This year marked the 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67) and NGO-CSW forum which took place at the United Nations Headquarters, in New York for two weeks. Being hosted physically after a gap of three years due to COVID-19 pandemic and associated travel restrictions, it was heartening to note that World YWCA received requests from more than 100 women and young women from the movement to access ECOSOC seats to access the UN grounds for CSW events. World YWCA and YWCA leaders worked hard to prepare for the travel to CSW67 and managed to have CSW attended in person by more than 75 YWCA Leaders from more than 25 countries including Rwanda, Nigeria, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Fiji, Palestine, USA, Norway, Canada and Australia amongst others.
At CSW, during the two weeks, delegates and participants focussed on the priority theme, “Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”. The World YWCA team and funded young women delegates under different leadership initiatives were planned to be a group of 12 young women and five team members. However, in total eight young women from Asia and the African region were either denied visas or could not access an appointment, even emergency appointment, despite applying for visas much in advance. While this is common for those who hold passports from what are considered as “third world” or “developing” nations, it is indeed disheartening that despite paper works and event-based travel, visa applications and travels being supported by global organisations and movements, their voices for advocacy remain distant from the very spaces that advocate for inclusion of women and young women in policy conversations. Nevertheless, World YWCA ensured this messaging around missing voices and denied visas was not left behind but ensuring mentions at every event and panel hosted and supported by World YWCA.
The CSW is the primary global intergovernmental body solely dedicated to promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women. CSW takes place on an annual basis, with representatives of Member States gathering at United Nations Headquarters in New York to assess progress on gender equality, identify issues, define global standards, and develop tangible policies to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment globally.
During the two weeks at CSW67, #YWCALeaders from around the world who could travel in person engaged in many critical dialogues and conversations. Some top highlights include:
At NGOCSW’s parallel events, YWCAs of Japan, Canada and Palestine hosted parallel events focussing on themes around digital media and impact on young women; digital hate and digitalisation and women in Palestine respectively. Each event saw heightened support and collaboration around the work of YWCA across various countries.
World YWCA co-created a side event co-sponsored by Finland, Liberia and UNFPA, led by ACT Alliance in partnership with Act Church of Sweden, Bread for the World, Christian Aid, DanChurchAid, Finn Church Aid, Lutheran World Federation, World Renew, Norwegian Church Aid, World Council of Churches, and World YWCA. The event titled “A phone of my own” shared both the gender-transformative power of mobile phones, and the increased risks to sexual and gender-based violence in digital spheres. Event saw speakers from LWF, IT for Change, Safe You amongst other organisations.
World YWCA was invited to be part of the Helvi Sipila Seminar hosted by Government of Finland, YWCA of Finland and other Finnish organisations to celebrate the life and work of Finnish feminist Helvi Sipila. The event, hosted at the Permanent Mission of Finland’s office saw YWCALeader Clara D’costa from Bangladesh sharing her remarks as a young leader on what was shared by the Executive Director of Equality Now. Her personal stories and insights around use of technology and challenges faced by young women were widely appreciated by the panel of speakers and attendees of the event.
World YWCA team member Veena Singh was invited to present and speak at a parallel event with the Pacific movements around tech-based gender violence where she spoke about the use of RiseUp! and young women leadership as a model for pacific countries. The World YWCA’s RiseUp! transformative model of young women’s leadership was highly appreciated as a grassroots value-based leadership model to lead institutional and community change around young women in decision making spaces.
Young women and team members found this time to deeply engage in feminist dialogues and spaces hosted through the Youth Forum, volunteering for making the Youth Forum a success. UN events, including policy conversations, International Women’s Day celebrations, opening day and other side events saw active engagement of YWCA leaders from around the world, engaging beyond the CSW with the side events and receptions hosted by women and young women leaders from around the world.
World YWCA’s YW4A initiative supported by the Government of Netherlands hosted a virtual parallel event at the NGOCSW platform on the inclusion of voices of Gaza and Palestine. The event was moderated by Amal Tarazi, General Secretary of YWCA of Palestine, a key implementation partner of the YW4A initiative (Young Women for Awareness, Advocacy, Agency and Accountability).
