Impact Newsletter

🇰🇷 The South Korean supreme court has ruled that same-sex couples are entitled to the same national health insurance coverage as heterosexual couples and can enrol their partners as dependents. The court found that denying couples these rights would constitute serious discrimination against citizens’ “dignity and values, their rights to pursue happiness, their freedom of privacy and their rights to be equally treated by the law.” 🌈 The plaintiff was So Seong-wook, a man who wanted to register his partner as a dependent. The case was rejected in lower courts, and therefore appealed to the supreme court, which ruled that same-sex couples formed an “economic cohabitation” similar to married and common-law couples. ✊ It is hoped the decision will pave the way for same-sex marriage in the country. “Authorities must now take further steps to protect the rights of LGBTI individuals in South Korea by legalising marriage equality and enacting a comprehensive anti-discrimination law,” Amnesty International stated.

🇬🇲 The Gambian National Assembly has rejected a law that would have reversed the 2015 ban on female genital mutilation (FGM), despite pressure from religious groups to repeal the landmark legislation. 🧡 In April, almost the entire parliament voted in favour of reversing the ban. But after a long debate in committees, the assembly finally endorsed a report recommending the ban be maintained. 🗣️ “Following the vote by the National Assembly of The Gambia, we commend the country’s decision to uphold the ban on FGM, reaffirming its commitments to human rights, gender equality, and protecting the health and well-being of girls and women,” UN officials said in a joint statement. ✋ FGM comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. The practice can cause severe bleeding and problems with urination and sex, as well as infections, complications in childbirth and risk of newborn deaths, according to the World Health Organization.

🇯🇵 The Hiroshima high court ruled on July 10 that a trans woman does not need to undergo affirmation surgery to legally change her gender after she sued the prefecture. 🏳️⚧️ The controversial Gender Identity Disorder Special Cases Act (2003) requires trans people to undergo a medical procedure to remove or sterilise their reproductive glands, or to “have a physical form that is endowed with genitalia that closely resemble the physical form of an alternative gender” to obtain legal gender reassignment recognition. 🌈 While the first requirement was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in October last year, the second clause remains in force. It’s expected that Hiroshima's high court ruling will help change the law.

🔎 Despite the government and individual universities spending millions on sexual violence prevention programmes, rates of sexual violence on US university campuses did not change between 1985 and 2015. In fact, they may have actually increased since 2015. What could explain this? 👉 For decades, social scientists have presumed that if you change people’s attitudes or ideas about sexual violence, then this will lead to a change in behaviour, and therefore a drop in violence. 👉 Many of the interventions analysed in the recent study were successful at countering these rape myths. But a corresponding decrease in violence wasn’t found. ❓ Why? According to Ana Gantman, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Brooklyn College (CUNY): “Psychologists know that there is a space between what we think, what we want, what we believe and what we actually do.” 🗣️ Elise Lopez, Assistant Director of the Relationship Violence Program at the University of Arizona says: “You also have to change people’s self-confidence about engaging in healthy behaviour, give them the social support to do so, and think about the environment that they’re living in.” Read The Evidence by Josephine Lethbridge, sponsored by Sage 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dJgmC8uj

🇨🇼🇦🇼 Same-sex couples can now legally marry in Aruba and Curaçao, the Netherlands supreme court ruled on July 12, upholding a December 2022 court ruling in the joint court of all the islands of the Netherlands Antilles. ⚖️ “The court has come to the conclusion that excluding same-sex marriage is in violation of the prohibition of discrimination and incompatible with state regulations,” the 2022 ruling stated, after two Caribbean human rights organisations filed lawsuits against the ban. 🌈 The governments of the two islands had appealed the initial ruling, but the Dutch supreme court upheld the lower court's decision, making same-sex marriage legal.

