🌏 Celebrating Remarkable Women On International Women’s Day

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Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Belarus’ exiled main opposition leader, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in absentia for treason and conspiracy to seize power.

The 40-year-old ran against authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko in 2020 and is believed to have won.

Tsikhanouskaya had sought election after her husband, who was the previous candidate, was arrested two days following announcing his intention to run against Lukashenko, who has allegedly won every election since 1994.

In August 2020, Lukashenko was declared the winner of the election, which was widely regarded as rigged. Tsikhanouskaya said she did not believe the results and filed a complaint with the Central Election Commission but was detained for seven hours as a result.

After being released, she chose to go into exile in Lithuania out of fears of safety for her children.

Some of Belarus’ largest protests broke out to oppose Lukashenko’s re-election but were met with a brutal police crackdown.

Lukashenko has since jailed all of the country’s prominent opposition figures, including Tsikhanouskaya’s husband.

Also Happening Around The World

🇨🇳 After the Chinese government banned women from modeling lingerie on live streams, e-commerce companies decided to use male models to do the job.

🇪🇬 Egyptian officials have announced the discovery of a hidden internal corridor inside the 4,500-year-old Great Pyramid of Giza. Days later, they also announced archaeologists had discovered a mini sphinx-like statue near an ancient temple in southern Egypt.

This week, the world marked International Women’s Day, celebrating the progress made in the fight for gender equality.

From Spain to Sierra Leone, countries around the world have made bold moves to advance women’s rights in the past year.

Here are 11 women’s rights wins that have happened around the world in the past year.

And in honor of women today and everyday, here are 10 remarkable women who are making a difference in their communities, big and small.

More Women Stories From Around The World

🌏 Meanwhile, women around the world took to the streets in protests and marches to mark the day and call for equality.

🇭🇳 Also on International Women’s Day, Honduras’ first woman president lifted a longtime ban on the morning-after pill.

On Saturday March 4, after two decades in the making, nearly 200 countries agreed to a historic United Nations treaty to protect marine life and biodiversity in international waters, which are called the high seas.

The “High Seas Treaty” agreement aims to protect at least 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030 – known as 30×30 – by setting up protected areas to avoid damage

The high seas – which cover almost two-thirds of the world’s oceans – have suffered exploitation from overfishing, chemical and plastic pollution, as well as climate change, leading to biodiversity loss

Currently, only 1.2% of international waters are protected, and only 0.8% are identified as “highly protected”, according to CNN.

The last international agreement on ocean protection, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, was signed 40 years ago in 1982 and came into force in 1994.

The secretary-general of the UN called the treaty as “a victory for multilateralism and for global efforts to counter the destructive trends facing ocean health” in a statement.

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