The United Nations Office for West Africa held a consultative meeting in Dakar with West African Women leaders within the framework of the Global Open Days on Resolution 1325 (2000) of the United Nations Security Council related to Women, Peace and Security.

An old woman had died. Before burying the her, the residents of the village of Obo — in southern Central African Republic, just north of the Congolese border — gathered around a campfire to eat, drink, cry and sing in celebration of the woman's long life. It was a night in March 2008, just another beat in the slow rhythm of existence in this farming community of 13,000 people.

Violence starts in the mind, so we have to start by changing the minds of men and women all over the world." Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, democracy leader in Burma, participated in the conference by video.

Women in southern Africa will soon move a step closer to having equal rights and opportunities with men when a regional gender protocol is ratified in the coming weeks.

Half of the 15 member states of the Southern African Development Community have already ratified the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development.

The internationally-acclaimed street artist Shepard Fairey has created a captivating new design exclusively for Amnesty International in its 50th year to support its global call to defend the rights of women and girls in Nicaragua.

In a recent Al Jazeera report, doctors working in a hospital spoke of how they found Viagra and condoms in the pockets of dead Libyan army soldiers. Putting this together with the reports of rape of women adds important details to the picture of an army not only armed with the hardware of war such as guns, rifles, tanks, and bombs but also the chemical and protective gear to carry out yet another way to attack — rape.

As world leaders gather in New York for a high-level conference on HIV/AIDS, United Nations agency heads, goodwill ambassadors and activists alike hope they will remember the virus's most vulnerable victims: women and girls.

Hillary Clinton's weeklong trip to sub-Saharan Africa takes her to a continent hungry for economic growth and political accountability but still shackled by poverty and government corruption.

The U.S. secretary of state will see the effects of that poverty close-up:

-- In Tanzania, she'll meet with women who are victims of gender-based violence.

The United Nations Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution recognizing the importance of UN peacekeeping operations in responding to HIV/AIDS in conflict and post-conflict situations.

A woman was allegedly paraded naked in the streets of Neelor Bala village on the instigation of a jirga that found her son guilty of rape.

Four armed men, who belonged to the same village as that of the ‘raped' woman, allegedly disrobed the middle-aged woman before making her parade naked.

Police has confirmed the report and arrested three members of the jirga.