Thursday, July 11, 2013

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Laura Knight exhibition in London

Posted: 10 Jul 2013 08:10 AM PDT

npg laura knightLaura Knight (1877 –1970) was one of the most popular and pioneering British artists of the twentieth century.

Her artistic career took her from Cornwall to Baltimore, and from the circus to the Nuremberg Trials.

She painted dancers at the Ballets Russes and Gypsies at Epsom races, and was acclaimed for her work as an official war artist.

Knight used portraiture to capture contemporary life and culture, and her paintings are remarkable for their diverse range of subjects and settings.

Now an exhibition in London of over thirty portraits aims to reveal Knight's highly distinctive and vivid work, and also illustrate her success in gaining greater professional recognition for women in the arts.

Elected president of the Society of Women Artists (SWA) in 1932, she was the first woman to become a full member of the Royal Academy for 160 years.

Although one of the leading British painters of the twentieth century, her rejection of Modernism and her association with the 'mainstream' led to a decline in her reputation, and since her death she has, to some extent, fallen into obscurity.

The exhibition is a long overdue reappraisal of an outstanding and pioneering female artist, featuring over 35 of her finest works from across her vast and prolific career, demonstrating both the remarkable variety of her subjects and her consummate skills as an artist.

Knight worked as a professional artist without a break from the age of fourteen until almost the end of her life.

During the Second World War, as an official war artist Knight worked on several commissions for the Ministry of Information’s War Artists Advisory Committee, and she was one of only three British women war artists who travelled abroad.

Her works during this period include In For Repairs (1941), A Balloon Site, Coventry (1942), Ruby Loftus screwing a breech-ring (1943), Take Off (1944), Factory Workshops and Land Girls.

After the war, she was the official artist at the Nuremberg Trials of the Nazi war criminals. One result was The Dock, Nuremberg (1946).

She successfully negotiated the professional art world at a time when other women artists struggled for recognition and sought to control her public image via two volumes of autobiography.

The exhibition demonstrates Knight's impressive skills as a painter and draughtsman, her courage in tackling complex compositions and challenging subjects, and her compassionate approach to the sitters with whom she worked.

And taken together, the selection of portraits also presents a distinctive picture of twentieth-century Britain.

The exhibition runs from July 11 – October 13 at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

In a lecture entitled, Laura Knight Portraits on July 18, from 13:15 – 14:00 in the Ondaatje Wing Theatre, curator Rosie Broadley will introduce Knight's work; from 19.30 – 20.00, there will be an exhibition tour.

To see a slideshow of Laura Knight's work, click here.

Women Deliver conference report

Posted: 10 Jul 2013 04:25 AM PDT

women deliver conference 2013A wide range of speakers, topics and events related to the health and well-being of girls and women.

The Women Deliver 2013 conference was one of the largest gatherings of policymakers, advocates and researchers focused exclusively on women's health and empowerment to date, bringing together over 4,500 participants from nearly 150 countries in Kuala Lumpur from May 28 – 30, 2013.

The conference featured a wide range of speakers, topics and events related to the health and well-being of girls and women, with a particular look to the future of the development framework.

Women Deliver’s president Jill Sheffield, in her opening remarks, called participants to action: "We must make sure that girls and women are educated and healthy, with access to sexual and reproductive health services, including family planning, to reduce poverty."

With less than 1000 days to go until the expiration of the Millennium Development Goals, Women Deliver 2013 brought attention to the fact that these global challenges can't be met without a bold and comprehensive focus on girls and women.

The Ministers’ Forum at Women Deliver 2013 brought together Health, Finance, Women’s Affairs, and Development Cooperation Ministers from around the world.

Ministers from countries with high maternal mortality rates and low contraceptive prevalence rates engaged in dialogues with Ministers from countries that have experienced significant progress in these areas, with the aim of sharing successful strategies and ongoing challenges.

The Forum was organised by UNFPA and Women Deliver; to read the full Ministers' Forum Statement, click here.

The conference also presented a unique opportunity to convene civil society advocates and their implementing colleagues, as well as government representatives, to discuss reproductive, maternal, and newborn health.

Groups from eight countries met in enthusiastic and collaborative gatherings over a two-day period to suggest advocacy priorities, issue calls for action, and outline specific steps to help implement government policies.

To read the report on outcomes of the country caucuses, click here.

Many of Women Deliver's partners used the 2013 conference as an opportunity to launch publications and reports related to the health and empowerment of girls and women.

These publications are on topics ranging from unmet need for modern family planning, to costs and benefits of investing in maternal and newborn care, to the scale and impact of child marriage.

Women Deliver co-branded reports and publications include:

A paper from the World Bank: Investing in Women's Reproductive Health: Closing the Deadly Gap Between What We Know and What We Do makes the case that addressing the reproductive health needs of women is a prerequisite to achieving gender equality.

To download the Executive Summary click here.

The Lancet ran a Women Deliver special issue, highlighting the latest research and perspectives on global maternal health.