World YWCA’s RiseUp! initiative supported two parallel events hosted by Feminist Manch and Wedu Foundation respectively highlighting the power of using World YWCA’s Feminist Consultation Methodology to conduct evidence gathering around policy, women and young women; and power of mentorship across ages respectively. The events were hosted on the virtual NGOCSW platform.
World YWCA delegation together advocated everywhere through the lens of inclusion, diversity, technology, hate and racism, faith and feminism, bringing cohesive voices and shining bright within the more than 15,000 people attending the events- in person and virtually.
For a virtual experience of the events, visit our Flickr account.
16 days of activism against gender-based violence is a global international campaign annually held between November 25- December 10 to raise awareness and advocate for action against GBV.
This year we invite you to join leaders, advocates, activists around the world to advocate to End Violence against Women. In support of this initiative, the United Nations Secretary-General’s UNiTE by 2030 to End Violence against Women campaign (UNiTE campaign) calls for global actions to increase awareness, galvanize advocacy efforts, and share knowledge and innovations. Accordingly, the global theme for this year’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is “UNITE! Activism to end violence against women and girls”. As founders of similar annual campaigns such as Week Without Violence, we stand behind the efforts of 16 Days of Activism to mobilize towards collective action that will help us achieve a world free of sexual gender-based violence.
Over the years, the World YWCA has put out several calls to action that have strengthened the work of young women working in SGBV all over the world. We are confident that creating calls to action in our communities and in civil society spaces can help us to uplift each other’s work while making footprints that matter. This year, we want to bring attention to an issue faced by grassroots gender practitioners all over the world: funding. Read the tool to find ready-to-use templates and editable templates to call on funding for Women’s Rights organizations, tips on how to engage in the campaign and more!
The World YWCA invites leaders, activists, partners and other actors to engage in 16 Days Activism, inviting all generations to work together for a world free from violence of any form.
To advocate for a world without GBV, we present our 2022 Tooland invite you to engage in this cause by using some of the following resources:
Easy-to-use and customisable social media templates
Ideas on how toengage during #16Days
Tips for calling to action for flexible feminist funding
Great resources to increase awareness on the topic
Download it and contribute to the fight against femicide and gender-based violence by sharing the content in social media, planning engaging activities and/or advocating with other tools shared in this document!
You can also go to our Trello Boardto get instant access to some of these resources.
Don’t forget to engage on social media using the hashtags #16Days #YWCALeaders #YoungWomenLead
Since 1904, the World YWCA and World YMCA have traditionally collaborated together for the World Week of Prayer and World Fellowship. Celebrated each year on the second week of November, both organisations join efforts to produce a booklet with a theme, a set of bible studies for each day, and an annual bible reading plan so that communities around the world can come together in prayer for a specific cause linked to current realities.
“Ignite: Praying the Impact” is the theme of this year’s YWCA and YMCA World Week of Prayer, occurring from 13-19 November 2020. Aligned with the long-term strategies of the World YMCA (Vision 2030) and World YWCA (Goal 2035), the theme highlights the need for unity and transformative change to create a long-lasting impact in communities worldwide.
Access the booklet in English, French, Spanish and Japanese with the buttons below:
Join us in prayer, and let us collectively push for transformation so we can be “Ignited” and create a positive impact in the world through God’s love.
Remember to tag World YWCA on social media channels so we can share your local activities with the larger Y movement.
On August 12 every year, the world celebrates the International Youth Day (IYD), an occasion to spotlight the transformative power of youth in changing our world for the better. This year IYD is celebrated under the theme “Intergenerational solidarity: Creating a World for All Ages“[1] in contribution to the achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by emphasizing communication and solidarity among all generations and fulfilling the promise of 2030:”leaving no one behind”.
