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The crucial role of women in ending conflict and building lasting security also has been recognized in Africa. Over the past decade the African Union (AU), sub-regional organizations, and African governments have devoted significant attention to promoting gender equality and gender mainstreaming in the armed forces and security policy development.

The group Human Rights Defenders urged the Afghan government Thursday to immediately cease peace negotiations with the Taliban claiming that the role of women was purely symbolic in the work of the country's High Peace Council.

On October 1st parliamentary elections will be held in Georgia. Currently there are only 6.6 percent women representatives in the Georgian parliament, the lowest number in all of Europe.To achieve long-term stability in Georgia, it is crucial to include more women in the decision-making processes, says Alla Gamakharia from the women and peace organization Cultural-Humanitarian Fund Sukhumi, based in Kutaisi.

President Jacob Zuma and MPs from across the political spectrum hailed Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma for her years of hard work and dedication to serving South Africa, and said she would be sorely missed. "She will be sorely missed in the country, but we know that we shall feel her footsteps in Addis Ababa," Zuma said, referring to the Ethiopian capital where the AU headquarters is based.

Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed, says the preamble to the constitution of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

Nato was accused of killing eight women Sunday, capping a weekend which saw six soldiers shot dead by presumed Afghan colleagues and a Taliban assault cause unprecedented losses on one of the biggest military bases in the country.

As Liberian women continue to enjoy the country's political honeycomb (sweetness), with a substantial representation in the three branches of the government, their quest for high posts in future regimes stimulates ceaselessly.

Around the world, women make peace in their homes and communities on a daily basis. But when it comes to negotiating and signing peace deals on a national or international level they are almost universally shut out, according to a report that calls for a more balanced approach to resolving conflict.

African Development Solutions (ADESO) has launched a project for more than 300 women in the Puntland region of Somalia to promote women's political engagemen.

Activists attending the public hearings on the controversial Traditional Courts Bill in Parliament were shocked when women were told debate and comment on the Bill were not welcome. A number of civil society organisations and rural women have travelled to participate in the public hearings on the Bill which has been widely criticised for entrenching gender inequality and possibly subjecting millions of rural South Africans to a ‘second class' justice system. It is feared that the Bill, which is before Parliament's Select Committee on Security and Constitutional Development, in its current form gives patriarchal traditional courts enormous power to undermine the Constitutional rights of women and children.