In a video clip Sadiq Akif Mahzar, a spokesperson for the Taliban-controlled Ministry of Religious Affairs' Virtue and Vice, identified several hair salons that he said violated Islamic laws.

But another reason given for the ban is that beauty parlours cause financial strain on the groom's family during weddings. The groom's family has to bear the expenses of the bride's make-up.

The Taliban had already prohibited females from receiving an education, visiting public areas, and pursuing most forms of employment. Read more

On 20 July, the newspaper dedicated its front page to condemning the Taliban's decree that all Afghanistan's beauty centres must close down.

The beauty centre closure is a complete shutdown.

The Taliban decree is likely to negatively affect thousands of women-run businesses. Many have families and no other source of income.

The Kabul Chamber of Commerce estimates 50,000 women will lose their jobs as 12,000 businesses close.

The decree has sparked protests and widespread concern. Some 50 women even braved personal danger to protest in the capital city last week.

The Taliban dispersed them with gunfire and fire hydrants.

Afghanistan "has been plunged back into darkness for almost two years now," the article says. (The two-year time span refers to the Taliban's return to power in August 2021.)

Banning beauty centres is the latest in many Taliban efforts to control women's rights.

The centres "were one of the last spaces of freedom and gathering for Afghan women", the article continues.

"Women have been banned from working in NGOs; they have been barred from most secondary schools, universities and public administrations.

"They have been denied access to parks, gardens, sports centres and public bathrooms, while they are once again obliged to cover their faces when they leave their homes."

UN support

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) is gravely concerned about how the Taliban suppressed the women's peaceful protest.

UNAMA condemned it as a significant setback for women's rights in Afghanistan.

The UN mission urges the Taliban to respect citizens' rights to voice their opinions without fear of violence.

As international attention remains on the unfolding situation, Afghan women's plight continues to draw global concern.

Observers are monitoring developments in Afghanistan, particularly in relation to the future of women's rights and gender equality.

The United Nations mission in Unama is also openly supporting the women.

"The news of the forced repression of a peaceful protest by women against the closure of beauty salons, the latest denial of women's rights in Afghanistan, is deeply disturbing,' the UN mission in Unama said in a statement.

It is urging the Taliban "to guarantee the right of citizens to express their views without suffering violence."

Source

• Osservatore Romano

The amended Women's Protection Law, which will take effect on January 1, 2023, added nearly 30 new provisions to enhance women's protection in areas ranging from gender equality in recruitment and contract negotiation, employer's obligation in sexual harassment prevention, as well as relief measures to women should their rights and interests being harmed. Read more

They have had improved things there, he said.

One he mentioned by name was Sister Raffaella Petrini, who as the deputy governor of Vatican City is effectively the most powerful woman there.

"I have noticed that every time a woman is given a position (of responsibility) in the Vatican, things improve," he said.

He also cited the impact of five women he appointed to a department that oversees Vatican finances.

"This is a revolution (in the Vatican) because women know how the find the right way to go forward," he said.

Francis also has appointed women as deputy foreign minister, director of the Vatican Museums, deputy head of the Vatican Press Office, as well as four women as councillors to the Synod of Bishops, which prepares major meetings.

He made no mention of campaigns to let women become clergy. Like his predecessor, Francis says the question of women priests is closed.

The Church teaches that only men can become priests because Jesus chose men as his apostles.

Responding to a question about women protesting in Iran, he turned to the topic of women's rights in general.

"We have to tell the truth," he said.

"The struggle for women's rights is a continuing struggle.

"We have to continue struggling for this because women are a gift. God did not create man and then give him a lapdog to play with. He created both equal, man and woman.

"A society that is not capable of (allowing women to have greater roles) does not move forward," he added.

Denouncing male chauvinism and acknowledging there was still too much of it around the world, including in his native Argentina, Francis said "chauvinism kills humanity".

He also condemned as a "criminal act" female genital mutilation (FGM).

He went on to repeat a call he made earlier this year on the UN International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation.

According to the United Nations, FGM is concentrated in about 30 countries in Africa and the Middle East. It is also practised by immigrant populations elsewhere.

Over four million girls are at risk of undergoing FGM this year, according to the UN.

Source

• Reuters

One advocate is Jody Rabhan, chief policy officer for the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW).

She and other members of her organisation are "absolutely devastated, shocked and angry," she says.

"This is not the end. There are things that we can do."