On this day, the Young Women for Awareness, Agency, Advocacy and Accountability (YW4A) Partnership and Initiative raises an intergenerational voice against domestic violence. Domestic violence is scourge that is taking various forms of abuse, often directed towards women due to power imbalances and gender inequalities. Be it physical, sexual, emotional, economic, and/or psychological violence and/or threats, the abuse often goes unreported as perpetrators are either spouses, partners or family members. This means that often, women are violated in spaces where they should feel safest – at home.
The absence or poor implementation of legal protection frameworks and adequate survivor-centred services such as medical treatment and health care, psychosocial care and support, safety and protection, as well as the lack of education and livelihood opportunities further puts women at greater risk of abuse. According to UN Women, violence in families is driven by gendered inequalities in three ways[2]: through social norms about men’s entitlement and dominance vis-à-vis the expectation that women be subservient; women’s economic insecurity in the family; and expectations that women should preserve family harmony.
The YW4A partnership and initiative contributes to addressing negative norms and practices, and key factors that put women at risk of domestic violence.This is to ensure that homes become the safe spaces that they ought to be. Our work supports young women in Egypt, Kenya, Palestine, and South Sudan, to strengthen and diversify their participation and amplify their voices to effectively influence decision-making towards gender-just laws, policies, norms, and practices related to their bodily integrity and equal participation.
We, the YW4A partners join hands with young women in Egypt, Palestine, Kenya and South Sudan in calling for an end in to domestic violence in the following ways:
The adoption, amendment, withdrawal or effective use and implementation of laws and policies towards domestic violence. Specifically:
Improving the existing draft law on domestic violence in Egypt,
Improve the existing draft law on domestic violence In Palestine and its enactment into law.
Repeal Section 247(3) of Penal Code Act on marital rape and the enactment of the draft Anti-GBV Bill in South Sudan and
Repeal of Section 43(5) of the Sexual Offences Act in Kenya.
Coordinated and multisectoral support services for survivors; specifically, the provision of help-lines, health services, police services, shelters and safe accommodation, psychological support, free legal services, justice services and support services for children witnessing or experiencing violence in the home.
A sustained call to changing attitudes, norms and behaviours that justify, minimize and normalize domestic violence
Substantial long-term investments in domestic violence prevention.
Statistics on domestic violence
The WHO (2013) reports that one in three women in the world experienced violence at least once in her lifetime; in 2020, around 81,000 women and girls were killed worldwide, 58% of which died at the hands of an intimate partner or a family member[3] (UNODC) (WHO, 2013).
In Egypt,approximately 7.8 million women experience all forms of violence every year, whether the perpetrators are relatives or strangers[4] (Economic Cost of GBV Survey); one third of married Egyptian women between the ages of 15 and 49 had experienced physical violence since they were 15 years old.
In Palestine,according to (PCBS, 2021), 58.2% of women (15- 64) were subjected to violence (at least once) by their current/former husbands, whatever its form. In addition, 9 out of 10 children (90.1%) experienced physical and/or psychological violence in 2019-2020 from childcare providers (including their parents).
In Kenya, the most recent data on domestic violence is available in the 2014 demographic health survey[5] which indicated that about 41% of women reported experienced physical or sexual violence from their husbands or partners in their lifetime. There’s a lack of up-to-date national data on the prevalence of domestic violence in Kenya. However, in a statement on the GBV prevalence over the COVID-19 pandemic[6], the state department for gender reported that the number of GBV cases recorded between January and June, 2020 had an increase by 92% compared with the same period of the previous year (2019).
In South Sudan, about 65٪ of women and girls have experienced physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime, and 51% have experienced intimate partner violence[7] (UNICEF, 2019) The rate of child marriage is estimated at 51.5% (Global Database on Violence against Women).
“When young women have the space support to rise, they do so. When they have the space to practice the leadership & make change happen, they do so“
August 4, 2022: Women leaders from across the Asia-Pacific region gathered in Bangkok, Thailand to formally launch the RiseUp! young women leadership and advocacy initiative.
