We are bombarded with news and reports of increasingly terrible acts perpetuated on women. In South Africa according the Medical Research Council of Cape Town University, one in four women report being abused by an intimate partner – and every six hours a woman is killed.1 In the UK according to the British Crime Survey, a reported 80,000 women suffer rape every year.[2] Research from a number of countries confirms what seems common sense: there is a strong relationship between intimate partner violence and HIV status.

The Gender Festival is an open forum that brings together feminist and gender-focused groups, other civil society organizations/institutions, activists and other development actors working at various levels. These organizations reflect, share experiences, build capacity, strategize and plan collectively. This has also served as a networking forum for stakeholders in and out of the host country on the questions of gender, gender equality, feminism, sexuality and the intersections between these and power (both public and private).

As the world, including Zimbabwe, commemorates International Women’s Day,
members of WOZA find little to celebrate. As organisations, both local and international, take the opportunity afforded by International Women’s Day to speak out about the need for gender equality, respect for women’s right and an end to violence, WOZA joins the chorus. Yet we understand that women in Zimbabwe, and Africa as a whole, need much more than rhetoric – they need action. And actions speak louder than words.

Reflecting on the general progress on tackling gender-based violence on the African continent, Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem argues that while enshrining women’s rights in law represents a positive step, it is in the actual implementation of the spirit of the law that genuine advances are achieved.

Women farmers from five continents marked International Women’s Day (8 March) with a declaration reaffirming their willingness to take action to change ‘the capitalist and patriarchal world that gives priority to the market’s interests instead of the rights of people’. In the statement, the Via Campesina Women’s International Committee said it would work towards a just and equal world which recognises the worth and rights of each human being, and where women’s rights – from the right to life with dignity and without violence to respect of sexual and human rights – are human rights. They also highlighted the importance of food sovereignty and respect for biodiversity, undermined among other things by corporate interests.

cc A government conference encouraging citizens to tell them about ‘the Kenya we want’ via censored media channels is unlikely to yield positive change, suggests feminist activist Awino Okech. Okech calls for Kenyan women to self-organise and engage with political structures using the frameworks provided by feminism or, she cautions, history will not judge them kindly for failing to take on the issues of their time.

The international Women Won’t Wait. End HIV and Violence against Women. NOW! campaign celebrates its two year anniversary and International Women’s Day. The campaign was launched on International Women’s Day - March 8, 2007, to demand that policy makers and donors integrate responses to violence against women in global and national AIDS programmes and allocate resources to these responses.

United Nations’ member states have urged Senegal to repeal its Penal Code which criminalises homosexual conduct. This was proposed at the UN Universal Periodic Review held in Geneva from 11-13 February 2009. The United Kingdom, Canada and Netherlands cited that the code violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. ”On the other hand, Senegalese representatives denied that their country prosecutes homosexuals, a statement that directly contradicts the provisions of that country’s penal code.

I was born in the capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. I and my nephew were raised by my aunt. The story that I heard from my family was that a few weeks before my dad passed away he gave me to my aunt. I never knew my biological mother but I heard that she died of the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. As I went to school, from elementary to high school everybody used to tell me that something was different about me.

Gay rights groups have lashed out at Family Life Network (FLN) for organising a three day seminar aiming to explore possible prevention and cure for homosexuality, saying the gathering is just another way of encouraging hatred and abuse against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Uganda, under the cloak of religion.

For over 80 years, the relationship between women and international organisations has barely existed in historical records and has been scarcely promoted by the media. Well before the Charter of the United Nations was approved in 1945, and already at the League of Nations, women fought and participated to include demands against discrimination, promoting the legal and social progress of women around the world. The international movement of women that took part in the creation of the United Nations – these “founding mothers” – should get the credit they deserve.

Receiving injections outside clinic settings and increased alcohol use emerged as major risk factors for HIV infection among women taking part in an HIV prevention trial in Tanzania, according to the findings of a study published in the January 28th edition of AIDS. The study was a prospective randomised trial conducted in Tanzania. It was done to evaluate the impact of herpes treatment on HIV incidence among women in high-risk settings and was led by Dr Deborah Watson-Jones of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

In Bukavu, the main town in South Kivu Province of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Panzi referral hospital receives six to eight women daily who have experienced sexual violence. "At least 60 percent of the women have been sexually violated, probably as sex slaves, through gang rape or through domestic violence," Maria Bard, manager of the hospital's Victims of Sexual Violence Project, said.

A recent study by the Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya (FIDA-K) - a women’s rights advocacy organization that works for gender equality through legal aid - reveals that disabled women are up to three times more likely to be victims of physical and sexual abuse than their non-disabled counterparts.

Her small tattered book is full of lists of orders for goods such as beer, maize-meal and chemicals. On another page are addresses and phone numbers of store managers while, on another, a list of names has been jotted down along with corresponding amounts. "This is my accounting book. It has my orders for goods that I am supposed to go and buy for my clients in Botswana, as well as a list of people who have paid and also those who haven't, plus those goods that are in short supply," Amai Towe, a Harare-based cross-border trader, told IPS with a satisfied tone.

A new report released by the ITUC for March 8, International Women’s Day, has revealed that the pay gap between men and women worldwide may be much higher than official government figures. The report, “Gender (in)Equality in the Labour Market”, is based on survey results of some 300,000 women and men in 20 countries. It puts the global pay gap at up to 22%, rather than the 16.5% figure taken from official government figures and released by the ITUC on March 8 last year.

Each year, since 1994, CODESRIA has organised a Gender Institute which brings together 12 to 15 researchers for between four to six weeks of concentrated debate, experience-sharing and knowledge-building. During the first few years of the existence of the Institute, its main objective centred on the promotion of a generalised gender awareness in the African social research community.

The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) will be participating in the International Colloquium on Women’s Empowerment, Leadership Development, International Peace & Security in Monrovia Liberia, 7th – 8th March, 2009. This event is co-hosted by President Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson of Liberia and President Tarja Halonen of Finland. AWDF is proud to be a co-funder and thematic lead for this innovative leadership colloquium. As part of our support for this event, AWDF will be convening a number of activities before and during the International Colloquium, as well as supporting African women leaders from around the continent to attend the Forum.

Representatives of UN Member States, UN entities and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all over the world are attending the 53rd Commission on the status of Women which is being held at the United Nations headquarters in New York from 2 to 13 March 2009. The session is being convened under the theme:” The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including care giving in the context of HIV/AIDS”

Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ojo Madueke, has recently denied the existence of gay people in Nigeria. He said this at the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review meeting, held in Geneva from 2-13 February, where he claimed that gay people are not visible in that country and that they do not have any registered organisations.