Many Muslim, Christian and liberal-leaning religious groups have long advocated for abortion rights. They're preparing new efforts to preserve the current shape of abortion policy as much as possible.

Catholics for Choice head Jamie Manson says her group is pressuring lawmakers to pass the Women's Health Protection Act. Passed by the House and awaiting action in a less-receptive Senate, the bill would codify the provisions of Roe v Wade into federal law.

Manson's group is also pushing President Joe Biden — a fellow Catholic abortion-rights supporter — to declare a public health emergency in the wake of Friday's ruling.

In addition they will continue "emboldening Catholics who already are pro-choice to say ‘Not in the name of my faith,'" and to rally around the idea that the decision is a "violation of a Catholic principle of religious freedom."

Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tina Smith also urged Biden to declare a public health emergency in a New York Times editorial. This would unlock "critical resources and authority that States and the Federal Government can use to meet the surge in demand for reproductive health services".

NCJW has similar plans. They and their allies will push the Senate to pass the Women's Health Protection Act and work to ensure Federal and Supreme Court judges "have very strong reproductive health rights and justice backgrounds".

Rabhan said NCJW will fight abortion restrictions at the State level, helping those with more liberal abortion laws serve as "sanctuary states" and fundraising to help women pay for abortions.

"Judaism permits and sometimes requires abortion if the life and the health of the mother is at risk," Rabhan says.

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice is also calling on supporters to donate to abortion aid funds and contact their lawmakers.

Last month a synagogue sued Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over the state's 15-week abortion ban.

They argued it directly conflicts with a Jewish belief that abortion "is required if necessary to protect the health, mental or physical well-being of the woman.

"Jewish law is very clear: Human life begins at birth, and up until the time of birth, a woman has autonomy to make the decision for herself," Rabbi Barry Silver says.

"This law criminalises Judaism and a bunch of other religions," he said.

He noted that DeSantis signed the bill into law at an evangelical Christian church, where speakers discussed prayer and religious themes.

"They just did it right in a church and said, ‘Oh, God's going to protect us,' and ‘God is watching over us,'" he said. "It's grotesquely un-American and unconstitutional."

"You will see lots of lawsuits like this."

Source

• Religion News Service

The Family Court must make changes to ensure women and children are safe, the women's rights committee says.

The UN committee also says it regrets New Zealand had chosen not to established a royal commission of inquiry into the courts.

The committee recommended a royal commission in 2018, after hearing multiple reports the courts were not meeting victims' needs.

The government instead ordered a ministerial review. That review would have a more limited scope than a royal commission.

The committee is concerned the ministerial review did not address the "root causes of the systemic lack of trust and sensitivity" towards female victims in the court. It is also concerned women's safety wasn't part of the inquiry.

The UN committee said these issues led it to believe New Zealand did not implement its recommendation.

It asked for more information about what "appropriate action" it would take to make New Zealand's court system safe, before New Zealand's next appearance before the UN committee in 2022.

In general, New Zealand only reports every four years on its the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). This convention is regarded as the international bill of women's rights.

However, the UN committee has asked New Zealand to complete a two-yearly update, because it is concerned about New Zealand's response to family violence issues.

The committee's report was immediately hailed as "validating" by domestic violence advocates. They have argued for years that the courts do not properly understand family violence, so are unsafe.

Deborah Mackenzie from the charity the Backbone Collective says it is affirming that the UN is listening to victim-survivors' voices about their concerns with the court process.

"New Zealand can't continue to pretend that this is a great place to be a woman or a child. Family and sexual violence is a common occurrence and women keep telling us there is very little protection or support provided to them - partly because there is an inability to see violence and acknowledge it, especially when it doesn't look how we expect."

Natalie Thornburn of the Women's Refuge says the UNs recommendations reflect reality for many women: when they try to seek safety through the Family Court, the violence against them is obscured or invisible.

"That's not because the court doesn't want to do right by people, but because they don't necessarily know how to...it needs a specialist response."

The UN report also notes some issues have improved for women in New Zealand.

These include satisfactory progress on a new abortion law, a national strategy on family violence, protections for migrant women, plus protections for disabled women who were abused by caregivers.

Source

• Stuff
• Image: Lawyers Weekly

The Overcoming the Silence campaign encourages women to be more assertive in making their voices heard.

The Church must elevate women to leadership positions if it is to restore trust following sexual abuse scandals, says Sydney woman Stephanie Lorenzo.