Commencing in November 2020, with the support of the Australian Government, RiseUp! is reaching young women across Asia and the Pacific at a time when women and young women’s voices are needed more than ever. As communities across the world continue to grapple with the ongoing pandemic, as well as economic, social, political and climate crises – these young women can help find meaningful solutions that benefit all.
Led by YWCAs in the region, the program aims to ensure that “young women are confident leaders who create safe spaces and networks and inspire young women to build an inclusive society, empowered by intergenerational leadership.” With the leadership of World YWCA, RiseUp! builds self-esteem and confidence of young women to ensure that young women with the support from families, peers and allies, are part of the global women’s rights movement, leading organisations to practice leadership and influence policy advocacy.
The event which was broadcasted live witnessed audience joining from around the world, across generations to share insights and support the cause of young women leadership. Stories of leadership were shared between generations through the official video and intergenerational panel.
The powerful welcome address by Casey Harden, General Secretary of World YWCA shared that, “The Australian Government has been an instrumental, invaluable, irreplacable partner in making RiseUp! happen in the Asia-Pacific region. We have strengthened the leadership of thousands of young women in nine countries in the region. Today, in the ambitious current Phase IV, more than 6,000 diverse young women from nine countries will be RiseUp!, building their skills and owning safe spaces as leaders and in that ownership, co-creating and co-designing the world they wish to live in.”
Christine Clarke CSC, the Australian Ambassador for Women and Girls, made the Keynote Address where she shared her valuable insights and inspired the audience to reflect on their own intergenerational leadership style. Sharing stories from her journey as a leader, Christine reflected, “We are now in the fourth phase of RiseUp! And I share YWCA’s passion to support young women’s leadership. It’s about giving young women the tools and information to form views on how to improve the work around them. And encouraging them to take all the opportunities they can to show leadership – in their families, their communities and their workplaces.”
Casey Harden, Secretary General, World YWCA and Dr. Angela Macdonald, Australian Ambassador to Thailand launched critical tools informed by a new, much needed approach for engaging communities, challenging dominant colonial research approached and centring girls and women in all their intersecting realities, informed by evidence and data from a feminist perspective. These included:
The World YWCA “We Rise, We Lead” Feminist Consultation Methodology which is a new and much needed approach for engaging young women, moving away from traditional research methods for evidence gathering, focusing on diverse, democratic and decolonised approach to center young women in all their diversities and intersecting realities, looking at evidence and data from a feminist perspective.
A powerful booklet of stories from the Alumna of the RiseUp! initiative from previous phase was also shared.
The accessible, adaptable and low-cost tools are available for use across the globe.
The event closed with a powerful closing remarks by the President of YWCA of Thailand who urged the audience to think around their approaches to intergenerational support for young women. “Today, as we close this event, I humbly invite each of you to see this as a start of or reminder and reinforcement of the ways each of you can or already have been practicing intergenerational support and collaborative learning towards young women leadership. We are all mentors, we are all mentees in this cycle of learning, unlearning and growth. By investing in strengthening young women’s leadership journey, we are working towards building more humane, sustainable and people-centered society.”
We are pleased to announce that the Young Women Leadership Cohort Programme 2022 is now open for applications! The programme will provide an opportunity for up to ten young women from the YWCA movement to experience the international community-building, work and reach of the World YWCA. Building on the programme’s success and learnings in 2020and 2021, and considering ongoing restrictions with the COVID-19 pandemic, the World YWCA Young Women Leadership Cohort 2022 will again occur virtually with World YWCA and at a local or national YWCA member association (also called a “host association”) that has the capacity to support a leadership cohort member (also called an “intern”) throughout the programme.
The Leadership Cohort 2022 programme will take place from 19 September to 16 December 2022, beginning and ending remotely in the interns’ host association country (or another country, as applicable).
Who can apply:Young women between the ages of 18-30 years old by the time of application, and that are actively involved in a local or national YWCA.
