SORT BY 
ISSUES
WRITERS
DATE
3 posts in the last 24 hours
Suggest a post:
undispatch@gmail.com
Get help:
Report a problem
DISPATCH TWEETSVanessa Valenti's Blog
In developing countries, breast cancer strikes women a decade earlier
Vanessa Valenti November 3, 2009 - 2:46 pm
As Breast Cancer Awareness Month ended in the U.S. last week, new information reminds us that focus shouldn't be delegated to just one nation, let alone to just one month. AP had a story yesterday not only on the rise of breast cancer in poverty-striken nations, but on how women are developing the disease at a much younger age than in the developed world. Additionally (and not surprisingly), diagnosis is often made late in the game:
International cancer specialists meet this week to plan an assault on a troubling increase of breast cancer in developing countries, where nearly two-thirds of women aren't diagnosed until it has spread through their bodies.
Adding to the problem, some worrisome data suggests that breast cancer seems to strike women, on average, about 10 years younger in poor countries than it does in the U.S. No one knows why.
"Today in most developing countries you see a huge bulge of young, premenopausal women with breast cancer," says Knaul, who heads Harvard's Global Equity Initiative and was herself diagnosed at age 41 while living in Mexico.
New Harvard research is estimating that developing counties will account for 55 percent of the world's 450,000 expected breast cancer deaths this year. Fortunately, there are some initiatives in place like the Global Equity Initiative and the Breast Health Global Initiative working towards increasing access to care and early diagnosis in various countries worldwide, but it's apparent that things aren't getting better. There just simply isn't enough being done.
Somali Girl Raped and Stoned to Death
Vanessa Valenti November 12, 2008 - 5:51 pm
It doesn't get worse than this. Last week, 13-year old Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was stoned to death in Somalia by insurgents because she was raped.
Reports indicate that was raped by three men while traveling by foot to visit her grandmother in conflict capital, Mogadishu. When she went to the authorities to report the crime, they accused her of adultery and sentenced her to death. Aisha was forced into a hole in a stadium of 1,000 onlookers as 50 men buried her up to the neck and cast stones at her until she died.
When some of the people at the stadium tried to save her, militia opened fire on the crowd, killing a boy who was a bystander.
Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, issued a heated statement condemning the brutal killing, calling for the protection of children in Somalia. She said, "The incident highlights the extreme nature of violence against children and women in Somalia, which has been heightened by the increasing lawlessness."
Coomaraswamy also raised concern of the increasing recruitment of children as soldiers, in which they are killed on a daily basis. But Aisha's death not only serves as a reminder of the brutality towards children in the midst of war, but a reminder of the brutality towards women. This girl was raped, and killed, because she was female. <!--break-->
Who Answers to Women?
Vanessa Valenti September 18, 2008 - 5:45 pm
UNIFEM just released a publication that will be integral in holding governments and organizations accountable to their commitments in improving women's rights. It's sad to say that many have not held true to their promises. The key word here: accountability. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says:
"If any man asks why I support better accountability to women, here's my response: because a government that answers to women will answer to you, too."
UNIFEM largely blames the severe lack of improvement in gender quality within various nations on an "accountability crisis." Women should have the right to ask for explanations, to ask for information from decision makers - if they can't simply ask and be answered to, where can we even start implementing change?
Read the whole report, title "Progress of the World's Women 2008/2009, Who Answers to Women? Gender and Accountability", which also includes a pretty awesome online interactive feature guiding you through the report. <!--break-->
Gender Inequality Renders Aid Ineffective, says UNIFEM
Vanessa Valenti September 4, 2008 - 12:41 pm
Government and aid donor partners need to place more efforts on combating gender inequality if they want to win the war of global poverty, said the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the European Commission last Tuesday.
UNIFEM Director, Ines Alberdi said:
"Over a billion women worldwide continue to be trapped in poverty...Where women can't thrive, national development strategies and progress towards the Millennium Development Goals [MDG] are in jeopardy. There can be no aid effectiveness without a focus on gender equality."
