Jessica Reed

Abortion as a human right

A lot of the speakers at the Global Safe Abortion Conference addressed the right to safe abortion as a human right.

Luisa Cabal, director of the Center for Reproductive Rights' International Legal Program, underlined the fact that human rights are a universal language, a common ground to build on, and a tool for governments to save women's lives. [more...]

Jessica Reed

An eternal clash

Upon our arrival at the conference at an early 8.30 in the morning we were greeted by a group of anti-choice women silently picketing the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre, holding a huge banner stating that "women deserve better than abortions" (ironically enough, my colleague Jane Gabriel remarked that the banner was folded in such a way that at the right angle it read "women deserve better abortions"). I was also handed misguided pro-life leaflets stating (amongst other things) that Marie Stopes was racist. [more...]

Jessica Reed

Dr. Hilary Bracken, Senior Program Associate with Gynuity Health Project, opened the session titled "Ensuring Women's access to medical abortion in their own communities" declaring that medical abortion (the abortion pill, or RU486) is the most important revolution in women's medical health since the commercialisation of the contraceptive pill. [more...]

Jessica Reed

A lot of the breakout sessions organised by the Women Deliver conference focused on AIDS/HIV treatment and prevention for women and girls, and how it should be treated as an integral part of the fight for reproductive rights for all women, everywhere.

One of the most important and recurrent issues underlined by speakers is that the spread of HIV/AIDS is directly linked to gender based violence, especially in unstable regions where rape is used as a weapon of war, or where women have to sell their bodies as a means to survive and provide for their families. [more...]

Jessica Reed

I am currently at "Women Deliver" in London's docklands, a strange setting for this, the first global conference in 20 years which aims to combat maternal mortality. So far Douglas Alexander, the UK's Secretary of State for International Development, has pledged to give $200 million over five years to the United Nations Population Fund to tackle the health of women and mothers worldwide. You can read the press release here. [more...]

Jessica Reed

Picture by John Perivolaris

You might to hear about the new openDemocracy FlickR group, which we will use to pick pictures for our frontpage. This is a chance for oD readers to have their own pictures used on our site - and be credited for their effort. [more...]

Jessica Reed

This week Beijing is hosting the seventeenth Communist Party congress - an event gathering more than 2,200 party members from across the country. openDemocracy published an analysis of the global relevance of the event, in which Kerry Brown underlined the challenges which the new generation of leaders will have to face as China elevates its economic status to the third largest economy in the world. This problem was also picked up by The International Herald Tribune blogger Daniel Altman who remarked that "training new generations of regulators, business people and planners is a process that can’t easily be accelerated" and that changing culture is a long, difficult and complex job. [more]

Jessica Reed

Yesterday Amnesty UK launched its "unsubscribe me" campaign, which aims to use social media networks to unite a new generation of human rights campaigners. Their hope is to set up a viral virtual campaign gathering as many names as possible from participants saying "I unsubscribe from torture, rendition, discrimination and unlawful detention".

In other words, Amnesty wants to be down with the kids and reach out to a young(er) audience using social network-inspired platforms to spread their message. [more...]

Jessica Reed

Yesterday was International Bloggers' Day for Burma, so the day after is a good moment for oD Today to look at the range of voices gathered in support of the democracy movement inside and outside the country. We at openDemocracy support the free circulation of information, debate and reporting that blogging Burma (much of it by Burmese living in exile) represents, and as we have tracked the unfolding story in Burma we have also published several items about the political crisis: [more]

Jessica Reed

Welcome to the 50.50 blog. Here you will find ongoing discussions involving men and women concerned with gender parity, as well as reports from conferences, news and commentary. Blogs which are also part of our 50.50 initiative:

In 2007, openDemocracy covered the G8 process from a women's perspective. This blog gathers contributions from women across the world, writing about what they would like the G8 to adress.

The first international conference of the Nobel Women's Initiative took place in Ireland in June 2007. The openDemocracy team live-blogged it.

The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principal global policy-making body dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women. openDemocracy observed the process closely.

The 7th World Social Forum brought the world to Africa as activists, social movements, networks, coalitions and other progressive forces converged in Kenya. Patricia Daniel blogged live from Nairobi.

Jessica Reed

The new amendment of an immigration related bill, which is set to be observed by the French parliament today, is creating furore amongst scientists and the activist sphere: it would allow French authorities to incite immigration candidates to provide a genetic test proving their blood-relation to a French citizen (or immigrant with a valid French visa). Candidates would have to pay 1000 Euros for it - an equivalent of 750 Pounds ($1494). [more...]

Jessica Reed

openDemocracy members are having a lively and interesting conversation on the forums, trying to imagine a world without the West.

