Women, Peace, and Security News archive: West Africa
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2007 West Africa News Archive

West Africa: NGO Trains Women for Peace Building
December 13, 2007 - (Daily Trust) The West Africa Network for Peace Building (WANEP) began a three-day training programme on women's role in peace and security in West Africa on Tuesday.

Nigeria: Society Tasked on Gender Based Violence
December 11, 2007 - (This Day) The Global Fund For Women Grantees Network Nigeria (GFFWGNN), and Partnership for Justice, non profitable organisations, have emphasised the need for all stakeholders to build partnerships and linkages and map out strategies aimed at eliminating violence against women in Nigeria.

NIGER: Rape and beatings of women “normal” in Niger
December 6, 2007 - (IRIN) The news that 70 percent of women in parts of Niger find it normal that their husbands, fathers and brothers regularly beat, rape and humiliate them came as no surprise to human rights experts in Niger.

WEST AFRICA: Groups call on governments to tackle violence against schoolgirls
December 5, 2007 - (IRIN) To improve girls' education, West African governments must adopt national policies addressing all aspects of violence against schoolgirls - who face rape by teachers, verbal abuse by male students and forced early marriage by parents - a grouping of policy makers, teachers' unions and civil society organisations has said.

Liberia: New Study Spotlights Sexual Violence
December 5, 2007 – (AllAfrica) Preliminary findings of a new study by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Columbia University may have given relief workers the evidence they say they need to focus greater attention on the problem of sexual violence in Liberia.

WEST AFRICA: UN launches regional human rights office
December 4, 2007 - (IRIN) Violence against women, human trafficking and migration are expected to lead the agenda of a new West Africa office of the UN human rights commission, a top UN official says.

UN helps launch nationwide anti-rape campaign in Liberia
December 3, 2007 – The United Nations has teamed up with the Government of Liberia to launch a nationwide campaign to prevent and punish the crime of rape, one of the most serious challenges the West African nation is grappling with as it emerges from years of conflict.

SIERRA LEONE: For women, war's over but violence goes on
November 26, 2007 - (IRIN) Musu, 23, does not want more children. She has trouble feeding the three she already has. She has paid for this decision with regular beatings and rape by her 45-year-old husband.

Sierra Leone: Mass rally in support of survivors of conflict's sexual violence
November 1, 2007 - (AllAfrica) At a mass rally held in Makeni in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone today, Amnesty International members and hundreds of other local activists called on the newly elected government of Sierra Leone to commit to ensuring justice and full reparations for the tens of thousands of Sierra Leonean women who have been the victims of sexual violence.

Sierra Leone: Women Aim for the Presidency by 2012-INTERVIEW
October 28, 2007 - (AllAfrica) Representatives of the Fifty Fifty Group, a women's activism organization in Sierra Leone, have been visiting Washington, DC, to receive an award for their work to increase women's representation in government.In this interview, Nemata Eshun-Baiden, Abator Thomas, Hadija Mariama Fofana, and Harriet Turay told AllAfrica's Katy Gabel and intern Courtney Hess they were "amazed and proud" to receive the award, but that they will not be satisfied until women are represented equally and can work side by side with men. And, they predict, the country will elect a woman as head of state in 2012.

Côte d'Ivoire: Alarming Upsurge in Reported Rape of Girls, UN Reports
September 7, 2007 - (UN News Service) The most basic rights of children are violated in Côte d'Ivoire, the West African country split between the Government-controlled south and the Forces nouvelles-held north since 2002, and there is "an alarming degree of violence against children at the community level," according to a new United Nations report.

Liberia: UN Envoy Stresses Need to End Violence Against Women
August 29, 2007 - (UN News Service) The United Nations envoy to Liberia has called for an end to violence against women, while stressing that security is paramount for everyone throughout the West African nation as it works to rebuild after a brutal 14-year civil war.

Ban Ki-Moon appoints two deputy envoys
August 23, 2007 - (PTI) The Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed David Shearer of New Zealand and Henrietta Joy Abean Nyarko Mensa-Bonsu of Ghana as his deputy envoys in Iraq and Liberia respectively, an announcement by United Nations said.

International Rescue Committee (IRC) helps lead the fight against sexual violence in Liberia
August 14, 2007 (International Rescue Committee - IRC) An International Rescue Committee education and advocacy campaign to combat sexual violence in Liberia has led to a greater awareness of the problem around the country-and helped prosecutors successfully crack down on the criminals who attack women.

Women begin using law to lock away rapists in Liberia
August 14, 2007 – (Associated Press) Under an old foam mattress in one of this city's slums, Niome David keeps a dark memento -- the underwear her 9-year-old daughter was wearing the night she was raped.After 14 years of civil war, many have become accustomed to covering up their horrors in shallow graves -- including David, whose husband was executed during the war and whom she buried on a roadside. But an 18-month-old law is encouraging women to turn to the courts, which can lock convicted rapists away for life.

