Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter says women have played a pivotal role in the uprisings in the Middle East, including Tunisia and Egypt, as well as the ongoing revolution in Libya that demanded change for democracy and equal rights.

Women from across West Africa on Wednesday pleaded with Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to double their efforts in restoring peace to Cote D'Ivoire immediately.

Beatrice's small voice comes from a corner of a big tent in Bahn camp that is crammed with at least 100 refugee women and girls. More than 100,000 Ivorians have fled to Liberia in recent months – to escape the violence tearing across their country and, like these women, from rape.

In 2004, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) adopted a zero-tolerance policy on trafficking in persons. The NATO policy calls for military and civilian personnel and contractors taking part in NATO-led operations to receive appropriate training on standards of their behavior during the operations.

Foreign ministers of 43 countries have agreed on a regional framework to fight human trafficking in the Asia-Pacific region.

The framework was a significant step even though it was non-binding, said Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, because it took into consideration the interests of the victims' countries of origin, transit and destination, the Jakarta Globe newspaper reported.

In a bid to address sexual crimes within the American defence forces more effectively, the United States Air Force will release a survey later this week in which it states that one in five women have been sexually assaulted since joining the military service.

The survey conducted by Gallup, interviewed 18,834 male and female airmen between July and August 2010 and had a response rate of nearly 19 percent.

Innocent Zahinda recently started his new job here as the last of six members to be appointed to the staff of Margot Wallstrom, the U.N. special representative for sexual violence in conflict.

Loznica town management senior official Ljubinka Gordanic is one of the many high-ranking women that heads to work each day in the west Serbian town.

In the country as a whole, women make up 51.4% of the population and just 2% occupy executive posts. In Loznica, out of the 176 town administration employees, 114 are women -- exceeding the European standard of women accounting for 30% of an administration.

War-torn countries trying to break repeated cycles of violence should closely involve women in building a more resilient, wealthy and secure society.

That's one of the lessons that can be learnt from nations making successful transitions from conflict to peace, according to this year's World Bank development report.

You can read about it in the Bible, and it remains true to our very day. Rape is an integral part of war, a favored tactic to demoralize an enemy army or population.