Around The World In 5
Around the World in 5 is an ongoing series that highlights news related to women in five countries, updated every week. This week's post covers November 11 to November 16.
The Democratic Republic of Congo
Internal documents released this week disclose that the World Health Organization (WHO) provided $250 in compensation to victims of sexual abuse in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Amid the Ebola crisis, numerous local women accused aid workers, including those from the WHO, of soliciting sex in return for employment opportunities.
The WHO has compensated 104 women who suffered during the crisis. However, to access the payment—amounting to less than a day's expenses for some UN officials in the Congolese capital—these women had to undergo training courses to navigate around the UN's policies against paying reparations.
Twelve women have rejected this offer, and approximately a third of the identified victims remain unlocated.
Scotland
Scotland has made history by becoming the first part of the United Kingdom to embrace a feminist approach to foreign policy.
Saskia Brechenmacher from the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace characterizes this policy as one that “would center human security over state and national security, and focus on dismantling the global economic and political structures that reproduce gender inequality as well as other forms of exclusion, discrimination, and injustice.”
It aims to dismantle global economic and political structures that perpetuate gender inequality, along with other forms of exclusion, discrimination, and injustice.
Nigeria
Nigeria's Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs. Uju Ohanenye, has initiated a lawsuit against an Enugu couple, Mr. Ifeanyi Enwelum and Mrs. Christabel Enwelum, concerning the defilement of their nine-year-old daughter.
The suit, with number E/987/2023, was filed at the Enugu State High Court by the minister's counsel, Mr. Chuma Oguejiofor, seeking to uphold the fundamental rights of the minor.
Public outcry ensued following the earlier grant of bail to Mr. Enwelum by an Enugu Magistrate's Court, prompting the minister to question the justification for such a decision.
The minister questioned the basis for granting bail, citing the severity of the crime and the prevalent issue of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in the country, particularly in Enugu State.
Panama
Almost 400 migrants, primarily women, bound for the U.S., have suffered sexual violence this year while traversing the perilous jungle expanse between Panama and Colombia, reports Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
The situation in the Darien Gap is described as "increasingly cruel and dehumanizing" in the organization's recent report, highlighting a worsening trend in sexual attacks over the past months.
From January to October, MSF provided care to 397 individuals who experienced sexual violence in the jungle, with 97 per cent of them being women.
The United Kingdom
The 'Clifton Rapist,' Ron Evans, who spent over 50 years in prison, was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman after his release.
Evans, 82, previously convicted of raping and murdering Kathleen Heathcote in 1964, committed further sexual attacks in Bristol during the late '70s.
Paroled in 2018 and relocating to London, he was found guilty on Monday of sexually assaulting a woman he befriended in 2022.
The sentencing is scheduled for Thursday at the Old Bailey, following an incident in the Wembley area in July of the same year. Evans was found guilty of one count of sexual assault.