🇫🇷 The ban on French women athletes who wear hijab from competing at the Olympic and Paralympic Games is a violation of Muslim women’s and girls’ human rights, said Amnesty International in a new report published this week. The organisation also pointed out that the decision shows French authorities’ discriminatory double standards and the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s lack of leadership. 🗣️ In 2023, France's sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra said that the country upheld "a strict regime of secularism" in the realm of sport, which meant that religious clothing was banned as a form of "proselytism". 📣 “Banning French athletes from competing with sports hijabs at the Olympic and Paralympic Games makes a mockery of claims that Paris 2024 is the first Gender Equal Olympics and lays bare the racist gender discrimination that underpins access to sport in France,” said Anna Błuś, Amnesty’s Women's Rights researcher in Europe. 🏟️ France is the only European country out of the 38 monitored by Amnesty that has enshrined bans on religious headwear in sports such as football, basketball or volleyball, at both professional and amateur levels. This causes “humiliation, trauma and fear” and has resulted in many women and girls dropping out of sports, concluded the report.

🇪🇸 The Spanish Council of Ministers has approved a decree providing financial assistance for sexual violence survivors who earn below the minimum wage, with a monthly allowance of 500 euros for six months, extendable for up to 18 months. The mechanism is similar to unemployment insurance. The survivor will have a period of five years to apply for the aid. 🧡 This decree implements article 41 of the 'Only Yes Means Yes' law, which recognises the right sexual violence survivors to receive temporary economic assistance when their income is below the minimum wage. 🤲 The aid will be provided equally to minors and women, including survivors of trafficking networks. Child victims will receive assistance when their family income is below three minimum wages. Do you want to be up-to-date on feminism worldwide? Read #TheWrap, your monthly round-up of news on women's and LGBTQIA+ rights around the world by the Impact newsletter 💚💜 https://lnkd.in/dzPFiqGj

🇺🇸 The US states of Arizona and Nevada will both hold a vote to endorse abortion as a constitutional right at the next US election in November after reproductive rights activists gathered the required number of signatures to propose the measures. The strategy is similar to that followed successfully by the states of California, Michigan and Vermont. 💚 In Arizona, the NGO Arizona for Abortion Access collected 823,000 signatures – more than double what is required for an issue to make it onto the ballot. The Arizona Abortion Access Act amendment proposes that the state cannot restrict access to abortion before foetal viability, or 24-26 weeks. On May 1, the Arizona Senate voted to repeal an 1864 abortion ban that the state's highest court had reinstated in early April. When the measure takes effect on August 1, a 15-week ban will become the prevailing law. 💜 As for Nevada, the petition to put abortion on the ballot in November was submitted by the NGO Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom. The initiative must be voted on again in 2026 in order to achieve constitutional status. In the state, abortion is legal for up to 25 weeks. #US #Elections #Arizona #Nevada #AbortionRights

🇫🇷 France’s republican front has triumphed once again, but the struggle is far from over. ❗Although it finished third, the far-right National Rally gained more than 50 seats in parliament and won the votes of more than 8 million people. The party will remain a significant force in Europe, where it has many far-right allies around the continent – allies that wish to ban abortion and gender transition, allies that target queer families. ✊ To avoid catastrophe in future, France will need to continue to counter extremism wherever it is found. The fight is not over yet, and with more women than ever voting for the far-right, we will need feminist answers in the years to come. 💟 Luckily, there are feminists around the world who have experience standing up to the forces of extremism, and they have much to teach us, wherever we are, and whether we can vote or not. We spoke with Debora Diniz and Marcia Tiburi (Brazil), Zsofi Borsi (Hungary), Verónica Gago (Argentina), and Teesta Setalvad (India) on how feminists are fighting the far-right. 🔗 Read Megan Clement's article: https://lnkd.in/dPBitrgm

🇸🇱 Sierra Leone's parliament has passed a law banning all forms of child marriage, providing for up to 15 years in prison for anyone who marries with a minor or facilitates a wedding involving one. The Prohibition of Child Marriage Bill 2024 also provides for the care of victims, including access to education and support services for girls affected by child marriage. ❕In Sierra Leone, 30% of girls and 4% of boys are married before turning 18, according to Human Rights Watch. Around 800,000 girls are currently married, half of whom were married before 15. 📉 Facing widespread poverty, many families decide to marry off their daughters to improve their financial situation. This leads to high rates of teenage pregnancy and girls dropping out of school, the NGO Girls not brides has warned. #SierraLeone #ChildMarriage