Completing its fourth day of the resumed 2011 session, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) today recommended special consultative status for 25 entities to the Economic and Social Council, and postponed consideration of 26 additional groups until the Committee receive answers to its outstanding questions.

Non-government organizations; RNC Justice and Democracy and Haguruka Association, have launched a three-year project, titled "Beyond Raising Awareness: Improving Women's Access to Land."

It is funded with a US$ 2 million grant by the United Nations through UN Women to improve Rwandan women's access to land.

The number of women on political scene of Serbia, especially at influential posts, has been significantly dropping each year. Some of them are leaving because the politics directed by men became ugly for women, some because they could not realize what they wanted and some are simply forced out of politics by their political parties. Unofficially politicians claim that there is no quality female staff.

Women's rights groups have this week celebrated the approval of several legal amendments by the parliamentary committee on justice and the parliamentary budget committee that would bring the country closer to legal gender equality if passed by Parliament.

It is the malaria season in Khan Neshin, the wild south of Helmand, just 50 miles from the border with Pakistan.

Mosquitoes thrive in the fetid pools along the river. In the dry fields the last of the poppy harvest is being gathered - and this year it's a bumper crop.

As Afghanistan looks to a future without U.S. troops, the Kabul government says reconciling with the Taliban is critical to making peace after nearly 10 years of war. Some human rights activists are concerned that reconciliation could lead to a return of the repressive conditions they suffered during Taliban rule.

“The context is the scar” once reflected Guatemalan Nobel Women's Laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum. Her enigmatic words have haunted me as I have listened to testimonies of women survivors of conflict in West and Central Africa over the past four years; testimonies that give witness to the truism that conflict does not end when warring factions agree to lay down their arms.

Supreme Court Justice Yoram Danziger ruled on Wednesday that Katsav, who was convicted of rape and sexual harassment, and sentenced to seven years in prison by the Tel Aviv District Court, is not a flight risk nor does he present a danger to the public.

The gang-rape of Mukhtaran Mai launched a nine-year court battle that concluded with a verdict by the Supreme Court of Pakistan acquitting all but one of the accused. Her case illustrates how both the formal and informal systems of justice share the same hostility to women who defy social norms and demand justice in cases of rape, says Ayesha khan.

Punjab province saw a 21 per cent leap in officially recorded crimes against women in February 2011, compared to January 2011, according to Free and Fair Election Network's (Fafen) collection of officially documented criminal cases in 69 districts across Pakistan.

These crimes against women include honour killings, sexual harassment, compelling a woman to marry, rape and offenses related to marriage law.