, and I am especially thankful to the men in the parliament that helped pass this law,” she added.
Shaqi Al-Qadhi, Member of Parliament (MP) and strong advocate for women’s rights said that the law amendments is only the beginning.
“Now we need civil society organizations, lawyer syndicates and anyone interested in women’s development to propose procedural steps and a detailed system for implementing this law,” he said.
MP Dr. Abdulbari Al-Doghaish said that there has been a change in the mentality of many MPs and people in general towards the issues of women.
Al-Qadhi agrees with this notion, “I believe that now we can say that Yemeni society understands that women’s rights are a case of humanity and not an imported concept from the West.”
This law comes a few weeks before the fourth annual women’s conference which is organized by the Women National Committee.
“This is the best gift Parliament can give to women on their national day,” says Mashour.
More reasons to celebrate
The law to define the minimum age for marriage is not the only reason for Yemeni women to celebrate.
The parliament passed this amendment among a set of legislations concerning women and children in two laws, civil status law number 14 for the year 2002 and civil status law number 20 for the year 1992.
The amendments include facilitations of pre-marital medical checks regarding genetic faults, dangerous diseases or health risks.
Amendments also conditioned polygamy to the practical ability of a husband being fair and able to support both families. Fairness is included in all aspects, such as time spent with each wife, housing and logistics. The first wife also has to be legally notified of his intention of marrying another to allow them to make future decisions.
Amendments included technicalities in the marriage procedure and contracts which clarify the issue of consent among other issues.
Divorced women also benefit from the new amendments as the law today clearly stipulates women’s right to alimony for her children even if the divorce is permanent.
Custody of children is exclusively granted to the mother for the first twelve years of the children’s life whether boys or girls, unless the judge sees that the best interest of the child lies elsewhere.
A divorced mother with children has the right to a suitable residence to be provided for by the father of the child.
The new amendments also recognizes the mother as the sole guardian of orphaned children if is seen fit to shoulder this responsibility by a judge.
Once orphaned children reach puberty, a judge can test their maturity and entrust their inheritance to them if he considers them responsible enough.
SANA’A, Feb. 11 — Nojood, 10, Arwa, 9, and Reem, 13, are three girls who went through traumatizing ordeals after being forced into marriage by their families. The three girls’ stories have been an issue of debate in social sessions, conferences and the media. But most importantly the matter was discussed in Parliament, where members have finally approved setting the minimum age for marriage for both boys and girls at 17 years old.
The new law stipulates:
“No child under seventeen years of age is to be married, unless the marriage is seen in the best interest of the child by the judge. The girl’s guardian who violates this law will be penalized. The judge conducting the marriage has to present the marriage document within one month of the marriage at most to the concerned body and the marriage contract must include related documents such as birth certificate, dowry and identity cards. The guardian of either the wife or husband will be financially penalized if they do not register the marriage certificate within the mentioned period. No marriage is to be carried out at any age without the consent of the woman.”
“It is a grand achievement for both women and men in Yemen,” said Hooria Mashour,deputy chairperson of the Women National Committee.
She excitedly agreed that such legislation will help promote better education and health of the citizen and will contribute to the development of the country as a whole.
“I am grateful to all the courageous people who fight for women’s rights, and I am especially thankful to the men in the parliament that helped pass this law,” she added.
Shaqi Al-Qadhi, Member of Parliament (MP) and strong advocate for women’s rights said that the law amendments is only the beginning.
“Now we need civil society organizations, lawyer syndicates and anyone interested in women’s development to propose procedural steps and a detailed system for implementing this law,” he said.
MP Dr. Abdulbari Al-Doghaish said that there has been a change in the mentality of many MPs and people in general towards the issues of women.
Al-Qadhi agrees with this notion, “I believe that now we can say that Yemeni society understands that women’s rights are a case of humanity and not an imported concept from the West.”
This law comes a few weeks before the fourth annual women’s conference which is organized by the Women National Committee.
“This is the best gift Parliament can give to women on their national day,” says Mashour.
