While acknowledging the moral, religious and ethical concerns raised by those opposed to progressive abortion law reforms, it is important to critically reflect on the public health implications of unsafe abortion on women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health. It is equally necessary to sustain constructive engagement with every section of the society to find lasting solutions to preventable deaths and disabilities from the scourge of unsafe abortion.

The Ethiopian women’s association AWiB, upon hearing the unsettling news of the UK Parliament decision to pull DFID support to YEGNA, a program which has been instrumental for addressing core issues of the unspoken and unseen trials of women and young girls, skillfully crafted to get to people’s hearts and minds and changing millions as a result, asks the global community to start a conversation on this issue. Dialogue is the first step to change!

If, for White male supporters of Donald Trump, the body of a Black president signifies they are strangers in their own land, leading to the intensification of White racism, then the body of a White woman in the Oval Office would have the effect of making them strangers in their own home. It cannot be ruled out, therefore, that White women would have been subjected to spousal violence if Hillary Clinton had won.

Does Ethiopia have an organized feminist movement? Yes. But its performance has been mixed. Unless deliberate, consciously sustained and strategic steps are taken at the level of institution building, resource allocation and leadership, gender equality may take another 100 years to be achieved. A strong women's movement is indispensable to catalyze change.

The water towers project is being implemented without free, prior and informed consent of the community, the leaders say. The forest community, whose rights have been repeatedly violated by the Kenya Government in brutal evictions, fear there will be more violations under the current project.

Canada’s historical and contemporary realities are defined by a systemic anti-Blackness that goes too frequently un-named. Black people continue to experience dehumanizing treatment across institutions.

The first person to openly demand independence in Kenya was the Asian trade unionist Makhan Sigh. For that he was detained for 11 years. The firebrand Leftist political strategist Pio Gama Pinto and many other members of the Asian community made tremendous contributions to Kenya. And how many people might know that the University of Nairobi, Kenya’s premier institution of higher learning, was intended to be a memorial for Mahatma Gandhi and that the initial funding for it came from the Asian community?

Women continuing to push for change in Egypt are bearing the psychological toll of a rigid post-revolution politics and society.

The frustrations of the First Lady of Nigeria and other Nigerians about the leadership of President Buhari and his many failed promises are understandable. But while her open criticism of him was ill-advised, what is more damaging to President Buhari than that is his old-fashioned and sexist response.

In an angry reaction to public criticism of his government by his wife, the Nigerian leader retorted that she “belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room”. The president’s reaction has drawn fire from civil society.

Buhari’s outrageous outburst on his wife in Berlin at the end of his Germany visit completely overshadowed the import of whatever was the original reason for this trip. Quite clearly if ever there was an incontrovertible link between congenital misogyny and genocidist depravity, psychologists and geneticists would have at last found a case study here.

According to one report, Black households in the US will not reach wealth parity with white households until 2241. While disillusionment between young Black Americans and American institutions is real, a growing movement has erupted to challenge forces of white supremacy and funnel dissent into powerful, disruptive change.

President Khama says that Bushmen live lives “of backwardness,” “a primitive life of deprivation” and “a primeval life of a bygone era.” According to the head of state, they are innately inferior and  it was his government’s duty to “modernize” them, if necessary by force. This has meant opening up Bushmen land to diamond mines and luxury tourist lodges.

Listening carefully to the at times homophobic and hateful commentary about homosexuality among Africans, a social critique of the international community and the local elite is heard. Dislike of homosexuality is used to protest at the levels of inequality and how corrupt African leaders continue to be supported by the West. The white savior complex ruins rather than helps the cause of LGBTI rights in Africa.

Videos depicting the senseless murders of unarmed people of colour have given birth to a new social movement, #BlackLivesMatter, while bringing to light a reality incomprehensible to white communities; the lives of people of colour have systemically been deemed disposable.

Celebrated pan-Africanist Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana organized a historic conference for women in Africa and the diaspora in 1960 to celebrate their contribution to the liberation struggles, but also to create a platform for reflection on their future role in a free, socialist and united Africa. The meeting underscored the deep conviction among pan-Africanists about the revolutionary role of women, highlighting the fact that the liberation of Africa is impossible without the complete emancipation of all the women of the continent.

The argument that France is waging war on Islamic dress codes to prevent the enslavement of women is just one more example of disgusting hypocrisy in the service of imperialist interests. Instead of representing liberation of women from all the ways they are already enslaved, it amounts to screaming about the domination of Muslim women by Muslim men just so that these women can be forced to accept forms of oppression that patriarchal, imperialist French society considers proper.

A wave of homegrown leaders, movements and activists is sweeping across the continent and bringing with it African solutions to Africa's LGBTI people. Their efforts and alliances have resulted in palpable change in legislation, court decisions, health policies and shifting public opinion across Africa. They need support.

The world has edged closer to placing the same value on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people as it does on human rights. Sadly, not all states, including many African countries, are on the same page.

Closing space for African sexual and gender minority groups is about far more than advocacy—it is about accessing critical services that no one else provides.