Sixty-five-year-old Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, who has been sentenced to life in prison, has been described as a tyrant and one of the key players in instigating the Rwandan genocide in the south-western border town of Butare.

This once powerful politician came from humble beginnings - she was a social worker and obtained a university law degree at the age of 44.

The UN says it is sending a team to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to investigate allegations of rape.

The French aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF, has said that more than 100 people in Niakiele village, in Sud-Kivu province, were raped or beaten in an attack which took place between June 10 and 12.

The number of reported victims of a recent mass rape campaign by gunmen in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has risen to about 170, the UN says.

Aid workers had been investigating initial reports that about 60 women were raped near town of Fizi by ex-rebels who recently deserted the army

Troops from the same group were recently convicted of raping at least 50 women in Fizi on New Year's Day.

Prison guards in Iran are giving condoms to criminals and encouraging them to systematically rape young opposition activists locked up with them, according to accounts from inside the country's jail system.

A series of dramatic letters written by prisoners and families of imprisoned activists allege that authorities are intentionally facilitating mass rape and using it as a form of punishment.

Advocacy Forum, an NGO working for human rights, today called on the government to exercise due diligence to prevent and investigate cases of torture against women in detention and work towards improving the condition of detention for women.

Better to be a man than a woman. If you were a man, then everything you do would meet with more approval, financial compensation and social reward. Your medical problems would enjoy more attention and funding. Your commentary would be considered sober and responsible, in contrast with that as a woman, which is considered hysterical, exaggerated and baseless.

What is it about war that sees an increase in rapes being committed against women? History is replete with examples of the uncomfortable silence on female casualties of war. We know women are raped as a form of psychological warfare and treated like spoils of war for combatants.

A proposed International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into Côte d'Ivoire must be expanded to cover serious human rights violations committed since 2002, Amnesty International said today.

A United Nations envoy today welcomed the arrest of a former top Guatemalan military figure accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, saying the arrest sends a strong signal that justice can prevail in the Central American country.

General Hector Mario Lopez Fuentes, who served as chief of staff of his country's armed forces between March 1982 and October 1983, was arrested last week, according to media reports.

Complaints with regard to child abuse and sexual offences against women and children in Sri Lanka are increasing dramatically specially since 1995, said Lawyers for Human Rights and Development (LHRD) Executive Director Attorney-at-Law Kalyananda Thiranagama.

The number of complaints of this nature was just over 900 in 1995 and this was over 2,000 in 2010 reflecting remarkable increase within 15 years, he said.