More reasons to celebrate
The law to define the minimum age for marriage is not the only reason for Yemeni women to celebrate.
The parliament passed this amendment among a set of legislations concerning women and children in two laws, civil status law number 14 for the year 2002 and civil status law number 20 for the year 1992.
The amendments include facilitations of pre-marital medical checks regarding genetic faults, dangerous diseases or health risks.
Amendments also conditioned polygamy to the practical ability of a husband being fair and able to support both families. Fairness is included in all aspects, such as time spent with each wife, housing and logistics. The first wife also has to be legally notified of his intention of marrying another to allow them to make future decisions.
Amendments included technicalities in the marriage procedure and contracts which clarify the issue of consent among other issues.
Divorced women also benefit from the new amendments as the law today clearly stipulates women’s right to alimony for her children even if the divorce is permanent.
Custody of children is exclusively granted to the mother for the first twelve years of the children’s life whether boys or girls, unless the judge sees that the best interest of the child lies elsewhere.
A divorced mother with children has the right to a suitable residence to be provided for by the father of the child.
The new amendments also recognizes the mother as the sole guardian of orphaned children if is seen fit to shoulder this responsibility by a judge.
Once orphaned children reach puberty, a judge can test their maturity and entrust their inheritance to them if he considers them responsible enough.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Yemen: WNC appeals parties to nominate women in upcoming parliamentary elections
SANA'A, Feb. 11 (Saba)- The Women National Committee appealed on Wednesday all political parties and organizations in Yemen to support women issues at all levels, coming on top the political empowerment of women and their right to be nominated for the upcoming parliamentary elections.
In a statement issued by the WNC, the committed thanked all heads and secretary generals of all political parties and organizations for their efforts exerted in support for women issues.
"Since the unification of Yemen, there has been a great interest by the parties at the local level to improve women issues and ensure their rights are fulfilled," the statement reads.
The committee affirmed in the statement its commitment by the quota system and presented a proposal within procedures to ensure a proportion of no less than 15% in the Parliament as women representatives.
Saba News
In a statement issued by the WNC, the committed thanked all heads and secretary generals of all political parties and organizations for their efforts exerted in support for women issues.
"Since the unification of Yemen, there has been a great interest by the parties at the local level to improve women issues and ensure their rights are fulfilled," the statement reads.
The committee affirmed in the statement its commitment by the quota system and presented a proposal within procedures to ensure a proportion of no less than 15% in the Parliament as women representatives.
Saba News
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Yemen: Women should be guaranteed 21 Parliamentary seats, Minister
Raghda Gamal, Yemen Observer
In the coming elections, Yemeni women should be guaranteed 21 seats in parliament, said the Minister of Human Rights Huda al-Ban, explaining the quota system. Al-Ban made her announcement during a press conference held to launch the training program, titled “Journalists for Human Rights” (JHR), which is being organized by the Media Women Forum, in cooperation with the MEPI.
During her address, she said there was a high expectation among many journalists who participated in this program, either in the field of human rights, or in support of women in the coming elections. She also added that the problems facing Yemeni women are not related to the political leadership or Yemeni law, but rather to the community, who fails to accept women in specific areas of political life. She confirmed that the Ministry of Human Rights welcomes any partnership with civil society organizations, and the media in dealing with information about human rights cases, and women’s issues in particular. She called on journalists to familiarize themselves with the system of human rights, and the principle of freedom of expression.
Wedad al-Badawi the Vice-Chairwoman of (MWF) said that the program hoped to form a group of qualified journalists, who would support human rights issues in Yemen by teaching these journalists the basics of international human rights and local laws. Al-Badawi thanked al-Ban for her continued support, and confirmed that this program came out of a need to create local community awareness surrounding women’s issues and human rights. The program also aimed to present a clearer picture about the kinds of social, local laws and international conventions surrounding women’s issues. The project will work over the whole year with 30 journalists from eight different provinces, with the aim of training participants. The MWF has invited individual’s active in Yemeni civil society and experienced journalists in the field of human rights.
