S.Mona Sinha, Equality Now, at the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Credit: Joel Sheakoski
 
International Women's Day March 8 2025: This year it will be celebrated under the theme, 'Accelerate Action': a worldwide call to acknowledge strategies, resources, and activities that positively impact women's advancement, and to support and elevate their implementation.12

By Antonia Kirkland and Tara Carey
NEW YORK, Mar 4 2025 (IPS)

A new global report analyzing sex discrimination in laws reveals that while some commendable gains have been achieved in strengthening legal protections for women and girls over the past five years, progress remains slow, uneven, and increasingly under threat from a growing backlash against women’s rights.

Research by Equality Now identifies how women and girls continue to experience systemic and intersecting discrimination in laws, policies, and cultural practices, exposing them to multiple forms of harm, sometimes with little or no legal protection.

Alarmingly, in some places, women’s legal rights have deteriorated significantly, with hard-won protections weakened or overturned through regressive legislative changes, judicial rulings, and withdrawal of funding.

The Beijing Platform

The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (“Beijing Platform”) is a ground-breaking global framework for advancing women’s rights. Adopted in 1995 by 189 countries at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women, it outlines commitments to deliver gender equality in all aspects of life. Crucially, countries pledged to “revoke any remaining laws that discriminate on the basis of sex.”

Equality Now’s report, Words & Deeds: Holding Governments Accountable In The Beijing+30 Review Process (6th Edition), finds that three decades on, women and girls continue to face discrimination in the law, with not one country achieving full legal equality.

Laws and practices that constrain women’s and girls’ rights are obstructing progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, especially Sustainable Development Goal 5 on gender equality, putting the world off track to meet these critical targets.

Report co-author Antonia Kirkland explains, “Women and girls deserve full protection of their civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights under the Beijing Platform and other international human rights commitments. This requires repealing all sex-discriminatory legislation, enshrining gender equality in constitutions, and introducing and enforcing laws that fully protect the rights of women and girls in all their diversity.”

Rollback on women’s legal rights

Some governments are allowing sex and gender-discriminatory religious and customary laws and practices, while religious, cultural, and nationalist justifications are increasingly being harnessed to undermine and revoke women’s rights.

For example, in Afghanistan, draconian restrictions have comprehensively banned women and girls from participating in public life, education, work, and leisure. The situation is also dire in Iran, where women have experienced sustained crackdowns, and those opposing sex-discriminatory laws have been subjected to arrest, detention, torture, and death.

Lawmakers in Bolivia and Uruguay are considering regressive bills to weaken protections for sexual violence survivors. While in The Gambia, a bill to repeal the law banning female genital mutilation threatened to undo years of progress. Thankfully, strong opposition successfully prevented its passing.

In Russia, ‘promoting’ LGBTQ+ relationships was banned in 2022 among all adults, and in late 2024, under the rubric of “anti-propaganda”, legislation was adopted to prohibit the promotion of a ‘child-free lifestyle.’ Kyrgyzstan and Georgia have adopted similar laws curtailing LGBTQ+ rights.

In Argentina, there have been severe budget cuts to policies to address gender-based violence, and the Ministry of Women has been abolished, significantly hindering the State’s capacity to safeguard women.

Over the last 30 years, more than 60 countries have liberalized their abortion laws. However, sexual and reproductive rights are facing sustained attacks. Examples include Poland, where one of the few grounds permitted for abortion access – fetal ‘defect’ or incurable disease – was removed in 2021.

In the U.S., the Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the U.S. Constitution does not provide the right to abortion. By January 2025, abortion was criminalized in 14 states, and there are efforts to ban travel to other states to access abortion services.

The Dominican Republic is one of five countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to impose a complete abortion ban. Their senate is close to passing a bill continuing this prohibition and lowering penalties for marital sexual violence, labeling it ‘non-consensual sexual activity’ rather than rape.

Explicitly sex-discriminatory laws

Countries such as Sudan and Yemen grant male family members wide-ranging authority over female relatives and legally require wives to be obedient. In Saudi Arabia, women must obey their husbands in a ‘reasonable manner,’ and husbands have a ‘marital right to sexual intercourse.’ If a wife refuses to have sex or travel with her husband without a ‘legitimate excuse,’ this “disobedience” can result in her losing her right to spousal financial support.

