It took almost 11 years to establish but it's better late than never.

Veteran, award-winning women's rights activists have set up the first-ever regional advisory group on women, peace and security in Asia Pacific, an area where millions of women have been affected by conflict.

Just as staff at the maternity clinic in the Mae La refugee camp began learning about special care for newborns, a baby was born six weeks premature, weighing 1.3kg.

The medics and nurses - all ethnic Karen refugees from Myanmar - were anxious about treating the tiny boy. Resigned to his fate, the family decided to take him home for his last hours or days. The staff agreed.

Rania was 16 years old when officials raped her during Saddam Hussein's 1991 crackdown in Iraq's Shia south. "My brothers were sentenced to death, and the price to stop this was to offer my body," she says.

Cast out for bringing ‘shame' to her family, Rania ran away to Baghdad and soon fell into living and working in Baghdad's red light district.

“Necessity is the mother of Invention” is a well proven fact; similar has been the case with the women of Kashmir. The armed conflict has imposed on them new, alien roles, which they have readily accepted and are fulfilling the responsibilities of the same.

After more than 10 years since it was passed, the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (Women, Peace and Security) is gaining more attention with the opportunity to develop and present a Regional Action Plan at the 2012 Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting.

Lebanon's repeal of a criminal code provision that mitigates sentences for so-called honor crimes is an encouraging step to address gender-based violence. The Lebanese parliament should remove and amend other criminal provisions that discriminate on the basis of gender, and enact a law to protect women from domestic violence, Human Rights Watch said.

“Recognize the capacity of civil society to facilitate and manage funds for 1325 implementation and explore partnerships with the private sector,” are but a few of the recommendations of the recently revised study “Costing and Financing 1325,” jointly commissioned by the Dutch Development Aid Organization, Cordaid and the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP), a coalition of women's groups and other civil society

The next generation of Algeria's elected bodies will include more women than before. A new law, which establishes a quota for female candidates, will come into force with the 2012 parliamentary vote.

From now on, any list of candidates for legislative elections or elections to wilayas and communal assemblies must include a one-third proportion of women candidates. Failure to abide by the rules will result in the list being rejected.

Aisha Gdour, a school psychologist, smuggled bullets in her brown leather handbag. Fatima Bredan, a hairdresser, tended wounded rebels. Hweida Shibadi, a family lawyer, helped NATO find airstrike targets.

No matter how progressive laws to promote equality between men and women may be, without budgets with a gender perspective that allocate resources differentially, inequality will persist in Latin America.