The journalist Nebras Ammer discusses the problems facing her as a Yemeni journalist, especially from some Yemeni men who take important decisions while chewing Qat, an environment from which women are excluded. In related news, the MWF organized, during the same day, a fourth activity to enhance the strategic development of the forum over the next three years. This was achieved though the establishment of a workshop to discuss the aspirations of Yemen’s media women, and what they hoped to gain from the media and the Forum. The meeting was attended by a number of journalists.
In the coming elections, Yemeni women should be guaranteed 21 seats in parliament, said the Minister of Human Rights Huda al-Ban, explaining the quota system. Al-Ban made her announcement during a press conference held to launch the training program, titled “Journalists for Human Rights” (JHR), which is being organized by the Media Women Forum, in cooperation with the MEPI.
During her address, she said there was a high expectation among many journalists who participated in this program, either in the field of human rights, or in support of women in the coming elections. She also added that the problems facing Yemeni women are not related to the political leadership or Yemeni law, but rather to the community, who fails to accept women in specific areas of political life. She confirmed that the Ministry of Human Rights welcomes any partnership with civil society organizations, and the media in dealing with information about human rights cases, and women’s issues in particular. She called on journalists to familiarize themselves with the system of human rights, and the principle of freedom of expression.
Wedad al-Badawi the Vice-Chairwoman of (MWF) said that the program hoped to form a group of qualified journalists, who would support human rights issues in Yemen by teaching these journalists the basics of international human rights and local laws. Al-Badawi thanked al-Ban for her continued support, and confirmed that this program came out of a need to create local community awareness surrounding women’s issues and human rights. The program also aimed to present a clearer picture about the kinds of social, local laws and international conventions surrounding women’s issues. The project will work over the whole year with 30 journalists from eight different provinces, with the aim of training participants. The MWF has invited individual’s active in Yemeni civil society and experienced journalists in the field of human rights.
The journalist Nebras Ammer discusses the problems facing her as a Yemeni journalist, especially from some Yemeni men who take important decisions while chewing Qat, an environment from which women are excluded. In related news, the MWF organized, during the same day, a fourth activity to enhance the strategic development of the forum over the next three years. This was achieved though the establishment of a workshop to discuss the aspirations of Yemen’s media women, and what they hoped to gain from the media and the Forum. The meeting was attended by a number of journalists.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Yemen: Women contest for 2009 parliament
Member of General People’s Congress GPC, the Head of the Woman Office Fatma al-Khatri has affirmed Tuesday GPC’s orientations to encourage a large number of Yemeni women to participate in the parliamentary elections scheduled in April 2009.
Meanwhile an official statistic on empowering the woman politically, economically and socially revealed appointment of 23 ladies in the post of director general in different ministries and government establishments in the year 2007.
Ms al-Khatri also said the GPC General Secretariat is considering the subject of pushing women to engage in contests for the 2009 parliament in a positive form and full conviction in the necessity engaging the woman as candidate in a manner leading to her success in the upcoming elections.
She has also pointed out that the GPC’s rules of procedure stipulates on the necessity of the existence of 15% women in the leaderships, whether at the level of office or governorate or membership of the permanent committee and the general committee.
Al-Mithaq weekly quoted the GPC leading member as saying,” Whenever the woman is there as candidate the man has to support her. We at the GPC do not differentiate between candidates with regard to the morale, financial and organizational support and sometimes support for the women may be increased.”
-- Almotamar.net
Meanwhile an official statistic on empowering the woman politically, economically and socially revealed appointment of 23 ladies in the post of director general in different ministries and government establishments in the year 2007.
Ms al-Khatri also said the GPC General Secretariat is considering the subject of pushing women to engage in contests for the 2009 parliament in a positive form and full conviction in the necessity engaging the woman as candidate in a manner leading to her success in the upcoming elections.
She has also pointed out that the GPC’s rules of procedure stipulates on the necessity of the existence of 15% women in the leaderships, whether at the level of office or governorate or membership of the permanent committee and the general committee.
