Human rights activists have raised serious concerns about a lawyer who fell foul of Iran's Islamic regime for highlighting the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.

Women in minority and indigenous communities are especially vulnerable to wide-ranging forms of violence, abuse and discrimination, according to a new report released Wednesday by Minority Rights Group International (MRG), a human rights group that works on behalf of minorities and indigenous peoples.

Lebanon's parliament should adopt a draft law that would specifically criminalize violence against women, Human Rights Watch said today. The bill, which would criminalize physical, mental, and sexual abuse, marital rape, and so-called honor crimes, was approved by the former Council of Ministers on April 6, 2010, and referred to a special parliamentary committee.

Despite efforts to initiate a ceasefire negotiation on June 17 and 30 by means of meetings between representatives of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Burmese government, fresh clashes between the KIA and Burma armed forces took place on July 2 and 3 in different parts of the Kachin State, Kachin News Group has reported.

Afghan women face a bleak future unless women's rights are included as a non-negotiable element of any future political settlement, a report warned on Wednesday.

As arbitrary arrests continue in Iran, EU High Representative Catherine Ashton released a statement on 5 July condemning the recent arrests of women journalists, artists and women's rights defenders.

In her statement, she specifically referenced the arrests of photographer Maryam Madj, film-maker Mahnaz Mohammadi, journalist Zahra Yazdani, and women's rights advocates Maryam Bahrman and Mansoureh Behkish.

Experts have called for evolving a comprehensive strategy to control the overall situation of violence in the country in order to make substantive improvement in combating Violence Against Women (VAW).

After being raped by government troops, women in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo face the further pain and humiliation of being repudiated by their husbands.

“My husband refuses to share the bed with me. I sleep on the floor,” one woman who asked not to be named told AFP in the eastern village of Nakiele, where soldiers raped more than 100 women in early June.

On several occasions, the Ethiopian media have reported about the prevalence of illegal trafficking in persons, mostly to the Middle East and Arabian Peninsula. The prevalence of illegal trafficking of children and women— both internal and translational crimes are grave concerns to Ethiopia.