Source: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is among national and international agencies that laid the groundwork for the 1.7 million Liberians, almost half of them women, who last month completed registration to vote in upcoming elections.
Source: UNITE
Survivors of sexual violence from across Africa took to the floor 28 March to speak of their personal experiences and put forward their recommendations for action at the African Union Peace and Security Council's Second Open Session on Sexual Violence, Women and Children in Armed Conflict.
Source: UN News Centre
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged world leaders to take bold decisions to tackle the AIDS epidemic, as he launched a new United Nations report that warns that recent gains, while laudable, are fragile.
Source: PlusNews Global
Media images of men in northern Kenya washing condoms for re-use have underscored the need to improve HIV communication and close gaps in the supply of condoms in rural areas.
Source: UNAIDS
The elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Eastern and Southern Africa has come a step closer with the endorsement of a new regional framework following a three-day consultation in Nairobi, Kenya earlier this month.
United Nations human rights officials are providing technical and logistical support to military justice authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in the rape trial of General Jerôme Kakwavu, the highest ranking national army officer to be prosecuted for such crimes.
Source: United Nations News Centre
With the post-electoral deadlock in Côte d’Ivoire now entering its fifth month and the crisis showing no signs of abating, the Security Council today demanded an immediate end to the violence against civilians and decided to impose targeted sanctions against former president Laurent Gbagbo, his wife and three associates.
"Women in Zimbabwe are largely seen as a huge demographic to be exploited by politicians who seek our support," says Ntombikayise Mswela. "But when we take to the streets to demand respect and our rights from the same government we are thrown into prison.
Source: AllAfrica
The Namibia National Women's Organisation (Nanawo) has expressed serious concern over the Libyan situation and condemned attacks on Libya by "some European and American selfish economic expansion forces".
Source: The Inquirer
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has been recognized for demonstrating outstanding achievements in implementing the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (SDGEA).
Source: Human Rights Watch
The Libyan government should immediately release Eman al-‘Obeidy, the Libyan woman who accused government forces of raping her last week in Tripoli, and allow her family and international media to confirm independently that she is free and safe, Human Rights Watch today.
As a Libyan woman makes a desperate, dramatic plea for help in a Tripoli hotel, Channel 4 News Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jonathan Miller witnesses how Gaddafi's forces deal with dissent.
As Libya's opposition fighters push west, doctors are uncovering more victims from the front line.
Civil society in general and women in particular have a critical role to play in cementing Sierra Leone’s transition from conflict to peace and development, a senior United Nations official said today.
A day after U.S. assistant secretary of state for south and central Asian affairs Robert Blake appealed to the Bangladeshi government to reconsider its dismissal of 70-year-old microfinance guru Muhammad Yunus from the Grameen Bank, IPS spoke with the president and CEO of Women's World Banking (WWB), currently the most comprehensive network of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the world.
There is no way one can have a conversation with Linette Olofsson without being dragged into her collection of images about her community agricultural project in central Mozambican Province of Zambezia.
Zambians head to the polls sometime before October and civil society groups are working hard to ensure their voices are heard.
"The Botswana Caucus for Women in Politics has failed to realise the objectives it was intended for, but we will not give up on it just yet," says Margaret Nasha.
Source: UNNews
The official spearheading United Nations efforts to combat the scourge of sexual violence during war today welcomed the decision of authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to prosecute several high-ranking military officers accused of rape.
DRC authorities have initiated judicial proceedings against three officers – General Jerôme Kakwavu, Lieutenant Colonel Engagela (aka Colonel 106) and Colonel Safari – and are considering trials in absentia for two other senior officers, according to a statement issued by Margot Wallström, the Secretary-General's Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict.
General Kakwavu, who is currently in detention in the capital, Kinshasa, is charged with having raped two females – one of whom was aged just 13 – about seven years ago. Before his integration into the military, known as the FARDC, he led a Congolese armed group known as UDC/FAPC.
The case marks the first time that a general in the FARDC is to be prosecuted by a military tribunal for rape.
"These actions send a powerful signal that no military or political leader is above the law, and no woman is below it," Ms. Wallström said.
"In addition to prosecution, there is a need for reparation of victims. It is vital that survivors receive assistance, in particular medical interventions. The aim is not only to bring the perpetrators of sexual violence to justice, but also to ensure that victims obtain justice and care."
The Special Representative said it was now crucial that the authorities apprehend as soon as possible the two other officers, Major Pitchen and Colonel Mosala, and prosecute them as well.
"We continue to monitor this and other incidents of alleged sexual violence in conflict, wherever they occur," she added.
Ms. Wallström has spoken out repeatedly about the widespread sexual violence taking place in the DRC, especially in the vast country's far east, where conflict still rages between the FARDC and a range of militias and other armed groups.
Source: Vanguard
Amnesty International has said that Nigeria had yet to implement the UN Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, 25 years after it came into force.