How to apply?Click the buttons below to download and read the Call for Applications, the Host Association Terms of Reference, and the Application Form for this year. All information regarding the criteria for selection and steps to apply may be found in these documents. Note that applications must include a signed endorsement letter in English, French, or Spanish from a local or national YWCA association supporting the application to the cohort programme and stating their willingness to serve as a host association.
Deadline to submit applications: Wednesday, August 31, 2022; 11:59 PM (Geneva time).
After working virtually together for about two years, the YW4A partners finally met face to face for the first time in Nyeri County in Kenya this past June. The meeting brought together key YW4A staff from all 8 core consortium partners after a rigorous journey of proposal development, programme inception and kickstarting operations during the global Covid-19 pandemic.
Organised by the Consortium Lead, World YWCA, the five day – convening’s objectives were to build a positive working culture among partners, and to reviewing strategic programme areas. The meeting gave opportunity to meet old and new friends, putting faces to names and building bonds that are crucial to the success of YW4A.
The first two days of the convening focused on sessions and experiential activities which contribute to building trust, cohesion, collaboration and a sense of shared purpose among the consortium partners.
One critical outcome of the sessions was joint development and agreement on the team’s core values (IRAC) to guide the consortium culture and work:
Integrity – internal and external accountability
Respect – acknowledging and appreciating each individual and each partner’s uniqueness and expertise
Agility – being responsive in an innovative way to a dynamic environment/needs
Collaboration – ensuring harmony and complementarity through inclusive participation.
Other outcomes where an interrogation of communication and collaboration challenges faced, identifying and assessing potential solutions, review of working relationships date and embracing organisational change through appreciative inquiry. Through this method of discovery, dream, design and destiny, the partners contrasted the “Wall of Greatness” and the “Wall of Ambition” to review past work and visualize the future of the programme in a positive and empowering framework. Using the Balanced Scorecard, the partners assessed their day to day work with the objectives and overall goal of YW4A, prioritized activities, processes and stakeholders and aligned this with the framework to monitor and measure progress towards strategic targets.
The last 3 days focused on joint dialogues on identifying opportunities and lessons from the programme, and building them into country and partner workplans. These included resolutions to:
Enhance country and sub-national programme oversight and accountability, through strengthening the local coordination mechanisms – the Country coordinating Committees.
Integrate trauma informed care into activities with young women, as survivors of violence against women have found safety and courage to speak out in the YW4A safe spaces, while others are triggered by the stories of other young women that are similar to theirs.
Improving accountability through evidence-based reporting. This will be achieved through investing in IATI capacity building and the development of M&E tools and reporting templates that capture and analyse the required evidence for advocacy and impact demonstration.
The week ended with an engaging Policy Dialogue with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (in the Hague), represented by Maaike Hofman, the Deputy Coordinator Taskforce Women’s rights and Gender Equality, and Froukje Gaasterland, the Senior Policy Advisor in the same Taskforce. Froukje is also the YW4A focal point in the Ministry. The dialogue reiterated the Ministry’s commitment to listening to and working with women’s rights organisations, as they play a crucial role in empowering women and girls, and in setting in motion structural processes of change aimed at gender equality. This is a commitment that the YW4A consortium has taken to heart and is in turn commitment to building and sustaining internal capacity and cohesion to ensure effective and efficient implementation and strategic management of the joint YW4A initiative with the Dutch Ministry.
Global Youth Mobilization initiative team meets in Geneva to reinforce the commitment and collaboration of Big Six Youth Organisations and World Health organisation
In the second week of May, CEOs, youth representatives and project team members from Big Six youth organisations, and colleagues from World Health Organisation and UN Foundation, leading the Global Youth Mobilization initiative, convened in Geneva for the first time since the start of the project in 2020. Even though this is the first time the leadership of Big Six, Youth Board representatives, and the project team is meeting in person, the impact of this collaboration has been instrumental in the lives of thousands of youth and communities.
