Sumi Madhi a volunteer on child feeding, nutrition and care interacts with mothers in Kudada, India. Photo: UNICEF/Prashanth Vishwanathan
World Breastfeeding Week – August 1-7, 2016
Breastfeeding: A key to Sustainable Development
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=54590#.V50Gfvl97IU
Breastfeeding Starting within One Hour of Birth Provides Baby’s ‘First Vaccine,’ Can Save Baby Lives - UNICEF
29 July 2016 – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today that some 77 million of the world’s newborns – or 1 in 2 – are not breastfed within the first hour of birth, depriving them of essential nutrients and antibodies and thus exposing them to an increased risk of death.
UNRISD – UN Research Institute for Social Development
Direct Link to Full 466-Page 2015 Publication:
The Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Ms. Dubravka Šimonović took up function as Special Rapporteur on 1 August 2015 and intends to, inter alia, focus on the legal and policy frameworks of her mandate and the international human rights mechanisms to discuss the gap in incorporating and implementing the international and regional standards related to violence against women.
The Special Rapporteur considers that the discussion on the adequacy of the international legal framework on violence against women initiated by the former mandate holder1should continue and she wishes to secure views from different stakeholders, including States, National Human Rights Institutions, Non-governmental organizations, as well as members of academia.
Also Via SVRI – Sexual Violence Research Initiative
In Her Shoes is an interactive group activity designed to give women and men the opportunity to walk “in the shoes” of women and girls experiencing various forms of violence. It is often an emotional and personal exercise that goes beyond traditional awareness raising to provide a direct experience of the realities that women and girls regularly face—in particular, the stigma and discrimination they commonly encounter when seeking support.
An In Her Shoes session typically lasts three hours, during which time the group moves through a series of ten fictional yet realistic stories, each portraying a woman or girl experiencing a different form of violence including: intimate partner violence, sexual violence (including sexual violence in conflict), violence against vulnerable groups (e.g., sexual minorities, women living with disabilities, sex workers, women living with HIV and AIDs, etc.), economic violence, early marriage, and female genital mutilation.
We Rise With Yazidi Women! One Billion Rising & Yazda Call on the World for Global Solidarity With and For Yazidi Women on 3 August
This 3 August marks the two-year anniversary of the brutal attack of the Yazidi people in Sinjar Province in the Northern region of Iraq, Two years since IS or ISIL (also known as ISIS or Daesh) stormed towns, villages, and historic homelands of the ethno-religious group, killing over 5,000 men and elders, enslaving over 7,000 women and children and displacing over 400,000 more. Two years since the humanitarian crisis in which thousands of internally displaced Yazidis were trapped on Sinjar Mountain, surrounded by Isis fighters determined to exterminate the indigenous group, dying of exposure and dehydration. Two years since the ongoing genocide of the Yazidi people began, including the desecration of homes, holy sites and women's bodies.
The recently published Chilcot report in the UK, which revealed that former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, and his major allies - including former US President George Bush had illegally waged war in Iraq in March 2003 and militarily occupied it - further reiterates the connection that the Iraq War contributed to the rise of IS or ISIL in the region.