Husbands can unilaterally divorce wives without condition, but wives must apply to the court for a fault-based divorce and prove fault within strict criteria. According to the World Bank, Saudi Arabia is just one of 45 countries with different divorce rules for women and men.

Marital rape is also allowed in the Bahamas and India, while in Kuwait and Libya, a rapist can escape punishment by marrying his victim.

Various countries have laws curtailing wives’ access to bank accounts, loans, and even the ability to benefit from their own labor in family businesses. For example, a husband in Cameroon controls the administration of all his wife’s personal property and can sell, dispose of, and mortgage their common property without a wife’s cooperation. Wives in Chile face similar discrimination.

The World Bank reports that 139 countries still lack adequate legislation prohibiting child marriage. One case is the U.S., which has no federal law against child marriage, and 37 states still allow it. California permits exceptions for marrying minors with no minimum age, while states like Mississippi mirror countries such as Bangladesh, Mali, Pakistan, and Tanzania in authorizing girls to be married younger than boys.

Poverty exacerbated by the climate crisis and forced migration is putting girls at greater risk of child marriage, with parents viewing it as a coping mechanism to alleviate financial strain and ‘shield daughters from sexual violence’ – despite child marriage facilitating non-consensual sex with a minor. For instance, Ethiopia suffered a severe drought in 2022, and in one year, saw child marriage rates double.

On a positive note, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Sierra Leone, and Zambia have all recently introduced laws banning child marriage under 18, without exception.

Globally, sex-discriminatory laws and policies are constraining women’s full economic and social participation, trapping millions in poverty and dependency, and increasing their vulnerability to mistreatment. In many countries, women are denied equal access to employment, fair wages, property ownership, household income, and inheritance.

This contributes to women’s overrepresentation in insecure, low-wage jobs, and their shouldering the bulk of paid and unpaid care work.

In countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar, and Russia, women are prohibited from working in particular jobs. Progress since 2020 includes similar employment restrictions being removed in Azerbaijan, Jordan, and Oman.

Also needing reform are sexist nationality laws, like in Bahrain, Brunei, Malaysia, Monaco, Togo, the U.S. and others. When mothers and fathers are not granted equal rights to pass their nationality to their children, it creates severe legal and social challenges, including statelessness.

The risk of child and forced marriage is heightened, it creates child custody problems, and wives may remain in abusive marriages out of fear of losing their legal status.

Kirkland concludes, “Eliminating sex and gender-based discrimination in the law is a fundamental responsibility of governments. Equality Now calls on every country to urgently review and amend or repeal its sex-discriminatory laws, prevent removal of legal rights, and establish specific constitutional or legal guarantees of equality for all women and girls.”

Antonia Kirkland is Global Lead for Legal Equality and Access to Justice; Tara Carey is Global Head of Media.

Equality Now is an international human rights organization dedicated to protecting and promoting the rights of all women and girls worldwide. Its work is organized around four main program areas: Achieving Legal Equality, Ending Sexual Violence, Ending Harmful Practices, and Ending Sexual Exploitation, with a cross-cutting focus on the unique challenges facing adolescent girls.

For more details go to www.equalitynow.org, Bluesky @equalitynow.bsky.social, Facebook @equalitynoworg, LinkedIn Equality Now.

IPS UN Bureau

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Damage to a road and property in Malawi caused by Cyclone Freddy. Credit: PSGR

By Tara Carey
BLANTYRE, Malawi, Jun 12 2023 (IPS)

“Cyclone Freddy was a terrible experience, and now many women who lost their homes and their livelihoods are at increased risk of sexual exploitation and abuse,” warns Caleb Ng’ombo, Director of People Serving Girls at Risk (PSGR), a frontline NGO in Malawi that supports vulnerable women whose lives have been devastated by the record-breaking tropical storm.

“The rains were heavy and continuous for three to four days,” recounts Caleb. “There was water everywhere, strong winds, mudslides, and trees falling onto houses, paths, and roads. Water was flooding into my house, and everything I owned was floating.

“There was nowhere to go because everyone was experiencing the same thing, and there was nothing you could do apart from wait for the water to recede.”

When Cyclone Freddy hit Malawi in March 2023, six months of rain fell in just six days, flooding over 170 square miles (430 km2). Over 1400 people died in the country, and UNICEF estimates that 3.8 million are facing acute food insecurity.