Lorenzo is spearheading the global campaign to give women and lay men a greater voice inside the church.

The campaign organisers suggest women write short messages to Church leaders explaining why women should be represented alongside them in decision-making roles.

The campaign's official website urges women to post selfies online or on Instagram so their messages can reach the widest possible audience.

"If women can give birth to more children of god why can't we make decisions that will effect them?" one post says.

"It is time for women to have proper roles in the church. We don't live in the dark ages anymore. Women HAVE RIGHTS!" another post says.

Men are supporting women too by posting notes on the campaign's website:

"It's time our Church leaders act on what they have preached for years — the dignity and equality of women — let them place more women in positions of meaningful leadership in the Church alongside priests and bishops," one says.

One of the campaign's chief goals is to have 30 percent of all leadership roles in the Church at a global level open to, and occupied by, women.

This is part of a broader plan to empower women and have them stand on an equal level to men within the Catholic Church hierarchy.

The Catholic Women Speak website which is supporting the campaign says:

"We believe that the global diversity of Catholic women is a gift to be shared and not a problem to be solved.

"We represent many different cultures and ways of life, and we look for a Church in which these can be fully embraced and affirmed as sources of wisdom and resources for transformation."

The campaigners point out Catholic women are almost totally excluded from positions of leadership in the Church.

"For example, more than 50 percent of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics are women, but less than three percent of the Vatican's leaders are female."

The website notes the Vatican is not only excluding women from Church affairs either.

"Vatican City is now the only state in the world in which women are officially denied the right to vote" the Catholic Women Speak website says.

Source

• La Croix
• The World News
• Image: ABC

The most active people are women, They are the bearers of a positive vision of the country's future, says Barnabite Fr. Giuseppe Moretti, who was a missionary in Afghanistan for 25 years.

"They are very intelligent and have a more open mentality than men. They try to fight slavery with principles of freedom, which is different from libertarianism: all this is even more effective when there are local organisations or associations that support these initiatives. The future of Afghanistan is certainly in the hands of women."

Moretti says the principles of integration and innovation carried out by Afghan women is an integral part of national history:

"One can believe, with good reason, that if King Mohammed Zahir Shah managed to implement the programme he had in mind, Afghanistan today would be one of the most open countries in the Middle East.

"The monarch had begun a process of modernisation, almost of ‘Westernisation', but respecting Islamic culture, which would have made Afghanistan a vanguard country under all points of view. But the story went differently."

Several associations supporting women's rights are perplexed about the results of the talks in Doha, Qatar, between US government officials and the Taliban movement.

The Afghan Women's Network is one of several support networks of women's organisations active in the country.

The Network has published a document officially asking the US to involve women in peace talks, so "their concerns and solutions are raised and included in all decisions and to respect, protect and implement their rights. The legitimacy and sustainability of peace depend on the full, equitable and meaningful participation of women".

The support networks fear the "price" of the agreements between the United States and the Taliban movement will be paid by the women themselves, with compromises that could represent a return to the repressions suffered in the past under a fundamentalist government.

Source

• Newsbook
• Agenzia Fides
• Image: UNAMA - UN missions

The writer and anthropologist was the keynote speaker at the Women of Influence Forum 2018 held in Auckland on Tuesday.

She said working environments based on short-term contracts, often poorly paid, where the risks and costs are thrown onto those who actually make institutions and businesses work, and where managers are expected to minimise costs and maximise profits at their expense are now commonplace.

"This is neo-liberal philosophy in action, and I consider it toxic, and a tragedy for women.

Salmond said when young couples try to buy a house and raise a family, they face relatively high fixed costs, with incomes that are often insecure and relatively low.

This was tough on relationships and closely linked with many negative social indicators, she said.

Salmond said workplaces are often set to suit the habits of those who have wives at home, looking after the children and cooking the meals.

"Women may be forced to choose between their deepest dreams and desires - taking care of a sick child, or attending an important meeting."

Salmond thinks the balance between collective benefit and private gain in New Zealand has tipped far too far in the direction of self-interest.

It shows up in our rates of suicide, family violence and many other negative social indicators she said.

"In a recent study based on interviews with 1000 young people, for instance, they identified economic insecurity, unaffordable housing, student debt and insecure low paid work as significant contributors to their anxiety and stress."

She said New Zealand needs to return to more relational ways of thinking, in which the freedoms and responsibilities of men and women are more finely balanced.

