Participation

The struggle for equal opportunities for women in all aspects of Sierra Leone's socio-economic life is as crucial for our country's future as it is to women. Consequently, men and women must fight this battle together.

Women's groups in Sierra Leone are robustly pushing the government to establish laws to increase the representation of women in public life. And young women are joining in too.

Women across the world enjoy greater opportunities and freedoms than ever before. It is a peaceful revolution under-pinned by an extraordinary transformation of legal rights. Almost every country has signed international conventions signaling their commitment to outlaw discrimination against women. Nearly 140 national constitutions specifically guarantee gender equality.

The latest UN Women report released yesterday in New York, once again, positions Rwanda as the country with the highest representation of women in politics and participation in the development of their country.

The report indicates that where women have attained a critical mass in parliaments, laws and policies to advance women's rights have followed.

On July 9th, South Sudan will declare its independence, becoming Africa's newest nation. The challenges it faces are many. 50 years of war and conflict have seriously undermined the capacity of institutions at all levels to provide justice. Scores of cases of human rights violations and abuses, including sexual violence have remained uninvestigated, unprosecuted or unpunished.

How does Europe compare with sub-Saharan Africa in terms of women's rights?

Here are some key differences between the regions taken from “Progress of the World's Women”, a UN Women report:

The President of the Republic of Kosovo, Mrs. Atifete Jahjaga continues the official visit to Lithuania. She had today an official meeting with the President of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaite, in the Cabinet of the latter, where they discussed a range of topics of interest.

The meeting was also attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kosovo, Enver Hoxhaj.

Mr. Ban told a high-level forum on women and democracy, held in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, that it was time for “faster and wider progress” in promoting the participation of women at all levels of society.

Thursday, ENCISS, a Civil Society organization, and government were in a dialogue forum on women's participation in governance at the Atlantic Hall, National Stadium Hostel, in Freetown. The theme for the forum was ‘achieving a minimum 30% quota for women in all spheres of governance opportunities and challenges'.

Women must not be sidelined by the new political systems being born from the Arab Spring, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a conference of democratic nations Friday.

"In the Middle East and North Africa, women have marched, blogged and put their lives on the line," Clinton said in a speech at a gathering of the Community of Democracies.