The week-long exercise included many key highlights: a meet and greet lunch at World YWCA; CEOs meeting first time in person; a major reception and impact showcasing event at IFRC; many collaborative dialogues and meetings with UNFPA, Geneva Graduate Institute, amongst others; and key conversations with colleagues from World Health Organisation and UN Foundation.
However, a key highlight of the event was when CEOs from Big Six organisations were joined by colleagues from WHO to further strengthen the collaboration strengthening the role of young people in leading effective recovery and response to COVID-19 and to health overall around the world. The agreement on the same led to a ground-breaking strategic partnership and collaboration in the form of Big Six Organisations individually signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the World Health Organisation. Signed by five of the six organisations, the agreement increases multilateral collaboration and ensures young people are at the heart of design and decision making.
This represents an important milestone in the successful collaboration between the Big Six, the WHO, and the Global Youth Mobilization (GYM), a movement of young people acting to address the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to build back better.
The new strategic agreements build on the Global Youth Mobilization, a successful initiative launched at the end of 2020 and supported by WHO and the UN Foundation through theCOVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. The Global Youth Mobilization enables the rapid disbursement of micro-grants to tens of thousands of young people worldwide to help develop solutions to ensure their communities emerge from the pandemic stronger than before. Through the “Local Solutions”, young people are driving change and implementing solutions in response to COVID-19 by acting through community-based interventions and voluntary services. The initiative is powering change at a national level too through the engagement and activation of Big Six national organizations across the world.
Within the World YWCA, the initiative has helped support more than 12 National and Local YWCAs, reaching thousands of young women and community members through youth designed and led initiatives. Many #YWCALeaders have been leading projects under the Local solutions arm, implementing young women led and engaged initiatives on ground.
The collaboration between WHO and the Big Six Youth Organizations includes a focus on the areas of mental and physical health, health promotion, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and climate and health.
Commenting on the strategic collaboration, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said:
“WHO is proud to support the global movement to engage and empower young people as a driving force in the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Working with the Big Six and the United Nations Foundation has provided a unique opportunity to learn from millions of young people and be guided by their enthusiasm and ideas to help communities build back better.
What the Big Six have achieved in a year through launching and implementing the Global Youth Mobilization is phenomenal and unparalleled in the youth development sector. We look forward to continuing our support through these new partnership agreements and encourage others to partner with the Big Six and invest in the health and well-being of future generations.”
Meti Gemechu, Youth Board Representative for the Global Youth Mobilization and World Young Women’s Christian Association, YWCA leader from Ethiopia said:
To date, the Global Youth Mobilization has already resulted in 200,000 young people actively engaged in addressing the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in their local communities. They have been at the forefront of the pandemic recovery, delivering over 260 projects to date in 77 countries and supporting 800,000 community beneficiaries.
As a technical partner in the YW4A consortium, Equality Now is building the capacity of young women and women rights organizations to develop national advocacy strategies that will be informed by country-specific legal gaps on discriminatory laws and practices that perpetuate violence against women and girls. Furthermore, their exclusion from decision-making spaces. In addition, we are working with partners to develop and implement a media strategy that seeks to humanize women’s rights violations, win the court of public opinion, and identification of suitable media platforms to amplify these advocacy efforts.
Founded in 1992, Equality Now works to protect and promote the rights of women and girls around the world in the areas of discrimination in law, female genital mutilation (FGM), sexual violence, and trafficking. Equality Now believes that discrimination against women based on sex and gendered roles is inextricably linked to other factors, such as race, ethnicity, religion or belief, disability, status, age, class, caste, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Therefore, they recognize and seek to address intersecting forms of discrimination among women and girls.
In the YW4A Programme, Equality Now provides technical support to national partners in their legal advocacy, through capacity building, coalition building support and engagements with regional and international accountability bodies to amplify young women’s voices.
The advocacy priorities of the YW4A Programme in Egypt, Kenya, Palestine and South Sudan are:
Egypt
To improve the existing draft law on domestic violence and lobby the parliament to pass it.
To introduce anti-sexual harassment policies in the workplace to be adopted by partner WROs and other WROs and businesses in the community.
