Women’’srightsaroundtheworldisanimportan
Women’’s rights around the world is an important indicator of understanding global well-being. In the past few months, women have been elected the leaders of Germany, Liberia andChile. Throughout the world, women are taking steps to improve their rights and increase their freedom. Yet, they have also suffered problems in their struggle for equality.Many may think that women’’s rights is only an issue in countries where religion is law, such as many Muslim countries. Or even worse, some people may think this is no longer an issue at all. The fact is that in many parts of the world, women have almost no voice in politics and government. Their human rights are also denie
D、Sexual attack, violence in the home, even murder are crimes that women in many parts of the world face daily. The international community has taken steps to protect and enforce the rights of women. More than twenty-five years ago, the United Nations approved a treaty called theConvention on theElimination ofAll Forms ofDiscrimination against Women. The nineteen seventy-nine treaty is considered a bill of rights for women.To date, one hundred eighty nations have approved the treaty.But, women in many of these countries are still treated as unequal citizens. The U.N. estimates half a million women die every year while having babies. The number of women and girls in the world infected with HIV andAIDS is growing. Often this is the result of sexual attacks.And, violence against women, forced labor and human trafficking of young females continue.Janet Walsh is an official of the organization Human Rights Watch. She says many nations that approved the treaty accept mistreatment of women as normal. "These governments," she says, "see human rights violations against women as private family or cultural issues."Experts point to Russia as one example.
A、report by the human rights groupAmnesty International says about nine thousand women in Russia are killed each year by a husband, partner or other family member. Amnesty International worker FriederikeBehr says Russian officials are doing little to solve the problem. She says they do not recognize violence in the family as a serious crime. MsBehr says that Russia needs to pass criminal laws that recognize violence against women as a violation of human rights. Experts say violence against women in their homes is a serious problem in Pakistan as well. Such domestic violence is considered culturally acceptable and a personal issue. Human Rights Watch says that Pakistani women struggle in other ways as well. Girls are forced into marriages, young women are kept out of school, and men have complete control over their families.Experts say hundreds of Pakistani women are murdered every year by their families. They are victims of so-called honor killings. They are suspected of doing something to dishonor their families, such as having a sexual relationship. The women are either killed or injured so severely that they are forced to leave their families. The Pakistani government has declared honor killings a crime punishable by death. It has also taken steps to protect women who marry against their parents’’ wishes.Human rights activists in Pakistan have also launched a campaign against a severe Islamic law known as the Hudood Ordinance. Under this law, women who fail to prove that they have been raped face criminal charges. Women’’s rights activists say the law protects rapists and punishes victims. They say the law has sent more than twenty thousand mostly innocent women to prison. However, religious groups in Pakistan oppose any changes to the law. They say it protects traditional Islamic values. Islamic traditions have influenced women’’s rights in the MiddleEast as well. For example, Sheikha Yousef HasanAl Gerifi was campaigning for city council in Qatar. Her family refused to let her put pictures of herself in campaign information. Most Qatari women cover themselves, including their f