Al-Mithaq weekly quoted the GPC leading member as saying,” Whenever the woman is there as candidate the man has to support her. We at the GPC do not differentiate between candidates with regard to the morale, financial and organizational support and sometimes support for the women may be increased.”
-- Almotamar.net
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Yemen: Increase in woman candidates to upcoming elections, expected
Almotamar.net - Administration manager at the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum SCER Ilham Abulwahab said she pins hope on covenant of honour among political parties to support the woman as a candidate in the 4th parliamentary elections in Yemen schedule in April 2009, calling for benefiting from the initiative of the president of the republic for allocation of 15% of seats for the woman and the quota system inside the present electoral system representing positive distinguishing in favour of the woman.
Ms Abdulwahab added that the Yemeni constitution stipulates equality between the man and the woman and its amendment in favour of positive distinguishing for the woman recalls referendum amidst a masculine environment it is possible for its bias against the woman. Nevertheless, she said it can be resorted to amending the law of political parties obliging them to offer a certain percentage to the woman in the lists of their candidates.
Although the administration manager at the SCER expected, in an interview with almotamar.net, an increase in number of woman candidates in the parliamentary elections of next April due to accumulation of awareness among the woman , she said the question of reaching the parliament she does not believe it.
-- Almotamar.net
Ms Abdulwahab added that the Yemeni constitution stipulates equality between the man and the woman and its amendment in favour of positive distinguishing for the woman recalls referendum amidst a masculine environment it is possible for its bias against the woman. Nevertheless, she said it can be resorted to amending the law of political parties obliging them to offer a certain percentage to the woman in the lists of their candidates.
Although the administration manager at the SCER expected, in an interview with almotamar.net, an increase in number of woman candidates in the parliamentary elections of next April due to accumulation of awareness among the woman , she said the question of reaching the parliament she does not believe it.
-- Almotamar.net
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Yemen: Country comes last in Global Gender Gap report for the third year in a row
SANA'A, Dec. 6 — For the third consecutive year, Yemen ranks last in the Global Gender Gap Report 2008 published by the World Economic Forum with a slight improvement in its score compared to last year.
The Global Gender Gap Index scores can be interpreted as the percentage of the gap between women and men that has been closed. This year Yemen scored 0.466 compared to 0.45 in 2007. Each country is judged based on four categories: Economic participation and opportunity – outcomes on salaries, participation levels and access to high-skilled employment; Educational attainment – outcomes on access to basic and higher-level education; Political empowerment – outcomes on representation in decision-making structures; and Health and survival – outcomes on life expectancy and sex ratio.
The Global Gender Gap Index scores can be interpreted as the percentage of the gap between women and men that has been closed in health, economy, education and politics.
Yemen having a score less than 0.5 means that in these four categories together Yemeni women nearly have half the rights Yemeni men do.
However, the individual scores of each of the four categories vary. According to the report when it comes to health and survival, Yemeni women are almost as equal to men with a score of 0.98 while educational attainment comes second at 0.62, then comes economic participation at 0.25 and finally political empowerment which is 0.016.
Despite the slight progress from last year which was mainly in the health and survival category and education, the economic and political empowerment have dragged Yemen again to the bottom of the list of 130 countries world wide. The calculations include factors such as literacy rate, employment, healthy life expectancy, number of women in leading decision making positions.
Yemeni government's report
The Yemeni government had preceded the WEF's report by a local report which allegedly said that women participation has improved in the political, economic and social fields during the last few years.
Released by the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, the third local report, which included statistics of the year 2008, said that women achieved progress in terms of decision making inside four political parties, General people's Congress, Islah, Socialist and Nasserite parties. It indicated that women assumed leading positions in these parties.
"Around 70 Yemeni women were able during 2006 to hold leading diplomatic positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," said the government's report, adding, "The number of women who held leading positions in the unions of different professions mounted to 371 and those who are members of these unions committees are 2,453.
Women who held the judge degree mounted to 67 including three women holding management positions in the Ministry of Justice and another five were nominated in the High Judiciary Institute. The rest 59 women were appointed as judges in the public courts and prosecutions.