To campaign for mothers to have guardianship in addition to custody rights.
To encourage young women to run at the level of local councils and increase their participation according to the existing 25% quota
Kenya
To influence the repeal of Section 43(5) of the Sexual Offences Act.
To engage in the review of the Sexual Offences Act to block the lowering of the age of consent and provide for romeo-and-juliet clauses.
To implement the Meru County Policy on Sexual and Gender Based Violence.
To implement the Migori County Policy on Sexual and Gender Based Violence.
To influence the adoption of the Kisii County Policy on Sexual and Gender Based Violence.
To improve the implementation of the Two-thirds Gender Rule.
Palestine
To improve the draft domestic violence law and pressure the government to pass it.
To influence the government to remove the exception clause, or specify the reasons for exception in the 2019 Child Marriage Law.
To influence the drafting of a law on sexual harassment in the workplace.
To improve the Election Law by encouraging women and young women to run at the levels of local councils and university councils.
South Sudan
To influence the repeal of Section 247(3) of the Penal Code Act on marital rape.
To influence the enactment of the draft Anti-GBV Bill.
To influence the enactment of the Family Law Bill.
To engage the Permanent Constitution Making Process and amendment of the definition of marriageable age as over the age of 18 in line with the Child Act and Penal Code Act.
To improve the provisions on the place of customary law to be positive norms that do not contradict human rights and the role of customary courts.
The influence the adoption of Girl Child Education Bill in Central Equatorial State.
To improve the implementation of the 35% women’s quota.
To influence the ratification of the Maputo Protocol.
To influence the ratification of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.
Read more about the YW4A Programme and Consortium on the website: www.yw4a.org and LinkedIn page.
Peace with justice has been a constant vision and goal throughout the more than 160 years of YWCA history. As a global movement, YWCA leaders have passed more than 40 resolutions about women, peace and security constantly demanding justice and the accountability of the perpetrators of human rights violations.
World YWCA’s unique, bold and transformative Goal 2035 is a vision of young women, through intergenerational work, challenging power structures to create a world free from violence of all forms. In their unique context all over the world and as part of a dynamic movement, YWCA leaders constantly mobilise to work on issues of peace, conflict resolution, and anti-violence, alongside critical leadership, advocacy, and community response work.
One of the ways we do this is to listen to and amplify voices on the ground, ensuring they are heard. We also do this by bearing witness to events as they happen and reflecting the reality of those events.
As one of the largest women’s movements in the world, we assert the role of women of all ages in peace building and conflict resolution at all levels – local, regional, and global – and in all sectors, affirming women in all their varied identities and realities.
Those women include a woman considered a sister by YWCA leaders in Palestine, Shireen Abu Akleh. She was an accomplished journalist and a proud Palestinian woman working to ensure that the world would not turn away from the truth.
Shireen, who worked for over 25 years for the Al-Jazeera news network, was a credible and respected reporter locally and internationally. She has won local and international awards for her accomplishments and dedication. Her compassionate humanity guided her work and her commitment to her vocation never wavered. She was always saying that she knew her life was at risk, but she was willing to risk her life for the freedom of Palestine.
The World YWCA Goal 2035 is a vision of women transforming power structures, including those maintained by oppressors who target human rights defenders and journalists. The safety of women journalists and truth tellers is threatened every day, in every part of the world. Murders, assaults and disappearances are commonplace tools for those in power to silence those that challenge them.
Targeting journalists with physical violence and killing them deliberately and blatantly is a violation of international law, under which “media professionals are classified as civilians and are entitled to protection as such in all situations of armed conflict.”
Silencing reporters so they cannot reflect the truth to the world, executed with no hesitation and a cynical expectation of impunity, continues because too often the international community fails to hold such perpetrators accountable.
World YWCA asks you to join us in acknowledging women leaders – in Palestine, Honduras, Belarus, Nigeria and all around the globe – who grant their lives for freedom, and to join the YWCA of Palestine in their call to action.