UNIFEM has implemented gender-responsive budgeting (with the help of the European Commission) which has supported in over 40 countries. This helps to ensure women's development needs are addressed when supplying aid resources.
Check out more info on the The EC/UN Partnership on Gender Equality for Development and Peace program.
<!--break-->
Child Kidnappings in Haiti on the Rise
Vanessa Valenti August 29, 2008 - 2:51 pm
Three more young girls have been kidnapped in Haiti over the past week, the United Nations peacekeeping mission to the impoverished Caribbean country reports, amid mounting UN concern about the continuing spate of child abductions.
An eight-year-old girl was kidnapped in the capital, Port-au-Prince, last Thursday, and the following day a seven-year-old girl was abducted in the town of Arcahaie, according to the UN mission (known as MINUSTAH).
On Saturday, a three-year-old girl who had been kidnapped two days earlier was found in Arcahaie and brought to hospital after being injured with a razor blade.
While both boys and girls have been kidnapped, it seems that females are a large target, and often raped and sexually abused. The criminal gangs who are kidnapping the children (while on their way to and from school) also frequently end up killing them, despite the family paying their requested ransom. Massimo Toschi, a child protection adviser with MINUSTAH, says that while successfully decreasing the prevalence of adult kidnappings may have led the gangs to move on to target children in response.
MINUSTAH, the Haitian police and the military have been working diligently to curb this devastating trend, and now have a new victim to protect.
UN Photo/Sophia Paris <!--break-->
Possible abortion ban to be enforced in Lithuania
Vanessa Valenti August 21, 2008 - 1:48 pm
We find via RH Reality Check that the Lithuanian Parliament is considering an abortion ban.
This was brought up at the 41st Session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the UN agency that monitors nations' progress on ensuring women's human rights. Anna Wilkowska-Landowska reports:
By adopting more restrictive regulations on abortion Lithuania would join a group of three countries of the European Union (Malta, Ireland and Poland), where access to abortion is significantly limited.
The Committee considered the recent official reports from Lithuania as well as a shadow letter submitted by the Seimos Planavimo ir Seksualines Sveikatos Asociacija (The Family Planning and Sexual Health Association-FPSHA) based in Vilnius, Lithuania and the Center for Reproductive Rights, based in New York. In their letter of June 5, 2008, organizations brought to the Committee's attention the pending restrictive abortion legislation. And during Lithuania's review, CEDAW committee members pressed the government delegation not only on access to contraception but also on proposed legislation that seeks to defend prenatal life and would pose restrictions on access to abortion. Japanese committee member Yoko Hayashi stated that governmental restrictions on abortion "contradict the full enjoyment of women's reproductive health rights that are protected by CEDAW."
CEDAW is recommending that instead of changing the laws to restrict abortion (which won't effect the number of abortions or population growth), Lithuania develop strategies to increase family planning, "such as a comprehensive range of contraceptives, including emergency contraception, more widely available and affordable, provide mandatory sexual education in schools and increase knowledge and awareness about family planning among women as well as men."
Let's hope the nation takes their advice. <!--break-->
No Country for Young Girls.
Vanessa Valenti August 14, 2008 - 3:49 pm
BBC has been airing "No Country for Young Girls" this week, a UN-funded documentary on India's preference for sons. Via UN News Center:
"No country for young girls" explores issues such as illegal sex determination and consequent elimination, and its consequences for vast Asian nation in the years to come. It portrays a young Indian woman who has to choose between staying with a husband who does not want girl children, or to make it on her own.
According to a series of studies commissioned by UNFPA last year, prenatal son selection in several Asian countries - including India, China and Viet Nam - is likely to have severe social consequences in coming years. The agency has been working to address the issue for many years.
This comes a few months after the Indian prime minister denounced the widespread practice of aborting female fetuses as a "national shame." Check out the BBC World News website to find out when the film is airing in your area. <!--break-->
Guide released to protect girls globally from HIV
Vanessa Valenti August 7, 2008 - 2:11 pm
With 7,000 young women becoming HIV positive every day, it's no news that massive efforts are being made to specifically to target its prevalence among girls and young women in the world. And yesterday, a UN-backed guide was released in an attempt to decrease these staggering numbers. Via UN News Center:
At the publication's launch in Mexico City against the backdrop of the XVII International AIDS Conference, Purnima Mane of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said that "girls and young women face double vulnerability, and double efforts are needed to protect them."
