Participation

Women's rights campaigners say the Czech Republic's new government has effectively told women they have no relevance to the country's future after the new cabinet was formed – without a single female minister.

I see little common sense in Kalumba's article on Career women in Daily monitor of July 6. He apologises for sounding sexist but the entire article drips with triple distilled chauvinism and misogyny. Sadly, what Kalumba says is typically representative of the Ugandan male psyche...never accepting responsibility and always blaming women for their shortcomings. The time has come for Ugandan women to reject History and tell Herstory.

Today, at the Waterfront Hotel in Davao City, 150 women from Muslim communities all over the Philippines are gathered to engage each other for the sake of their families and communities. The “Regional Conference of Muslim Women Peace Advocates” is the culmination of one year of consultations organized by the Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy (PCID) and the Magbassa Kita Foundation Inc.

During a recent visit to Papua New Guinea, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and current United Nations Development Programme Administrator, Helen Clark (pictured), highlighted the significant opportunities which exist in PNG to promote investment in public service delivery, empower women, and advance the country's development agenda.

The Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan begin today. President Barack Obama announced his nomination of Kagan to the Supreme Court on May 10. If confirmed, Kagan would be the fourth woman Supreme Court Justice ever confirmed to the Court. She would be the third woman justice on the current Court and would fill the seat vacated by Justice John Paul Stevens, who announced his retirement in April.

In Mozambique NIMD supports a training project to encourage women to take an active role in politics. Mozambique is one of the 15 countries in the world with the highest representation of women in parliament, at 35 percent. It also has a female prime minister, Mrs Luisa Dias Diogo. Nevertheless there are two main stumbling blocks for women in their own parties.

Angola's experience of gender participation in politics and decision making organs was praised at the meeting of the Network of Women MPs of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) held on June 14 and 15 in Sao Tome and Principe.

The Women's Action for Development (WAD) has expressed disappointment in the reduction of women in the new National Assembly in Namibia from 33 percent to 22 percent.

Veronica de Klerk, the WAD Executive Director attributes the low number of women to sit in parliament to all political parties who listed women lowly on their candidate's lists.

Madagascan female activists are asking that the right of women to participate directly in politics be included in a new draft of the country's Constitution, so that there can be 30 percent of female politicians in parliament by 2012 and 50 percent by 2015.

South Sudan's president, Salva Kiir Mayardit Salva Kiir Mayardit (born 1951) is the President of autonomous Government of Southern Sudan and the successor to the post of Vice President of Sudan, following the death of John Garang in a crash on 30 July 2005. , on Monday named seven women ministers in the new regional cabinet, 6 months into referendum.