Read the whole speech

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• Image: Stuff.co.nz

She has encouraged these organisations to educate their various groups and family members to eliminate social ills and discrimination against women.

Vuniwaqa said she is looking to work closely with faith-based organisations in the coming financial year to help in the economic empowerment of women, elimination of violence against women, child abuse and neglect and poverty alleviation.

She was speaking as a guest speaker announced at the three-day Women in the Frontlines conference that took place at the Apostles Church in Lautoka last week.

About 200 women from around Fiji participated at the conference.

The conference in Fiji was one of five held in July and August. The other four are in the United States.

Women on the Frontlines website says it is committed to empower, equip and mobilise Christian women through conferences, training events, outreaches, missions projects and our Women in Ministry Network.

Although it is sometimes described non-denominational, it appears to be part of the fundamentalist evangelical Christian tradition.

It was begun by husband and wife James and Michal Ann Goll in 1997. After the death of Michal Ann, James passed the ministry on to Patricia King of Patricia King Ministries.

Patricia King is the President XP Ministries/Christian Services Association. She is described as "an accomplished itinerant speaker, author, television host, media producer, and ministry network overseer who has given her life fully to Jesus Christ and to His Kingdom's advancement in the earth."

Christian Services Association (CSA), a non-profit society, was founded in Canada in 1973 and in the USA in 1984.

It is the parent ministry of XP Ministries founded in 2004 in Arizona. CSA/XP Ministries is located in Maricopa, AZ and Kelowna, B.C.

Source

• Fijivillage
• Fiji Times
• Women on the Frontlines
• Image FaceBook

The ninth man to lead the UN in its 71-year history has drawn opposition from gay rights and women's groups.

Guterres will replace Ban Ki-moon when he retires at the end of December.

The devout Catholic is against abortion, marriage equality and gay rights.

In 1995 he described homosexuality as "a mental disorder".

International gay rights organisations opposed Guterres's candidacy for the key position.

Gay activists in the US are calling on President Barack Obama to veto Guterres's appointment to the UN Security Council.

Australian women's groups are also speaking out about the appointment.

"It is outrageous that after 70 years, and vocal lobbying from women around the world saying that the next appointment must be a woman, that the UN is saying there is not a single woman on the planet capable of doing the job," Australia-based International Women's Development Agency chief Jo Hayter said.

"If we have a person sitting in this position who is not comfortable with women's choice, we have a leader from the past, not a visionary for the future."

International aid and development agencies are concerned the global push for women's rights and marriage equality could lose momentum under Guterres's leadership.

Portugal legalised abortion in 2007 after a national referendum.

State support for birth control was curtailed by the parliament in January this year.

Four women, including former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, were in the running for the top UN job that has never been given to a woman.

The former Portuguese prime minister and president held the post of the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees from 2005 to 2015.

Source

• The New Daily
• Image: www.un.org

She was charged and convicted - erroneously, in the eyes of a coalition of senior medical, legal and human rights advocates in Port Moresby who have taken up her case - with the unlawful killing of an unborn child.

Her husband, James Channel, received a similar sentence for helping buy the drugs to induce abortion through the back door of a local clinic.

It was common knowledge around Arawa that a health worker there ran a thriving business selling and administering misoprostol.

The couple are understood to be the first in PNG to be jailed for abortion.

Those fighting for a Supreme Court review of the judgment say the case looms as a dangerous precedent in a country where access to contraception is scarce, motherhood is a perilous business and unsafe abortions are shockingly high.

Leoba was raised in a village in mountain country in central Bougainville.

A good student, at the end of grade eight she was invited to continue her education but had been promised in marriage.

At 16 she was sent to her betrothed's family to work in their food garden and household and prove herself before marrying at 18.

In October 2014 Devana was 23, with a two-year-old son and a six-month-old girl she was breastfeeding.

Both births had been difficult, the second leaving her injured and traumatised after the 4.8-kilogram baby got stuck.

Around this time she fell pregnant again.

As Justice Sir Kina Bona, who presided over the case in the National Court, observed in his written judgment: "She was weak, she was short of blood and she found she was not coping too well."

Devana was about 4 months pregnant when she and her husband obtained the drugs for the termination in early January 2015.

When she went to Arawa clinic after two days of bleeding and complications, police were summoned and Channel was jailed.