The guide "Make it Matter" was created by UNFPA, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), Young Positives and the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS.
What really stands out about this guide is that its focus is not only on increasing access to reproductive and sexual health services for girls and young women (which is obviously a key component), but recognizes that there are a number of other factors - like socioeconomic status and certain patriarchal customs like child marriages - that contribute to this epidemic among the world's women.
You can find more information and download the full guide here. <!--break-->
Peter Bergen
Vanessa Valenti July 31, 2008 - 7:19 pm
I have, perhaps, an old-fashioned view of history and just as it is hard to explain why the French were in Moscow in 1812 without Napoleon, and the rise of the Nazi party is inextricably linked to the views and personality of Hitler, its just not possible to understand al Qaeda, what it is and what it has done, without understanding bin Laden. Without him al Qaeda simply would not exist (look at the minutes of the founding meetings of al Qaeda in 1988, for instance). Without him 9/11 would have been one of many harebrained schemes in the head of Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM.) The Al Qaeda organization and bin Laden the man are largely co-terminus, after all it's a rather small organization today and has always been so. The Al Qaeda movement is another matter, though that too takes its strategic cues from OBL.<!--break-->
China and the US sign deal on monitoring emissions http://bit.ly/4lboEF #cop15 #climate
from COP15
Leaders of Rwandan rebel militia arrested for atrocities committed in DR Congo http://is.gd/4YRAF #UN #news
from UN
Hedegaard: Half an agreement is no agreement http://bit.ly/2BNQGg #cop15 #climate
from COP15
Final Durban Thoughts
John Boonstra - April 24, 2009 - 2:06 pm
The Coup Caucus
Mark Leon Goldberg - July 7, 2009 - 11:05 am
One Laptop Per Child - The Dream is Over
Alanna Shaikh - September 9, 2009 - 8:06 am
A Congressional Coup Caucus emerges
Mark Leon Goldberg - July 7, 2009 - 2:21 pm
AIDS is the leading cause of death and disease among young women
Vanessa Valenti November 10, 2009 - 11:00 am
Comment ( 0 )
I don't know what's more sad - to actually hear about this news, or that I wasn't too surprised to hear it. In its first-ever study done on women's global health, the World Health Organization (WHO) found that the AIDS virus is the leading cause of death and disease among women aged 15 to 44. Unsafe sex is the leading risk factor in developing nations:
Unsafe sex is the leading risk factor in developing countries for these women of childbearing age, with others including lack of access to contraceptives and iron deficiency, the WHO said.
Throughout the world, one in five deaths among women in this age group is linked to unsafe sex, according to the U.N. agency."Women who do not know how to protect themselves from such infections, or who are unable to do so, face increased risks of death or illness," WHO said in a 91-page report. "So do those who cannot protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy or control their fertility because of lack of access to contraception."
The data were included in a report that attempts to highlight the unequal health treatment a female faces from childbirth through infancy and adolescence into maturity and old age.
Another interesting thing to note from the study is that while young women are the ones being overwhelmingly being inflicted with the disease, women are also the ones who primarily provide care for HIV/AIDS-related illnesses. This fact sends a powerful message about the state of AIDS in the world, particularly countries with high rates - that women are largely alone in this struggle, and in such a significant way. But while their lives are so deeply ingrained in the reality of the AIDS epidemic - contracting the virus and responsible for caring those inflicted - their lack of control over their own prevention is what's striking.
Lastly, while there are reproductive health organizations and services in many countries who are working to educate women about HIV prevention and improve the general status of women (as systematic discrimination and violence against women are a major cause behind these high rates), married women are generally targeted in their outreach while single women, adolescents, sex workers, and ethnic minorities are left at the wayside. So not only is education and agency needed for these women to make informed decisions about their health and lives, but organizations need to ensure those efforts are inclusive to all women.
Check out WHO's press release for more info.