However, the local report maintained that women participation in decision making is still low as only 13 women work in the leading positions in the Republic Presidency representing only 14 percent compared with 191 men in the same institution. Women participation in the Cabinet represents only 7 percent as only 18 women work there, whereas the number of men mounted to 131, according to the government's report.
Yet as co-author of the WEF report Ricardo Hausmann, Director of the Centre for International Development at Harvard University in USA explains that the index assesses countries on how well they are dividing their resources and opportunities among their male and female populations, regardless of the overall levels of these resources and opportunities. Thus, the Index does not penalize those countries that have low levels of education overall, for example, but rather those where the distribution of education is uneven between women and men.
A third report
A shadow report on women's empowerment in light of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women prepared by civil society organizations in Yemen contradicts the government's report, confirming that women participation is still low in the leading positions of the political parties.
Presented to the 41th session of CEDAW's Committee last May, the report said that there are no signs that indicate the Yemeni government works toward enhancing women participation through adopting the quota system in elections and the system of closed constituencies.
It pointed out that women's participation is only 0.33 percent in the parliament and 0.08 percent in the local councils.
While the report said that, in the field of health care, maternal mortality rate during delivery has decreased during 2008, it confirmed that the gap between men and women is still big in the different levels of education. It pointed out that curriculum, despite the recent change on it, still highlights the stereotyped roles of women.
Nabila Al-Mufti , a lawyer and women rights activist, maintains that improving women situation in Yemen is correlated with a solution to the problem of codification of laws and lack of awareness of women issues among members of the parliament in a fair way. She said that the situation is also related with the society adoption of such issues, noting that the society is still far from women issues.
Asked whether Islam is a barrier in front of women participation, Al-Mufti said that Islam doesn't hinder women progress as it contains all principles of justice, pointing out that the problem consists in lack of awareness of the Islamic teachings.
Although recent political debates especially regarding the probable boycott of the opposition parties of the coming parliamentary elections in April 2009, the ruling party is strongly hinting at promoting women in the political sphere and recognizing a quota of at least ten percent of the party's nominees in the parliament.
"The boycott of the opposition would be an excellent opportunity to for women's political movement as they can transform the competition from political between different parties, to social by integrating minorities such as women in the political competition," said Dr. Ahmed Al-Sofi Director of the Yemeni Institute for Developing Democracy and a prominent figure at the ruling party.
And although the Women's National Committee which is the government machinery for empowering women praised the President's pledge to allocate 15 percent of the parliamentary seats for women, Hooria Mashhour, deputy director of the committee admitted that the way is still too long in front of Yemeni women to reach their targets. She said that three issues imposed themselves on Yemeni women during 2008 on the national level. The first one was the amendment of laws related to women in the Yemeni legislation. She said that out of 20 articles that represent discrimination against women, only five were amended, the second issue is women political participation, and the third being safe motherhood.
The Global picture
Norway leads the world in closing the gender gap between men and women, according to the overall ranking in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2008. Three other Nordic countries – Finland (2), Sweden (3) and Iceland (4) – also top the Report’s Gender Gap Index. Previously higher ranking countries such as Germany (11), United Kingdom (13) and Spain (17) slipped down the Index but stayed in the top 20, while Netherlands (9), Latvia (10), Sri Lanka (12) and France (15) made significant gains.
The United States (27) made progress this year and closed gender gaps in estimated earned income and perceived income gaps for similar work. The United States also made strides in political empowerment, driven by increased participation of women in political decision-making positions. Switzerland’s (14) advancement up the rankings was based on large increases in the percentage of women in parliament and those in ministerial-level positions. France (15) improved significantly for the third consecutive year, thanks to gains in both economic participation and political empowerment. China (57) gains 17 places relative to last year driven by narrowing gender gaps in educational attainment, economic participation and political participation. Brazil (73) improves on education and economic participation but falls to 110th place in political empowerment. In the bottom half of the rankings, countries such as Tunisia (103), Jordan (104) and United Arab Emirates (105) made overall gains, driven by narrower gaps in literacy, and in the case of Jordan and the UAE, in the percentage of women in political decision-making positions. Syria (107), Ethiopia (122) and Saudi Arabia (128) not only fell farther in the relative ranking, but also showed a drop in scores relative to their own performance last year.