Around 659,000 people have been displaced, with women in poverty disproportionately affected. Caleb explains, “Many women who’ve been badly impacted were already vulnerable. They were living in makeshift buildings in locations such as river banks and hillsides because they could not afford better housing. The extreme weather dislodged big rocks that rolled down the slopes, killing people and destroying houses. It was very traumatizing.”

Sexual harassment, exploitation, and domestic abuse

Camps have been set up for those who have lost their homes, and PSGR is creating safe spaces for women to discuss challenges and find solutions. Of particular concern are the multiple reports of sexual exploitation and gender-based violence.

Women are complaining that they are being sexually harassed in the camps, and including being asked to perform sexual acts in exchange for aid. Most women are reticent about reporting incidents to the police because they know it takes a lot of time for cases to be prosecuted, and victims frequently face skepticism and stigmatization. Some married women also fear their husbands will blame them, which could trigger domestic violence.

Such fears are well founded. A comprehensive global review has found extensive data revealing that during or after extreme weather events, there is a rise in gender-based violence, including domestic and intimate partner violence.

“With justice so hard to access, women think, why bother reporting?” Caleb relays. “Judges and magistrates are mainly men, and they don’t give priority to the needs of women, so such cases are never prioritized. This is especially when the perpetrator is in a position of power, has access to money and an image to protect, and is up against a vulnerable woman.”

Another apprehension is that with so many women and girls being pushed further into poverty, there will be a rise in commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. Malawi is already a trafficking source, transit, and destination country, and the socio-economic repercussions of the climate crisis, coupled with discriminatory gender roles and social norms, create a fertile ground for the abuse of vulnerable women and girls.

Compounding problems is the lack of access to justice for victims. Few trafficking cases make it to court and those that do face multiple delays, with wrongdoers rarely punished.

To address this, PSGR and international women’s rights organization Equality Now have submitted a joint complaint to the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC), highlighting how girls, who are especially vulnerable to trafficking for sexual exploitation, are being left unprotected by the Malawian government’s failure to implement existing anti-trafficking legislation effectively.

Women are holding the sharpest end of the knife

Cyclones are typical in Southern Africa between November and April, but climate change is making them more frequent and intense. With Freddy, the ferocity and longevity were unprecedented – hitting land multiple times over five weeks. Scientists have declared it the longest-lasting tropical cyclone ever recorded anywhere.

Over the past decade, Malawi has experienced multiple extreme weather events, including droughts, floods, rising temperatures, and unpredictable rainfall patterns, leaving people dependent on agriculture and pastoralism struggling to adapt.

At this time of year, farmers should be harvesting their crops to sell and store, but Cyclone Freddy has washed away farmland and livestock, and ruined crops and buildings, with 547 schools damaged or destroyed.

Women make up 65% of smallholder farmers in Malawi, and traditional gender roles allocate women the responsibility for household food production and farming, while men often control access to land, credit, and agricultural inputs.

Malawi’s Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Act grants some protection ‘against emotional or physical violence or abuse within marriage, sexual relations, and the family. The law also recognizes women’s non-monetary contribution regarding marital property rights. However, inequalities within the family continue to limit women’s decision-making power, control over resources, and access to credit, all of which hampers their ability to adapt to climate change.

Women are also more likely to shoulder the burden of unpaid care work and household responsibilities, which intensify during climate-related emergencies.

“Women play a central role in managing the aftermath of climate emergencies,” Caleb explains, “They are the caregivers and the providers of food, and while the impacts of extreme weather are felt by everyone in the community, it is women and girls who are holding the sharpest end of the knife. For example, you can see with floods that it is mostly women who die because they cannot swim, whereas men have had time to learn.”

Women’s interests and input must be central to climate responses

Extreme weather is being fuelled by rising global temperatures resulting from burning fossil fuels and the emission of greenhouse gases, primarily by wealthy industrialized nations. Meanwhile, women in Global South countries like Malawi – which has one of the lowest incomes in the world – are suffering disproportionately from the climate crisis while being least able to adapt.

“The climate crisis is getting worse, and the international community must not neglect the specific vulnerabilities and needs of women and girls,” Caleb says. “Most of the strategies are dominated by men. Women are voicing their issues, but their voices are not being heard, and the result is the problems we are seeing today.”

