The demonstration meant to be peaceful quickly degenerated into a bloodshed of violence when the army entered the packed stadium without warning, and opened fire on the crowd. More than 150 people were killed, thousands wounded and hundreds of women suffered brutal sexual violence; “they were gang raped, with objects, including bayonets sticks, pieces of metal and clubs” by the security forces.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia, Leymah Gbowee, founder of Women in Peacebuilding Program/West African Network for Peacebuilding and Tawakkul Karman, journalist and peace activist from Yemen shares this years Nobel Peace Prize.

It's small actions of compassion and dignity that can restore faith in humanity, even in times of war, human conflict and terrible violence.

That, more than anything, is the intended message behind the five-part documentary series Women, War & Peace, a harrowing and occasionally spiritually uplifting portrait of how some women around the world are fighting violence with non-violence, and calling the perpetrators to account.

Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) in Zimbabwe are routinely arrested, unlawfully detained and subjected to ill-treatment whilst in prison, all for engaging in peaceful protest. AWID tries to unravel the complexities of the context in which they work to understand how WHRDs are affected by politically motivated violence, the land reform process and the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

African women who bear the brunt of the continent's conflicts now demand to play a defining role in peacekeeping.

A resolution to foster women's political participation in the domain of peacekeeping and conflict management was accepted on Friday at the 2011 Women's Platform for Action in Africa (WPAA).

The Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell, has made clear that the only way that we can tackle the worst problems facing the world today – including in conflict affected countries – is by "putting women to the front and centre of all our efforts".

The United Nations Security Council will focus on security sector reform and women's role in peace and security in October, a senior official said here on Tuesday. Joy Ogwu, permanent representative of Nigeria to the UN and the president of the Security Council for October, made the remarks at a press briefing. Nigeria is one of the 10 non-permanent members of the UN Security Council. The first council open debate slated for Oct.

For the first time, women peace activists from South Asia came together to present a joint resolution to the United Nations Secretary-General. In it, they outlined measures to improve the participation of women in peace building and as peacemakers. The resolution was a result of a two-day open discussion organized by UN Women.

The top and the bottom of the list of countries in Newsweek's recent cover story, "The 2011 Global Women's Progress Report", evoke images of two different worlds. At the top of the list - the "Best Places to be a Woman" - we see the usual suspects: Iceland and the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Canada.

The Finance Division of the government of Pakistan and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) Pakistan signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a 5-year partnership to enhance institutionalisation of Gender Responsive Budgeting in policies and plans at the Federal and provincial levels.