Devana was ordered from her bed by her irate mother and instructed to walk 20 minutes up the road and turn herself in.

She passed out in the cells but was cared for by other inmates.

A Catholic in a strongly faithful community, she was also the sole female heir to a matrilineal heritage and so felt intense pressure to produce daughters.

Contraception was never discussed within her family, she says, and she recalls no instruction on the topic at school or from health workers.

While PNG has a strong policy advocating universal access to family planning, in much of the country the message is not heard due to remoteness, pockets of cultural and religious resistance, and the lack of basic services.

In many communities the only health care is provided by the Catholic Church, which declines facilitating access to modern contraception, although it is funded by the PNG government to provide a full range of services.

Source

• smh.com.au
• Image: smh.com.au

Cabinet announced earlier this year its intention to join the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women, or CEDAW.

Multiple petitions and marches followed the announcement including a parliamentary resolution asking the government not to ratify CEDAW.

Opponents have expressed concern that it will allow same sex marriage and abortion.

The privy council recently asked the government to reconsider its decision.

'Akilisi Pohiva, who supports CEDAW, says the decision is up to the people.

"It is a matter for the people to decide and since the public is split, there's a split amongst the people of the country, I think the best thing to do is to give it to the public to make the decision."

In May Pohiva told Radio Tonga he thinks the issue is important and the government will leave it for the people to see what their decision will be.

He said he believed there would be a referendum and he was going to discuss it with the cabinet.

Tonga currently has no legislation to allow referenda.

The acting Attorney General said there would need to be new legislation and resources for such an exercise.

Source

• radionz.co.nz
• radionz.co.nz
• Image: radionz.co.nz

Ofa Guttenbeil-Likiliki, the director of the Women's and Children's Crisis Centre, stated in an interview with Radio New Zealand that there are plenty of people who do support the empowerment of women.

According to Guttenbeil Likiliki, 13 NGOs have come together under the Civil Society Forum to show their support for CEDAW.

She says that even though the group doesn't have the resources of local churches which have mobilised against CEDAW, representatives from these NGOs will sign the petition.

Two MPs, Fe'ao Vakata the Minister of Internal Affairs, and Semisi Sika, had signed the petition.

Guttenbeil Likiliki says the petition letter, addressed to the speaker Lord Tu'ivakano, states CEDAW will not undermine Tongan attitudes to abortion and same sex marriage.

She says these two issues are not spelled out in CEDAW nor are they hidden within some other clauses of the convention as has been claimed by its opponents.

Source

• radionewzealand.co.nz
• nepituno.to
• Image: nepituno.to

Using the freephone number the service has been set up by Wairarapa abortion doctor Simon Snook because of the delays, said to be potentially harmful, faced by many New Zealand women seeking to end a pregnancy.

The standard process for a woman seeking an abortion involves a GP or family planning doctor referring them to an abortion clinic.

The woman is then assessed by two consultants who have to agree to proceed with the abortion.

Snook says if the free phone is used the average delay is around just under 28 days.

He says the service was not bypassing the proper process and there was no intent to rush a person into having an abortion.

In January 2014 Pope Francis criticised abortion as evidence of a "throwaway culture" that wastes people as well as food.

In his speech on world crises, Francis cited abortion and said: "Unfortunately what is thrown away is not only food and dispensable objects but often human beings themselves, who are discarded as unnecessary."

Last November Pope Francis told told a group of Catholic doctors that "playing with life" in ways like abortion and euthanasia is sinful, and he stressed that each human life, no matter the condition, is sacred.

"Be careful, because this is a sin against the Creator: against God the Creator."

Pope Francis offered his words in an address given to members of the Italian Catholic Doctors Association in celebration of their 70th anniversary.

He recalled that many times in his years as a priest he heard people object to the Church's position on life issues, specifically asking why the Church is against abortion.

After explaining to the inquirer that the Church is not against abortion because it is simply a religious or philosophical issue, he said it's also because abortion "is a scientific problem, because there is a human life and it's not lawful to take a human life to solve a problem."

Regardless of the many objections he has heard saying that modern thought has evolved on the issue, the Pope stressed that "in ancient thought and in modern thought, the word ‘kill' means the same!"

The belief that abortion is helpful for women, that euthanasia is "an act of dignity," or that it's "a scientific breakthrough to ‘produce' a child (who is) considered a right instead of accepted as a gift" are all part of conventional wisdom that offers a false sense of compassion, he said.

