Legal Literacy Leaflets

Reproductive Health and Rights Leaflet
Political Rights and Responsibilities of Women as Citizens
Child Custody and Guardianship
Divorce- The Dissolution of a Marriage in Muslim Personal Laws in Nigeria
Against Violence against women

Reproductive Health and Rights

This legal literacy leaflet sets out to discuss issues of reproductive health rights of women in Nigeria.
It will in particular examine the various issues covered under reproductive healthand rights of women, like vesico vaginal
fistula (VVF), early and forced marriages, unsafe abortion/unwanted pregnancies, female genital mutilation,
rape, incest, bride-price related violence, mortality rates, nutritional taboos,as they affect women's health and rights....Read More

Political Rights and Responsibilities of Women as Citizens
This booklet which examines basic aspects of political rights and responsibilities of women as citizens include: the responsibility to vote and be voted for in election; to hold elected officials accountable; to mobilize for political participation; to monitor and evaluate the performance of their representatives; to join political parties and to vie for leadership within the party structure. It also explains key terms in the political arena, and examines the legal provisions, that support the essence of political participation of women in the society. Lack of political awareness, amongst other factors, have militated against women’s participation in politics. In view of this, the leaflet highlights the basic rights accrued to women citizens as well as examines the importance of women’s political participation.
In attempting to bridge the gap between women and men’s access to decision-making processes as and to meaningful political participation, the leaflet also identified a number of existing challenges to overcome in the disproportionate representation of women in decision-making.
Read Yoruba Version

Child Custody and Guardianship
This leaflet sets out the conditions of custody or guardianship available under Muslim Personal laws in Nigeria, where the Maliki school of law is followed. Muslim Personal laws in Nigeria are often referred to as Sharia.

Divorce- The Dissolution of a Marriage in Muslim Personal Laws in Nigeria
This leaflet sets out the forms of divorce available under Muslim Personal Laws in Nigeria, where the Maliki School of law is followed....More

Against Violence against Women
This document describes different types of violence, and identifies that though both men and women are victims of violence, women suffer both from the same sorts of violence as men, as well as other forms of violence that happen only or mostly to women....More

NEW IN THE LIBRARY

Global Campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women. “Violence is not our culture”, 2010.

This DVD contains a compilation of papers, presentation and videos produced by partner, activities and friends of the Stop Killing and Stoning of Women (SKSW) Campaign since its launch.

This resource material was created for those hoping, and working, to combat violence against women justified in the name of ‘culture’ and religion.

African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMET). “The Africa Women’s Regional Shadow Report on Beijing + 15”. November 2009.

It is a summarized analysis of progress, gaps and challenges identified in implementing the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) particularly in West Africa, Eastern and Southern sub-regions, with emphasis on the period since the last review in 2004 (Beijing + 10). It also maps out the progress, gaps and challenges under each of the critical areas of concern, providing country-specific examples and some of the significant contributions that have been made by women’s civil society organizations in Africa . The report also gave actionable recommendations to Africa governments in order to accelerate the implementation of the BPFA over the next five years and to translate the many commitments to the women of Africa into concrete actions.

Purna Sen ed. “Child Rights in the Commonwealth: 20 Years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child”. London, Commonwealth Secretariat, 2009, 68pp.

This book examines the importance of child rights and provides an overview of the key themes of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)- these themes are brought to life with photos and quotes from children, prominent child rights activists and world renowned personalities. It also provides relevant statistics and data from Commonwealth countries and highlights on the progress and achievements of child rights.

Reproductive Health matters. Volume 17, Number 34, November 2009.

The theme of this volume is “Criminalisation”. It has different articles from different contributors, amongst the articles in this journal are “ Sexual violence legistration in sub-Saharan Africa: the need for strengthening medico-legal linkages”, “A glimpse into 30 years of struggle against prostitution by the women’s liberation movement in Norway”, “Unsafe abortion and abortion care in Khartoum, Sundan” and a host of others. It also contains statistical data and pictorial illustrations.

McKeon, Nora and Carol Kalafatic. “Strengthening Dialogue: UN Experience with Small Farmer Organizations and Indigenous Peoples". Geneva , United Nations, 2009. ISBN: 978-92-1-101207-1.

This publication highlights some of the mutual benefits of a closer working relationship between the United Nations and people’s movements focusing on two case studies of farmers and indigenous peoples. It is proposed for those interested in exploring new mechanisms and creative formats for engaging with underrepresented, yet critical, constituencies for the United Nations.