Will there be a convergence to the stereotypical American way of life running in parallel with the economic empowerment of countries like India, China and India, or will we find ourselves starring at a profound cultural and religious gap separating our two (or three or four...) different worlds? Some excerpts: (more...)

Jessica Reed

openDemocracy has published a lot of material on deliberative democracy - including on this blog, which last year extensively covered the European Citizen Consultations.

But what about a participative people's tribunal? A few weeks ago I was forwarded details about the People's Tribunal on the World Bank Group in India - a participative initiative aiming to provide a just forum for people who have suffered because of projects and policies funded or promoted by the World Bank Group; the Tribunal is an opportunity to express their grievances and propose alternatives (more...).

Jessica Reed

openDemocracy forum members discuss nuclear power in light of the UK government's online consultation titled The Future of Nuclear Power (related documents here). Richard Lawson links to an interesting page underlining the many reasons why nuclear power does not provide an answer to global warming (duh). [more...]

Jessica Reed

It's no secret that mainstream media often raises an eyebrow (or two) when discussing bloggers and their contribution to news publishing. After all, it took respectable publications and national newspapers years before some of them reluctantly adopted blogging, and even longer for TV channels to mention the thriving and booming political blogosphere on air. However, the relationship between the bloggers and news professionals still remains blurry, tainted with a mix of competition and patronising comments: established journalists look down on bloggers' 'lack of objectivity', while Internet writers voice their discontent by criticising mainstream media's lack of credibility (1). {more...}

Jessica Reed

by Lyndall Stein, executive director of Concern UK

It was raining when I was in in Dhaka last week. Everyone was worried as we listened to the singer as he sang the beautiful Bengali song ‘Vaoaia',

‘ I was a rich man in the morning and a pauper at night ...river give some mercy to me, do not break my small house, be kind to me river.

I had a beautiful smile in my family and you just snatched it away.(more...)

Jessica Reed

Last Tuesday the UN Security Council approved the use of a hybrid armed force in Darfur, hoping it will help to bring a sense of stability in the region. The resolution also grants the use of force ("necessary measures") to the UN soldiers who will be in charge of securing the region by protecting and assuring the circulation of humanitarian workers, stoping the attacks and threats towards civilians, and encouraging the peace process in Sudan. (more...)

Jessica Reed

This month the Pathways of Women's Empowerment blog will focus on Reclaiming Feminism(s): Gender and Neo-liberalism, a conference held in Brighton on July 9-10, which also kickstarted the ongoing relationship between Pathways and openDemocracy. Many conferences will be held throughout the year, with (but not exclusively) participants from the 5 Pathways hubs, located in Egypt, Bangladesh, the UK, Brazil and Ghana.

The conference gathered around 40 academics and activists from Africa, South America, the Middle East, Asia and Europe.

Jessica Reed

The Pathways of Women’s Empowerment / openDemocracy blog brings together academics, policy makers, activists and journalists concerned about gender and power. As part of our 50.50 initiative, and along with a series of articles and podcasts on the Pathways project, the blog aims to provide a space for the many diverse views of women and men campaigning for greater gender-related justice worldwide.

The Pathways of Womens Empowerment RPC is a DfID funded research and communications programme linking academics, activists and practitioners to find out what works to enhance women's empowerment. You can visit the website and find out more here.

Jessica Reed

by Jessica Reed

To kickstart our collaboration with the Pathways of Women's Empowerment consortium (as part of our 50.50 initiative), we are launching our brand new themed blog, an article and a podcast. Enjoy!

Jessica Reed

In our first podcast, Jane Gabriel talks to Dr Hania Sholkamy about gender and empowerment in Egypt, and the challenge of engaging with global feminism. Click on the image below to listen now.

You can also read our opening Pathways articles; Andrea Cornwall on moving beyond "development-lite" and Srilatha Batliwala on reclaiming empowerment for the women's movement.

Jessica Reed

During lunch I found myself chatting with a couple of participants when the topic of the male experience of patriarchy came up. While a lot has been written about the relationships between men and women and between women and women, the topic of men vs. men power dynamics within a patriarchal society remains rarely talked about. Strangely enough, there is little doubt that men suffer from a system of patriarchy too.

Jessica Reed

Is it fair to label any form of women's resistance groups as atoms of the global feminist movement?

Josephine Ahikire was intrigued by the wording surrounding women's resistance and feminism, and how it systematically separates the two. In her view, what a woman resists is mediated by her situation, which is itself affected by gender, class, employment or poverty issuses - so by definition, it is about feminism.

Ahikire cited as a case study the Aba women's riots of 1929, part of Nigeria's struggle against colonialism: was this an act of feminism? Josephine argued that the gendered nature in which those women experienced colonialism and how they organised resistance made it a feminist act.