Government interference in the judiciary, corruption, intimidation of the media, discrimination and harassment of members of ethnic and sexual minorities, violence against women and child labor exploitation, all remained serious problems in Kosovo in 2010, states the report.

Ivoirians who have fled across the border to Liberia have reported incidents of rape, sexual abuse and murder to NGOs and human rights groups working in Grand Geddeh and Nimba counties.

Children in villages in Liberia's Nimba County have told field workers at NGO Equip that they were forced to watch as their mothers were raped and then killed. In several cases, the children themselves were then sexually assaulted.

As I read reports of upheaval in North Africa and watch with apprehension as tensions reach their boiling point in Côte d'Ivoire, it may seem hard to be optimistic about the state of the world -- but I am.

According to the adopted report rape and other forms of sexual violence against women should be classified as crimes in all EU countries, leading to automatic prosecution. The MEPs also call for an EU directive to combat gender-based violence.

The International Day of the Roma is celebrated on April 8. The day was officially declared in 1990, in honour of the first major international meeting of Romani representatives, 7-12 of April, 1971 in London. On the occasion of this day, a session of the Commitee for Gender Equality was held in the Serbian Parliament and was attended by members of several Roma associations. The topic of the meeting was the position of Roma women in Serbia.

In her first official visit to the United States capital as Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, the newly established UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, Ms. Michelle Bachelet called on senior US leaders to continue to advance women's rights and leadership worldwide, including in transitions in the Middle-East and North Africa.

IOM staff in the western Ivoirian town of Duékoué have completed the registration of more than 27,500 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have sought refuge in and around the Salesian Roman Catholic mission.

News that the U.S. may negotiate with the Taliban to end the war in Afghanistan raises many questions, the most important of which is, should we, or shouldn't we? That question has generated a small cyberspace library of its own in recent weeks, with the consensus so far in favor. It is widely believed that there are at least informal official talks about talks going on behind closed doors. But should we harbor any continuing doubts?

CARE is scaling up our response to help people affected by the post-election violence in Côte d'Ivoire that has besieged the country for months.

Côte d'Ivoire has been in the grip of a political crisis since a disputed election between Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara last year. Despite reports that the crisis might be coming to an end, fighting continues.

The raw courage demonstrated by Eman al-Obeidy in persisting in telling her story of alleged repeated gang rape and torture in Libya is helping to change the dialogue in Libya and the Middle East about the use of sexual violence as a weapon of repression.