According to the report, the three highest ranking countries have closed a little over 80% of their gender gaps, while the lowest ranking country has closed only a little over 45% of its gender gap. Out of the 128 countries covered in both 2007 and 2008, more than two-thirds have posted gains in overall index scores, indicating that the world in general has made progress towards equality between men and women. Additionally, taking averages across the subindexes for these 128 countries reveals that, globally, progress has been made on narrowing the gaps in educational attainment, political empowerment and economic participation, while the gap in health has widened.
“Greater representation of women in senior leadership positions within governments and financial institutions is vital not only to find solutions to the current economic turmoil, but to stave off such crises in future. At the World Economic Forum, we put strong emphasis on addressing this challenge with a multi-stakeholder approach through our global and regional Gender Parity Groups,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum. These communities of highly influential leaders from business, politics, academia, media and civil society – 50% women and 50% men – seek to share best practices and identify the most effective strategies to optimize the use of talent.
The Global Gender Gap Report 2008 is based on the innovative new methodology introduced in 2006 and includes detailed profiles that provide insight into the economic, legal and social aspects of the gender gap in each country. The Report measures the size of the gender gap in four critical areas of inequality between men and women.
The Report also provides some evidence on the link between the gender gap and the economic performance of countries. “Our work shows a strong correlation between competitiveness and the gender gap scores. While this does not imply causality, the possible theoretical underpinnings of this link are clear: countries that do not fully capitalize effectively on one-half of their human resources run the risk of undermining their competitive potential. We hope to highlight the economic incentive behind empowering women, in addition to promoting equality as a basic human right,” said Laura Tyson, co-author of the report and Professor of Business Administration and Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, USA.
“The Report reveals that progress is not only possible, but possible in a relatively short space of time: calculating the Index as far back as data would allow, we found that countries such as Chile, Spain, Turkey and Finland have closed between 5 and 10 percentage points of their respective gender gaps over just the past eight years. When we interpret these percentage changes at the societal level, we see that hundreds of thousands of lives are impacted, and at the economic level, we see enormous potential competitiveness gains,” said Saadia Zahidi, Head of Constituents at the World Economic Forum and co-author of the WEF Global Gender Gap report.
The World Economic Forum continues to expand geographic coverage in the Report. Featuring a total of 130 countries, this year’s Report provides an insight into the gaps between women and men in over 92% of the world’s population. Coverage has been expanded this year to include Barbados and Brunei Daressalam. The Report covers all current and candidate European Union countries, 23 from Latin America and the Caribbean, 23 from sub-Saharan Africa, over 20 from Asia and 15 from the Middle East and North Africa. Thirteen out of the 14 variables used to create the Index are from publicly available “hard data” indicators from international organizations, such as the International Labor Organization, the United Nations Development Program and the World Health Organization.
-- Yemen Times
The Global Gender Gap Index scores can be interpreted as the percentage of the gap between women and men that has been closed. This year Yemen scored 0.466 compared to 0.45 in 2007. Each country is judged based on four categories: Economic participation and opportunity – outcomes on salaries, participation levels and access to high-skilled employment; Educational attainment – outcomes on access to basic and higher-level education; Political empowerment – outcomes on representation in decision-making structures; and Health and survival – outcomes on life expectancy and sex ratio.
The Global Gender Gap Index scores can be interpreted as the percentage of the gap between women and men that has been closed in health, economy, education and politics.
Yemen having a score less than 0.5 means that in these four categories together Yemeni women nearly have half the rights Yemeni men do.
However, the individual scores of each of the four categories vary. According to the report when it comes to health and survival, Yemeni women are almost as equal to men with a score of 0.98 while educational attainment comes second at 0.62, then comes economic participation at 0.25 and finally political empowerment which is 0.016.
