Women's Rights and the UN

Exactly one month ago, on July 2, 2010, the United Nations General Assembly voted to create a new body dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls worldwide.


This organization will, according to the UN Secretary General, "significantly boost UN efforts to promote gender equality, expand opportunity, and tackle discrimination around the globe. Equality for women and girls is not only a basic human right, it is a social and economic imperative. Where women are educated and empowered, economies are more productive and strong. Where women are fully represented, societies are more peaceful and stable."

The UN Women body states that it will be working to end:
-scourge of violence against women
-appointing more women to senior positions
-reduce maternal mortality rates

in addition to:
-elimination of discrimination against women and girls
-achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of -development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

Visit the Official Website: UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

Honor Killings

Honors killings are on the rise and they are growing at a fast rate in the United States. Finding their roots in the practices of Middle East and Asian tribes, an honor killing is when a woman or man has "disgraced" the family's honor and is allowed to be killed to preserve or return honor to the family name. Mainly targeted at women, honor killings are usually overlooked by government officials and accepted in areas where tribal culture and rule dominates that of the state.

Human Rights Watch today released a call for India to prosecute those responsible in a sudden rise of honor killings throughout several provinces. There are no actual figures for honor killings in these provinces because often, the family will make it look like a suicide or a natural death. However, on June 21 2010, "in Haryana, after the bodies of a young couple whose relationship had been condemned for violating kinship rules were found hanging from a tree, six family members were arrested for murder." (read the full article here)

Marie Claire August 2010 has an excellent piece about honor killings here in the United States. Many often think that these crimes occur on the opposite side of the world, in backward communities that don't know better. But the truth is that this horrible action occurs in our country, in our states and in our own backyards. Just read this excerpt from "An American Honor Killing":

"But honor killings in America are a chilling new trend. In Texas, teen sisters Amina and Sarah Said were shot dead in 2008, allegedly by their father, because they had boyfriends. That same year in Georgia, 25-year-old Sandeela Kanwal was allegedly strangled by her father for wanting to leave an arranged marriage. Last year in New York, Aasiya Hassan, 37, was murdered in perhaps the most gruesome way imaginable: She was beheaded, allegedly by her husband, for reportedly seeking a divorce. And this past spring, 19-year-old Tawana Thompson's husband gunned her down in Illinois, reportedly following arguments about her American-style clothing." (Marie Claire)

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

Looking for a good book to read this summer?

Check out "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide" by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.




The two New York Times journalists argue the case for investing in the health and autonomy of women worldwide. According to them, more girls have been killed in the last fifty years than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century.

Killed mainly due to their gender, Kristof and WuDunn detail a gendercide in the developing world, focused mainly on India and Pakistan. Their argument is that countries like Pakistan can not climb out of poverty if only 9% of women are part of the labor force. Local women are declared the most effective in bringing change to these countries and to improving the standards of living to their families and their communities.

"While the title might suggest a kind of call to feminists... the book is anything but. The book emphasizes international human rights atrocities that are often overlooked while also offering an in depth analysis on how you, the reader, can evoke change."
- Tatsiana Kulakevich, Humanus President.

The Girl Effect

An amazing fundraising video that was created to help micro-finance organizations that assist women in developing countries. This video has also been used by organizations that work to create higher literacy rates and school attendance rates of young girls in developing countries. Thought it would be a beautiful video to show.