Sierra Leone Women to Launch Violence-Free Elections Campaign
July 9 2007 - (Awareness Times) Women in Peace and Security Network-Africa (WIPSEN-Africa) in collaboration with the Grass roots Empowerment for Self Reliance (GEMS) with support from UNIFEM-Sierra Leone will on Wednesday, July 11, 2007 draw women from civil society organizations (CSOs) across the country in Bo to officially launch a mass advocacy violence-free elections campaign, starting on Wednesday, July 11.

Rape and post-conflict justice
August 02, 2007 - (The Star) The lengthy prison terms for war crimes and crimes against humanity handed down by the Special Court for Sierra Leone last month have been greeted with widespread praise. Two senior members of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council were sentenced to 50 years' imprisonment and another to 45 years for atrocities, including rape, committed during the country's civil war.

SIERRA LEONE: New laws give women unprecedented rights, protections
July 04 2007 - (IRIN) Women in Sierra Leone stand to enjoy unprecedented rights under new laws making wife-beating a criminal offence, allowing women to inherit property, and protecting young women against forced marriage.

Ghana: Women's Education Will Speed Up Development-MDG Report
June 11, 2007 - (Accra) The Global Monitoring report on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has revealed that when a country educates its girls, its mortality rates usually fall, fertility declines and the health and education prospects of the next generation improves.

Ghana: Include more women in peace building – Alima
May 21, 2007 - (GNA) The Minister of Women and Children Affairs Hajia Alima Mahama has called for the inclusion of more women in peace-building initiatives, because of the significant role they played as social educators, mediators and peace-builders.

Ghana: African Leaders Accused of Stalling Advancement of Gender Equity
May 18, 2007 – (Accra) Gender-sensitive civil society groups have criticized African leaders for lacking the requisite political will and commitment needed to advance gender evenhandedness.

Liberia: UN Envoy stresses importance of women’s participation in society; emphasizes need for secure environment for investment
April 27 2007 (UNMIL)– The UN Envoy in Liberia, Alan Doss, joined by Margibi County Superintendent, Levi Piah, on Thursday commissioned the newly-constructed Women’s Skills Training Centre, at the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) Village, about 12 kilometers outside Monrovia. Its construction was made possible through funding from UNMIL’s Quick Impact Projects (QIP) programme.

Nigeria: Cedaw Bill - Masari Wants Speedy Passage
April 27, 2007 - (Daily Trust) Speaker of the House of Representatives has pledged to ensure the speedy passage of an impending Bill aimed at eliminating all forms of discrimination against women.

NIGERIA:Watershed Elections - For Men, That Is
April 20, 2007 - (IPS) Declarations of no confidence in the electoral commission, threats of an opposition boycott, a key candidate clawing his way back onto the ballot at the last minute…There has been no shortage of political theatre concerning Saturday's milestone elections in Nigeria, or debate on whether the country can successfully hand over power from one civilian government to another for the first time since independence in 1960.

IMF-World Bank Seek Higher Focus On Gender Equality
April 17, 2007 - (This Day) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have called for greater attention on the issues of women's equality and fragile states, and called on the international community to scale up strategies for reaching the eight Millennium Development Goals.

Nigeria: What Have Eight Years of Democracy Done for Women Politicians?
April 14, 2007- (IPS) "Men are the decision makers; women should be cooking in the kitchen while men play politics." This is the type of comment that Dorothy Ukel Nyone's male counterparts repeatedly made when she announced her intention to contest a seat in Nigeria's state elections, which got underway Saturday.

All-female unit keeps peace in Liberia
March 21, 2007 - (The Christian Science Monitor) Behind rows of razor wire, a machine gun peeking over the sandbags is trained on the road below. This is just one of many fortified compounds in the Congo Town suburb of Liberia's war-ravaged capital, Monrovia. But this compound is different, because everyone inside – from the armed guards to the cooks responsible for the inviting scent of curry that wafts around at lunchtime – is female.

Ivorian women 'forgotten victims'
March 15, 2007 - (BBC) Sexual violence against women in Ivory Coast's conflict has been ignored, says Amnesty International in a new report.

Nigeria: Women Decry Gender Violence
March 06, 2007 – (This Day) Ahead the globally celebrated International Women Day (IWD) which comes up on March 8 every year, Nigerians at all levels of the society have been called upon to stop all forms of gender violence, which is allegedly increasing against women and under-aged children in Nigeria.

Sierra Leone: Fighting gender bias ahead of elections
February 23, 2007 - (IRIN) With general and presidential elections looming in July, women's rights groups in Sierra Leone are battling what they say is deep seated discrimination for more women to be included on the ballots.

Ghana: Reaping the Double Dividend of Gender Equality
February 21, 2007-(Accra) This year's UNICEF report on the State of the World's Children is geared towards achieving Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 3, which is to promote gender equality and empower women to yield a double benefit for women and children.