Despite the slight progress from last year which was mainly in the health and survival category and education, the economic and political empowerment have dragged Yemen again to the bottom of the list of 130 countries world wide. The calculations include factors such as literacy rate, employment, healthy life expectancy, number of women in leading decision making positions.
Yemeni government's report
The Yemeni government had preceded the WEF's report by a local report which allegedly said that women participation has improved in the political, economic and social fields during the last few years.
Released by the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, the third local report, which included statistics of the year 2008, said that women achieved progress in terms of decision making inside four political parties, General people's Congress, Islah, Socialist and Nasserite parties. It indicated that women assumed leading positions in these parties.
"Around 70 Yemeni women were able during 2006 to hold leading diplomatic positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," said the government's report, adding, "The number of women who held leading positions in the unions of different professions mounted to 371 and those who are members of these unions committees are 2,453.
Women who held the judge degree mounted to 67 including three women holding management positions in the Ministry of Justice and another five were nominated in the High Judiciary Institute. The rest 59 women were appointed as judges in the public courts and prosecutions.
However, the local report maintained that women participation in decision making is still low as only 13 women work in the leading positions in the Republic Presidency representing only 14 percent compared with 191 men in the same institution. Women participation in the Cabinet represents only 7 percent as only 18 women work there, whereas the number of men mounted to 131, according to the government's report.
Yet as co-author of the WEF report Ricardo Hausmann, Director of the Centre for International Development at Harvard University in USA explains that the index assesses countries on how well they are dividing their resources and opportunities among their male and female populations, regardless of the overall levels of these resources and opportunities. Thus, the Index does not penalize those countries that have low levels of education overall, for example, but rather those where the distribution of education is uneven between women and men.
A third report
A shadow report on women's empowerment in light of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women prepared by civil society organizations in Yemen contradicts the government's report, confirming that women participation is still low in the leading positions of the political parties.
Presented to the 41th session of CEDAW's Committee last May, the report said that there are no signs that indicate the Yemeni government works toward enhancing women participation through adopting the quota system in elections and the system of closed constituencies.
It pointed out that women's participation is only 0.33 percent in the parliament and 0.08 percent in the local councils.
While the report said that, in the field of health care, maternal mortality rate during delivery has decreased during 2008, it confirmed that the gap between men and women is still big in the different levels of education. It pointed out that curriculum, despite the recent change on it, still highlights the stereotyped roles of women.
Nabila Al-Mufti , a lawyer and women rights activist, maintains that improving women situation in Yemen is correlated with a solution to the problem of codification of laws and lack of awareness of women issues among members of the parliament in a fair way. She said that the situation is also related with the society adoption of such issues, noting that the society is still far from women issues.
Asked whether Islam is a barrier in front of women participation, Al-Mufti said that Islam doesn't hinder women progress as it contains all principles of justice, pointing out that the problem consists in lack of awareness of the Islamic teachings.
Although recent political debates especially regarding the probable boycott of the opposition parties of the coming parliamentary elections in April 2009, the ruling party is strongly hinting at promoting women in the political sphere and recognizing a quota of at least ten percent of the party's nominees in the parliament.
"The boycott of the opposition would be an excellent opportunity to for women's political movement as they can transform the competition from political between different parties, to social by integrating minorities such as women in the political competition," said Dr. Ahmed Al-Sofi Director of the Yemeni Institute for Developing Democracy and a prominent figure at the ruling party.
And although the Women's National Committee which is the government machinery for empowering women praised the President's pledge to allocate 15 percent of the parliamentary seats for women, Hooria Mashhour, deputy director of the committee admitted that the way is still too long in front of Yemeni women to reach their targets. She said that three issues imposed themselves on Yemeni women during 2008 on the national level. The first one was the amendment of laws related to women in the Yemeni legislation. She said that out of 20 articles that represent discrimination against women, only five were amended, the second issue is women political participation, and the third being safe motherhood.
