We sadly learned this morning that a young girl of 12 years of age, who was brutally raped in Kono, has died and her body is being brought to Freetown for further examination. A 62 man is being held in custody in relation to the case.
This sad news comes to us as we are preparing for International Women’s Day, (March 8),and therefore we call on you to focus your editorial and journalist efforts to fight violence against young children and women who face unacceptable levels of domestic and sexual violence in Sierra Leone today, as evidenced by the following figures and comments …
Out of 927 cases of sexual abuse reported to Family Support Units in 2009, there were no convictions.
By the end of her life span, nearly every Sierra Leonean woman is likely to suffer from some form of sexual or gender based violence
……said Ms said Ms Bernadette Cole, Chairperson, Independent Media Commission and Mr. Samuel Harbor, UNDP Deputy Country Director at a recent UNDP media workshop on combating Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV) and Gender Disparity– see press release attached for reference.
International Women’s Day takes place on March 8. In preparation for the day, the theme of which is ‘Equal rights, equal opportunities: progress for all’, I am attaching the statement from UNDP Administrator which we also request you publish and broadcast on Monday, 8th March.
For the sake of young girls like the 12 year who was raped and died in Kono, we strongly urge you to use this opportunity to highlight, and STOP, these crimes, and human rights violations against women and children that are taking place in Sierra Leone today
Additional Editorial points on Gender are below - Key Global Facts Gender facts and progress from the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women meeting in New York this week, to review progress towards gender equality since the groundbreaking Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. This week marks the beginning of the 54th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (Beijing + 15). More information on this meeting is available from the following link
: from United Nations Commission on the Status of Women meeting
Fifteen years since the Beijing Declaration, although there has been progress in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment, Globally, Gender progress has been slow and uneven.
• The world continues to progress towards gender parity in education as many countries have successfully promoted girls’ education as part of their efforts to boost overall enrolment. But gender disparities in education are clearly evident in some regions. Sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania and Western Asia have the largest gender gaps in primary enrolment. At the current rate of progress, the MDG 3 target of eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015 remains far from being achieved.
• While some countries have succeeded in significantly reducing maternal death rates in the past decade, more than half a million women die every year - or one woman every minute - from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. MDG 5, which seeks to improve maternal health, calls for a reduction by three quarters in the maternal mortality ratio from that of 1990, and for the achievement of universal access to reproductive health. But this is the MDG towards which there has been the least progress so far. This reflects the low priority given to the empowerment of women and meeting women’s needs.
• UNICEF figures estimate that the number of child deaths in 2008 declined to 8.8 million from 12.5 million in 1990, the base line year for the Millennium Development Goals. But the global rate of improvement is still insufficient to reach the target of reducing under-five mortality by two-thirds by 2015.
• Since 2001, a large majority of countries have integrated issues related to women into their national HIV policies and strategic plans and have attained gender equity in HIV testing and the delivery of anti-retrovirals. But 25 years into the AIDS epidemic, gender inequality and unequal power relationships between and among women and men continue to have a significant influence on the epidemic. Globally, about half of all people living with HIV are female, with variations within regions, countries and communities. In Sub-Saharan Africa, approximately 60 percent of people living with HIV are female and in Southern Africa, girls are 2 to 4.5 times more likely than boys to become infected with HIV.
• More women than ever are holding political office. As of January 2009, women had reached the highest parliamentary position – presiding officer – in 31 parliamentary chambers. By March 2009, 15 women were serving as heads of state or government, up from nine in 2000. Impressive gains were made in Latin America and the Caribbean, where women hold 22 percent of all legislative seats, the highest regional average. But women still hold less than 10 percent of parliamentary seats in Oceania, Northern Africa and Western Asia. The global average of women holding parliamentary seats (18.6 percent) is far from the target of 30 percent set in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. At the present rate, it will take another 40 years to reach gender parity.
• More women than ever before are participating in the workforce; women occupy almost 40 percent of all paid jobs outside agriculture, compared to 35 percent in 1990. But almost two thirds of women in the developing world work in vulnerable jobs as self-employed persons or as unpaid family workers. In Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, this type of work accounts for more than 80 percent of all jobs for women. In developing countries, women consistently lag behind men in formal labour force participation and entrepreneurship, earn less than men for similar work, and have less access to credit and lower inheritance and ownership rights than men do.
• As a result of the global economic crisis, many more women are being pushed into vulnerable jobs with limited or no safety nets that guard against income loss during economic hardship. The large number of women unpaid workers in family businesses also adds to their already heavy burden of unpaid care work in households.
• Since the Beijing Platform for Action, there have been several Security Council resolutions addressing women’s security needs and, in particular, sexual violence in conflict contexts. Security Council resolutions 1888 and 1889 on gender, peace and security are landmark resolutions, because they represent the first time that women’s rights were addressed by the United Nations as a security matter. But they are only the beginning of what must be done to ensure the security of women throughout the world. Research by UNIFEM indicates that in 10 major peace processes in the past decade, women were on average six percent of negotiators and under three percent of signatories. Only five peace accords have referred to the use of sexual violence as a military and political tactic, despite its increase in both frequency and brutality.