“This emergency is manmade, and there isn’t an overnight solution. But if the world shuts its eyes and does nothing, we will fail to deliver on our commitments to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.”

The World Bank warns that without climate financing to assist Malawi in building a climate-resilient economy, climate change could push an additional two million people into poverty during the coming decade and reduce the country’s GDP 6% to 20% by 2040. The repercussions for women and girls would be catastrophic.

“People here understand that the extreme weather we are suffering is the result of climate change. It is countries like ours that are having to pay the price for big economies that are polluting the environment,” laments Caleb.

“Women and girls must be at the discussion table when strategies are being developed to mitigate against disasters so that when emergencies happen, we understand how they can be supported. Women should have the opportunity to present their side of the story, bring solutions, and be incorporated into responses. This has to be central to climate change policy at all levels.”

Tara Carey is the Global Head of Media at Equality Now, an international human rights organisation that focuses on using the law to protect and promote the rights of women and girls around the world.

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Credit: UNICEF/Noorani

UN human rights experts are warning of a direct link between the pandemic, socio-economic vulnerability and the risk of exploitation, including forced labour or being sold, trafficked and sexually exploited.

The UN commemorated the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons on July 30.

By Tsitsi Matekaire and Tara Carey
LONDON, Aug 1 2022 (IPS)

It is often those least responsible for causing climate change that suffer the most from the impacts. And such is the case with women and girls in Malawi – one of the world’s poorest and lowest carbon-emitting countries but ranked fifth in the Global Climate Index 2021 list of nations worst affected by climate-related extreme weather.

Climate change exacerbates sexual and gender-based violence in numerous ways, pushing people further into poverty, enflaming conflict over depleting natural resources, forcing migration, and compounding pre-existing gender discrimination. All these and many other forces conspire to put vulnerable women and girls in greater danger of sexual abuse and exploitation.

A recent study by Cambridge University analyzing scientific literature on extreme weather events found that gender-based violence — such as sexual assault, intimate partner violence, or trafficking, both during and after disasters — are recurring issues in studies worldwide.

In Malawi, the climate crisis is already triggering more erratic and extreme weather, resulting in chronic water, food, and financial insecurity for millions. Over the past twenty years, droughts and floods have increased in intensity, frequency, and scale, causing devasting environmental, social, and economic damage.

Around 9 out of 10 people in Malawi depend on rain-fed agriculture, and over half the population is food insecure. Rising temperatures, unreliable rains, and extreme weather events like cyclones influence food production and costs.

The economic downturn triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war against Ukraine, which has disrupted global supplies of cereals and fertilizers, have pushed prices up further.

According to World Bank data, 82% of Malawi’s population live in rural areas, and women account for 65% of smallholder farmers, making them particularly exposed to food insecurity. Women are often dependent on natural resources, and many earn a living in the informal sector, leaving them less able to withstand economic and environmental shocks.

Climate change is a threat multiplier

Climate change is not just an environmental problem – it acts as a “threat multiplier” interacting with social systems to exacerbate systemic inequalities. So, although everyone is affected by the ravages of the climate crisis, the vulnerability of individuals varies depending on their gender, geography, class, ethnicity, and age.

Global warming and environmental damage are gendered because the ability of women to adapt is hampered by their social status and limited income, education, and resources. Women are more likely to live in poverty than men and commonly have less schooling, decision-making power, and access to finance.

When yields from harvests are reduced, this leaves subsistence farmers with little or no surplus produce to sell to earn money for purchasing basics like medicine, clothes, sanitary products, schooling, and agricultural inputs for bolstering farming production.

Being unable to produce enough food to feed their families or pay for other essentials puts women under intense pressure to find alternative sources of income. This renders them more susceptible to sexual exploitation, which can take various forms such as transactional sex in exchange for goods, and being trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation.

Family financial hardship also disproportionately affects girls, who are frequently pressured to drop out of school to do domestic work and find paid employment. This, in turn, increases their susceptibility to exploitation, including false promises made by traffickers about jobs and education further afield.

In addition, girls experience higher rates of child and forced marriage, as parents may view marriage as a coping strategy to elevate monetary difficulties and shield daughters from sexual violence. It is estimated that around 1.5 million girls in Malawi are at risk of becoming child brides as a direct result of climate change.

