In 2017, the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence theme will remain “From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Make Education Safe for All!".
Direct Link to Full 64-Page 2017 Publication:
Invisible Women, Invisible Problems
Absent in statistics, unnoticed by researchers, neglected by national and local authorities and mostly overlooked by civil society organizations – the situation of widows is dramatic and, in effect, invisible.
Once widowed, women in many countries often confront a denial of inheritance and land rights, degrading and life-threatening mourning and burial rites and other forms of widow abuse.
A woman carries an improvised plastic can to fetch water from a well outside Denganmal village, Maharashtra, India, April 20, 2015. In Denganmal, some men take a second or third wife to make sure their households have enough drinking water. Becoming "water wives" allows the women, often widows or single mothers, to regain respect in conservative rural India by carrying water from the well quite some distance from the remote village. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
Widow "cleansing" rituals in Africa may require a widow to drink the water used to wash her dead husband's body or to have sex with an in-law or a stranger
By Emma Batha
LONDON, June 23 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Millions of widows worldwide suffer crushing poverty and persecution.
Many are left destitute - robbed of their inheritance - while others are enslaved by their in-laws, accused of witchcraft or forced into abusive sexual rituals.
International Widows' Day on June 23 aims to raise awareness of the often hidden injustices faced by widows.
21/06/2017 - We are pleased to announce that the End FGM European Network was successful in its application for the next EIGE study on estimating girls at risk from FGM and will be coordinating with the ICF and End FGM European Network members to carry out the study.
The aim of this study will be to contribute to the achievement of the objective in EIGE’s Strategic Framework on Combating Violence Against Women 2015-2018 and meet the goal of undertaking regular FGM risk and trend assessments and ensuring the comparability of data across the EU by applying a standard methodology for risk estimation. In order to understand the risk to girl of FGM in the EU, the relevant legislative and policy context also has to be taken into account.
In line with the tender specifications, the study will have the following objectives:
■ Undertake desk research to update available information on:
– Legislative and policy frameworks, prevalence and risk estimation research on FGM, including recent migrant, refugee and asylum seeking populations, and challenges related to the eradication of FGM (all EU28 MS from 2014-mid 2017)
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http://whosefva-gbv.eu/20-news-slider-all-languages/44-press-release-april-2017
EU Project – “WHOSEFVA – Working with Healthcare Organizations to Support Elderly Female Victims of Abuse” (2017-2018)
Elder abuse is a worldwide concern that touches on human rights, gender equality, domestic violence and population ageing. The feminization of aging and its consequences is troubling, particularly given that older women as a group experience unique and compounding disadvantages. Older women face triple jeopardy in that they are part of three different marginalized groups: they are elderly, abused, and female.[1] Gender discrimination across the lifespan therefore has a cumulative effective, and neglect, abuse and violence across the lifespan results in a high lifetime rate of suffering from abuse for older women.[2]
It is clear that alternative channels for identifying older domestic violence victims are needed, however, even when they are identified, older female victims often do not receive appropriate assistance because they have complex issues of long-term dependency, health problems or economic vulnerability, just to name a few. Healthcare providers can play a crucial role in providing support, as they offer multiple entry points for identifying and serving domestic violence victims.
