Violence against women is rampant, devastating and tolerated in South Sudan and the new country needs to address these gross human rights violations and train people, especially soldiers, to respect women's rights.

This is according to rights activists in the country.

When Hillary Clinton hugged Charimaya Tamang, the 34-year-old Nepali woman had reason to be proud. While all the other nine heroes feted by the US secretary of state were lawyers and officials, she was a former victim of Mumbai's notorious Kamathipura red light area who was being honoured for battling trafficking.

The availability of small arms increases sexual violence against women. Therefore, gender based violence needs to be central to international discussions on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), and states must act to end impunity for armed violence against women.

The increasing number of South Sudan's armed forces is costing more than 50 percent of government's expenditure by some estimates – despite a two-year-old US$55 million demobilization and disarmament programme (DDR) sponsored by international donors.

Only about 12,000 people in South Sudan have completed the DDR process that targeted 90,000 ex-combatants.

The latest UN Women report released on Wednesday, in New York, once again positions Rwanda as the country with the highest representation of women in politics and participation in the development of their country.

The struggle for equal opportunities for women in all aspects of Sierra Leone's socio-economic life is as crucial for our country's future as it is to women. Consequently, men and women must fight this battle together.

Women's groups in Sierra Leone are robustly pushing the government to establish laws to increase the representation of women in public life. And young women are joining in too.

Women across the world enjoy greater opportunities and freedoms than ever before. It is a peaceful revolution under-pinned by an extraordinary transformation of legal rights. Almost every country has signed international conventions signaling their commitment to outlaw discrimination against women. Nearly 140 national constitutions specifically guarantee gender equality.

Trafficking in people for prostitution and forced labour is one of the fastest growing areas of international criminal activity and the overwhelming majority of victims are women and children. More than 700,000 people are believed to be trafficked each year worldwide. Trafficking is now considered the third largest source of profit for organised crime, behind only drugs and weapons, generating billions of dollars annually.

What do driving, voting, wearing pants, and protesting have in common? They are forms of political expression for many women in the Arab world right now. This political expression is often a basic effort to participate in political systems and give voice to simple needs like getting to work, or taking a child to school, as well as more powerful human needs of influencing a movement for major political change.

The United States condemned sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Wednesday, spurred by sexual attacks on 248 women and children by government troops last month in the same region as a mass rape by rebels last year.