There are other ways that existing gender roles interplay with climate change and sexual violence. In Malawi and across sub-Saharan Africa, gathering water and firewood is widely deemed the responsibility of women and girls. A lack of clean water and depletion of natural resources caused by environmental degradation means they often have to travel further to acquire scarce resources.

Not only does this use up precious unpaid time that could be spent on beneficial activities such as income generation or schooling, but it also heightens their exposure to rape and sexual assault. And in some instances, women and girls must contend with sexual exploitation and abuse by those who control access to limited natural resources, such as at water collection points.

The system is failing victims of sexual and gender-based violence

For the vast majority of victims of trafficking, sexual violence, and exploitation, justice goes unserved. Caleb Ng’ombo runs People Serving Girls at Risk (PSGR), a frontline organization in Malawi that works to end human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, prostitution, and child marriages.

Caleb explains, “Victims are being failed by Malawi’s criminal justice system. Few cases make it to court. Those that do are plagued by multiple delays, and perpetrators are rarely punished.”

“Child marriage, sexual exploitation, and trafficking have blighted the lives of thousands of women and girls across Malawi, and the worsening climate crisis is putting more at greater risk. The government should not turn a blind eye to gender-based human rights violations. Addressing these problems must be central to climate response, including disaster and adaption planning.”

Malawi is a source, transit, and destination country for sex trafficking, and climate crisis is fueling it. PSGR and international women’s rights organization Equality Now have submitted a joint complaint to the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) highlighting the poor implementation of anti-trafficking legislation by the Government of Malawi is leaving girls unprotected against sex trafficking.

Malawi’s criminal justice system needs to respond better to the realities and needs of survivors, including safeguarding them against further exploitation and ensuring support services are readily available.

Effectively addressing this crisis requires a gender-responsive, human rights-based approach from the state, one that targets the root causes of gender discrimination.

Climate change also demands action from wealthy industrialized nations that bare the largest responsible for global warming due to their high emissions, both historical and current.

Around the world, a growing climate justice movement is calling for Global North governments to provide countries like Malawi with international finance for climate adaption, restitution for damages already caused, and national debt cancellation so money can be redirected towards supporting those in need, in particular women and girls and other marginalized groups.

With global temperatures continuing to rise, it is vital that laws, policies, and funding deliver on the distinct vulnerabilities and requirements of women and girls so they are protected against gender-based violence and better able to cope with future climate shocks.

Tsitsi Matekaire is the Global Lead on End Sexual Exploitation at Equality Now and Tara Carey Head of Media.

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Credit: United Nations

By Tara Carey
LONDON, Apr 28 2022 (IPS)

Women journalists around the world are experiencing an exponential increase in misogynistic online abuse, which poses a grave risk to women’s media participation in the digital age.

This is a grievous form of censorship that seeks to silence women, stifle free expression, and close down critical journalism by undermining their ability to engage freely in public debate, report on issues, and address discrimination.

Online communication has been weaponized to stigmatize and intimidate female journalists and force them from open discussion. Becoming more prevalent and coordinated, abuse directed at women often differs from harassment that male journalists experience because comments frequently focus specifically on a woman’s gender.

A 2021 report by UNESCO surveyed 901 journalists from 125 countries and found 73% had experienced online hostility, with one in four being threatened with death and almost a fifth threatened with sexual violence.

Abuse in the digital sphere manifests in various ways, entailing vitriolic sexist attacks, inappropriate sexual comments, and sending of unsolicited pornographic or other offensive content. Demeaning comments may focus on a person’s professionalism, intellect, or physical appearance, or can entail threats such as death, torture, and rape.

Digital privacy violations and security breaches also pose major perils. Hacking and exposing private content, non-consensual dissemination of intimate images, and “doxing” in which personal information such as home address is published with malicious intent, are being used to defame women and can compromise their safety offline.

Attacks are often exacerbated when sexism and misogyny intersect with other forms of discrimination such as racism, classism, homophobia, and religious bigotry. This can increase a person’s exposure to offenses on and offline and worsen the scope and hostility.

Sexist and violent language is rooted in patriarchy and is used by preparators to insult and belittle women journalists. Wielded as a weapon to denigrate, demean and marginalize, such abuse can be deeply distressing for recipients and sends a toxic message that women are not safe in the digital world.