The Lancet also produced a flipbook for the occasion: We Have A Dream highlights and explores the dreams of young people living across the world. Click here to see it.

As a part of the global Women Deliver 2013 conference, Women Deliver selected 100 Young Leaders, representing 68 different countries, from a pool of 6,000 scholarship applicants. Click  here to view the Presidential Session – "The Development Agenda Through a Young Person's Lens."

Click here to learn more about the 100 Young Leaders, and here to sign up for the Deliver for Youth Newsletter.

Women Deliver and the C-Exchange, a collaborative private sector group convened by Women Deliver, launched an initiative at the 2013 conference to partner with young people to ensure that women and girls' health needs are prioritized and met in the developing world.

In 2013 and early 2014, the C-Exchange will collaborate on an 18-month-long initiative designed to improve maternal and reproductive health (MDG 5) by empowering young leaders to advocate with policymakers and educate their communities about selected maternal and reproductive health issues.

To learn more about the C-Exchange Initiative, click here.

And the Global Poverty Project and Women Deliver announced a new family advocacy planning campaign, It Takes Two, to raise awareness of, increase demand for, and improve access to family planning information and services around the world.

It Takes Two aims to motivate young men and women to take action in support of improving access to family planning services and information, put pressure on governments to reach their FP2020 commitments and be catalysts for significant progress and change.

To learn more about It Takes Two, click here.

Women Deliver is a global advocacy organization bringing together voices from around the world to call for action to improve the health and well-being of girls and women.

Women Deliver works globally to generate political commitment and resource investments to reduce maternal mortality and achieve universal access to reproductive health.

For further info about the conference, click here.

Update on UN healthcare in war vote

Posted: 10 Jul 2013 01:09 AM PDT

rape in conflcit, medical care for victimsUN passes resolution for provision of healthcare for survivors of sexual violence in conflict.

In a move that acknowledges the extent of and destruction caused by sexual violence in conflict the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted Resolution 2106 regarding preventing, prosecuting and dealing with the aftermath of sexual crimes.

Resolution 2106 directly addresses the need for the provision of healthcare that is fast, universal – and includes abortion services.

In a debate 'led by the United Kingdom' – according to a press statement released by the Global Justice Centre (GJC) – and supported unequivocally by France, the Netherlands and Sweden, the resolution was outlined and 'unanimously' agreed.

The controversy surrounding the United States' (USA) long-standing approach of banning abortion services from being included in medical aid in humanitarian contexts – and this included for impregnated victims of rape in conflict – was definitively resolved with the USA’s stance explicitly rejected in the resolution.

The resolution 'urges United Nations entities and donors to provide non-discriminatory and comprehensive health services' including for 'sexual and reproductive health'.

'Although the word 'abortion' was not used, the 'non-discriminatory health services' provision is an enormous breakthrough in the fight to end the deadly denial of abortion for female victims impregnated by war rape', said Janet Benshoof, president of the Global Justice Centre.

The Global Justice Centre has campaigned vociferously on this issue, insisting that to deny survivors access to abortion contravenes their human rights as per the Geneva convention and prolongs suffering inhumanely.

And to put pressure on the USA to implement Resolution 2106 the GJC launched a petition that calls on President Obama to drop the ban on abortion services.

Although the resolution is an example of great progress and illustrates commitment to tackling this issue, only one of the 23 statements on sexual violence in conflict refers directly to the provision of healthcare.

And the UNSC itself acknowledged in the document that it was 'deeply concerned over the slow implementation of important aspects of resolution 1960 (2010) to prevent sexual violence in armed conflict and post-conflict situations'.

United Nations Women (UNWomen), supporters of resolution 2106, pointed out that this is the fourth resolution that focused on conflict-related sexual violence.

This plethora of resolutions may reflect a growth in the understanding of sexual crimes in conflict.

It could also infer that previous resolutions have been insufficient and ineffective.

However, UN Women identifies a shift, saying that Resolution 2106 adds greater operational detail to previous resolutions on this topic and exhorts all Member States and United Nations entities to do more to implement the earlier mandates and to combat impunity.

Overall the focus of the document is on preventing sexual crimes in conflict and ensuring that states bear the primary responsibility to respect and ensure the human rights of all persons within their territory and encouraging an erosion of impunity for both perpetrators and states that commit, collude in or fail to address sexual crimes in conflict.

It is positive to address prevention. Successfully halting this crime would avert the suffering of potential victims and remove the need for healthcare provision for survivors.

Currently, point 20 of Resolution 2106 regarding healthcare for survivors of sexual crimes is necessary and it is encouraging that the UNSC indisputably and comprehensively requires states to adhere to providing non-discriminatory, universal healthcare.

The UNSC stated officially in the resolution that it will: 'remain actively seized of the matter'.

Likewise it is our responsibility as persons with a moral duty of care, as manifested in international human rights laws, to ensure that this resolution is implemented swiftly and effectively, with the overall goal of entirely eradicating sexual crimes in conflict.