The Global picture
Norway leads the world in closing the gender gap between men and women, according to the overall ranking in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2008. Three other Nordic countries – Finland (2), Sweden (3) and Iceland (4) – also top the Report’s Gender Gap Index. Previously higher ranking countries such as Germany (11), United Kingdom (13) and Spain (17) slipped down the Index but stayed in the top 20, while Netherlands (9), Latvia (10), Sri Lanka (12) and France (15) made significant gains.
The United States (27) made progress this year and closed gender gaps in estimated earned income and perceived income gaps for similar work. The United States also made strides in political empowerment, driven by increased participation of women in political decision-making positions. Switzerland’s (14) advancement up the rankings was based on large increases in the percentage of women in parliament and those in ministerial-level positions. France (15) improved significantly for the third consecutive year, thanks to gains in both economic participation and political empowerment. China (57) gains 17 places relative to last year driven by narrowing gender gaps in educational attainment, economic participation and political participation. Brazil (73) improves on education and economic participation but falls to 110th place in political empowerment. In the bottom half of the rankings, countries such as Tunisia (103), Jordan (104) and United Arab Emirates (105) made overall gains, driven by narrower gaps in literacy, and in the case of Jordan and the UAE, in the percentage of women in political decision-making positions. Syria (107), Ethiopia (122) and Saudi Arabia (128) not only fell farther in the relative ranking, but also showed a drop in scores relative to their own performance last year.
According to the report, the three highest ranking countries have closed a little over 80% of their gender gaps, while the lowest ranking country has closed only a little over 45% of its gender gap. Out of the 128 countries covered in both 2007 and 2008, more than two-thirds have posted gains in overall index scores, indicating that the world in general has made progress towards equality between men and women. Additionally, taking averages across the subindexes for these 128 countries reveals that, globally, progress has been made on narrowing the gaps in educational attainment, political empowerment and economic participation, while the gap in health has widened.
“Greater representation of women in senior leadership positions within governments and financial institutions is vital not only to find solutions to the current economic turmoil, but to stave off such crises in future. At the World Economic Forum, we put strong emphasis on addressing this challenge with a multi-stakeholder approach through our global and regional Gender Parity Groups,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum. These communities of highly influential leaders from business, politics, academia, media and civil society – 50% women and 50% men – seek to share best practices and identify the most effective strategies to optimize the use of talent.
The Global Gender Gap Report 2008 is based on the innovative new methodology introduced in 2006 and includes detailed profiles that provide insight into the economic, legal and social aspects of the gender gap in each country. The Report measures the size of the gender gap in four critical areas of inequality between men and women.
The Report also provides some evidence on the link between the gender gap and the economic performance of countries. “Our work shows a strong correlation between competitiveness and the gender gap scores. While this does not imply causality, the possible theoretical underpinnings of this link are clear: countries that do not fully capitalize effectively on one-half of their human resources run the risk of undermining their competitive potential. We hope to highlight the economic incentive behind empowering women, in addition to promoting equality as a basic human right,” said Laura Tyson, co-author of the report and Professor of Business Administration and Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, USA.
“The Report reveals that progress is not only possible, but possible in a relatively short space of time: calculating the Index as far back as data would allow, we found that countries such as Chile, Spain, Turkey and Finland have closed between 5 and 10 percentage points of their respective gender gaps over just the past eight years. When we interpret these percentage changes at the societal level, we see that hundreds of thousands of lives are impacted, and at the economic level, we see enormous potential competitiveness gains,” said Saadia Zahidi, Head of Constituents at the World Economic Forum and co-author of the WEF Global Gender Gap report.
The World Economic Forum continues to expand geographic coverage in the Report. Featuring a total of 130 countries, this year’s Report provides an insight into the gaps between women and men in over 92% of the world’s population. Coverage has been expanded this year to include Barbados and Brunei Daressalam. The Report covers all current and candidate European Union countries, 23 from Latin America and the Caribbean, 23 from sub-Saharan Africa, over 20 from Asia and 15 from the Middle East and North Africa. Thirteen out of the 14 variables used to create the Index are from publicly available “hard data” indicators from international organizations, such as the International Labor Organization, the United Nations Development Program and the World Health Organization.
-- Yemen Times
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