MOSCOW — Women in Chechnya are under pressure to adopt Islamic dress, according to human rights activists and an Islamic fundamentalist video circulating on the Internet in the latest example of deteriorating women's rights under Ramzan A. Kadyrov, the president of the restive southern Russian republic.

WOMEN in the Cypriot media are “severely underrepresented” and “nearly invisible”, according to a recent report by the Mediterranean institute of Gender studies (MIGS)

The report, released yesterday, shows that women's presence as subjects, reporters and presenters reached only 15 per cent compared to 85 per cent for men, reflecting a “vast gender gap” between the sexes.

October 5, 2010 will forever be engrained in the minds of the 400 plus women who attended the National Women's Land Conference at Munyonyo.

Amidst ululation from women from all over the country and different walks of life, State Minister for Finance in charge of planning, Ephraim Kamuntu, launched the Women's land rights movement on behalf of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

The forum was organised by the Southeast Asian Human Rights Network and other partner organisations such as Mahidol University's Centre for Human Rights Studies and Social Development.

Some experts like Carlos P Medina, executive director of the Human Rights Centre in Manila believes the region's human rights mechanisms don't have teeth and merely concentrated on promotion, not protection.

On Tuesday, October 5, Uganda women's movement launched their agenda, ‘Equal by Right', which sets out the 11 pillars that will be the focus for Uganda's women for the next five years.
The launching, a glamorous event which was hosted by Fowode, continues a tradition that is repeated by women activists every five years since 1996, to draw the attention of intending political candidates to women's concerns.

Ms Beti Namisango Kamya, the Uganda Federal Alliance boss, is using the axiom, “Uganda is ready for a woman President” to drive her campaign for the presidency in 2011.

Personally, I think it is sexist of her to make that claim, because Uganda has always been ready for a competent president – man or woman.

Despite increasing pressure from Uzbek authorities on independent journalists and human rights advocates, Vasila Inoyatova, chair of the non-governmental group Ezgulik (Mercy), is among the civic leaders of Uzbekistan determined to continue working, the activist said in a recent interview with EurasiaNet in Warsaw.

Kampala

Women activists are demanding that government legalises cohabitation as a measure to recognise their land rights. Only marriages in church, mosques, marriages presided over by the Administrator General and customary marriage are recognised legally.