Source

• radionz.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• catholicnewsagency.com
• Image: Screenshot globalnews.ca

He said women hold families, villages, and churches together and they are also the backbone of the country.

Tuilaepa was speaking at the final sitting of Parliament for the year on Wednesday which was attended by women taking part in a programme promoting women's participation in Parliament.

Samoa passed a law last year which reserves five seats or 10 percent of the forty nine seats in Parliament for women.

The Prime Minister said the government had devised a way to bring more women into Parliament but he hopes that in their quest to become MPs, they will not neglect the roles for which they were chosen by God.

He said Samoa needed tall, strong boys to play rugby, adding that Samoa's population has stood at l80,000 for about 20 years, while Fiji's population has reached almost 1 million.

Source

• Radio New Zealand International
• Image: Savali

The Council's Women in Leadership Officer, Casper Faasala, says all of the intending candidates have gone through leadership training and will receive mentoring in the build up to the elections.

Solomon Islands is one of the worst ranked countries for female representation in parliament with only 2 women elected to parliament in 36 years of Independence; Hon Hilda Kari in the 1980s and most recently, Hon Vika Lusibaea who was elected in a by-election for her husband's seat in August 2012.

Solomon Islands has a population of approximately 590,000 people. The national Parliament has 50 members.

Elections are held every 4 years. The electoral system uses a first-past-the-post system, which has made it very difficult for women to get elected.

Source

• Radio New Zeland
• Pacific Women in Politics
• Image: National Parliament of the Solomon Islands

The Church of Melanesia's Christian Care Centre's director, Sister Doreen Awaiasi, says she is having to turn people away as the centre is at full capacity.

Sister Doreen says awareness campaigns against gender-based violence are starting to make headway and the new Family Protection Act makes domestic violence a crime.

She says that she thinks domestic violence is increasing, " in other places where the services are not available for them, they are not talking."

"This is only one particular place in Honiara. We also have referrals from all over Solomon Islands, but then the safe home is situated in in Honiara."

Sister Doreen thinks the Family Protection Act is helping.

"I think we have listened to the voices of our women and children, this is why we have lobbied the government, other Solomon Islands women too, behind pushing the Family Bill so that the parliament would say yes to what we wanted."

In the 36 years since Independence the have been only 2 female members of Parliament.

An Associate Professor at the University of Hawaii Tarcisius Tara Kabutaulaka says culture has always been seen as the major barrier for aspiring female politicians.

However, he says perceptions are changing and the biggest challenge for any candidate today is financial.

"I mean if it takes a million dollars to campaign that eliminates a lot of us, me included, we can't afford that and a lot of women can't afford that. And so it is cultural but it is also practical things in the campaign process," he says

Source

• Radio New Zealand International
• Radio New Zealand
• Image: globaleducation.edu.au

He said in order to mould the communities, everyone has to act and do something about respecting women and children.

"You have to learn your rights what they are for women and what they are not for men."

"You have to lead by example."

"You have to demand your political representatives that they tell you what they have done to solve this problem."

A report into sexual offending produced by the Solomon Islands Law Reform last year found an alarming level of sexual violence.

Pallaras said the report also looks back to the time of the tensions and says that sexual violence during those times were high with amnesty international reporting that women and girls experienced high rates of sexual violence in Guadalcanal and Malaita.

"Now I don't know what was like before the tension, and I don't know whether the tensions were the beginning of this problem, hatred and disrespect shown to women and children."

"But it is here now, it is in your families, your villages."

He made these comments when he was giving an awareness talk based on the topic on how to treat women and children in our community at an Anglican church, Saint Albans Chapel.

Pallaras was South Australia's public prosecutions Stephen before moving to the Solomon Islands to become a justice of the High Court there in 2012.

St Albans has a partnership with Buala Parish, Santa Ysabel, Solomon islands as part of the memorandum of understanding between the Anglican Dioceses of Melanesia and Canberra/ Goulburn.

Source

• Solomon Star
• Image: Catholicchurchsolomonislands

Freedom from Sexual Exploitation director Elizabeth Subritzky told Parliament's justice and electoral committee the only solution to the damage that prostitution caused, and the violence it created, was to prosecute buyers of sexual services through a reform of prostitution laws.

The Prostitution Reform Act decriminalised brothels, escort agencies, and soliciting when it narrowly passed into law by one vote in 2003. Continue reading