Worryingly, there is mounting evidence that online violence is linked to physical attacks and other forms of offline abuse, including legal harassment involving the application of defamation laws which are being weaponized in courts to intimidate, muzzle, and retaliate against women journalists.

Many women journalists experience disinformation-based attacks that smear their reputations. This can be particularly dangerous in more conservative societies where repressive gender norms make reverberations even more harmful and potentially devastating.

Vulnerability and repercussions are compounded in countries where deep-rooted patriarchal attitudes already require women to seek permission from their families to work in journalism; where they have to fight in newsrooms to receive the same opportunities and pay as male colleagues; and where unchecked sexual harassment in the workplace remains rife.

All this thrives alongside weak laws, poor implementation of protections, and impunity for perpetrators. In many instances, it involves unequal power dynamics between individuals targeted by governments or state-linked disinformation networks working to undermine press freedom and suppress critical journalism.

It is common for groups of trolls to participate in orchestrated, targeted personal attacks that form part of coordinated disinformation campaigns harnessing misogyny and other forms of hate speech, often interwoven with populist politics.

This damages not only women working in news but is part of the wider demonization of the press, coupled with the rise of viral disinformation and concerted efforts to undermine public trust in credible journalism.

Women disclose how gender-based abuse pressures them to self-censor, withdraw from frontline reporting and social media, and even abandon journalism completely. Livelihoods are undermined, equity thwarted, and the wellbeing and career prospects of victims are put in jeopardy.

The psychological impacts can be severe and it can require great strength and courage to continue working under such circumstances.

This needs urgent addressing as women journalists have a crucial role to play in enhancing public understanding of issues, shaping public discourse, and influencing policy-makers. A drop in female representation erodes gender diversity in public discourse and risks sidelining gender-sensitive coverage on matters impacting women and girls.

The National Union of Journalists has called for a coordinated effort to tackle the problem, stating, “For too long, the emphasis has been on making women journalists responsible for their own defense and protection, rather than making the perpetrators and instigators, the platform enablers, and law enforcement and media employers accountable.”

A 2022 survey by the International Federation of Journalists found initiatives by media organizations to address online abuse were inadequate. Two-thirds of women journalists surveyed said online harassment was not a priority for their media company, and 44% disclosed the topic was not even discussed.

This reflects UNESCO’s findings that many media companies appear reluctant to take online violence seriously, and in some instances, outlets make things worse by amplifying harassment when reporting allegations and prompting so-called ‘pile-ons’ that escalate online assaults.

Dealing with online abuse mustn’t fall on the shoulders of those being victimized. News organizations need to do more to assist, including developing and implementing gender-specific guidelines and training that incorporate anti-harassment policies and responses.

Women journalists should feel comfortable voicing concerns, and newsrooms must ensure employees are safe and supported.

Huge responsibility also lies with social media providers, which UNESCO describes as the “main enablers.” Attempts by journalists to get offensive content or accounts deleted are “frequently ignored or rejected,“ and central to this “is an attempt to use ‘free speech’ as a shield against accountability, and a continuing reluctance to assume responsibility for the content on their sites.”

Anonymity and uneven regulation of social media platforms across different jurisdictions enable exploiters to easily contact targets. Research by international women’s rights organization Equality Now found in the absence of laws that act to prevent and address online abuse, digital service providers and platforms are adopting voluntary measures.

Consequently, this is resulting in opaque practices and limited redress that puts women journalists and others at risk.

Digital service providers are being called on to protect users from harm. Laws need to be updated and implemented, and better understanding is required amongst law enforcement agencies.

Criminal justice systems should provide support and redress to victims and punish perpetrators as this acts as a deterrent. Online abuse of women journalists is a crisis that must no longer be ignored.

About Equality Now:

Equality Now is an international non-governmental human rights organization that works to protect and promote the rights of women and girls around the world by combining grassroots activism with international, regional, and national legal advocacy. Our international network of lawyers, activists and supporters achieve legal and systemic change by holding governments responsible for enacting and enforcing laws and policies that end legal inequality, sex trafficking, online sexual exploitation, sexual violence, and harmful practices such as female genital mutilation and child marriage.

IPS UN Bureau

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