Conditions for tens of thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) seeking refuge at a Catholic mission in the western Cote d'Ivoire town of Duékoué without access to food, water and shelter, are becoming increasingly untenable says IOM.

A priest at the mission informed IOM that the majority of the displaced haven't eaten for two days and that 80,000 food rations are urgently needed as are kitchen sets.

The President, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma, today, Tuesday, March 29, 2011 made two fundamental policy statements that will dramatically change the lives of women and the girl-child in Sierra Leone .

After leaving her husband behind to protect their home, Philomene Eholi* recently fled the Ivory Coast with her mother and 11 children.

The Deputy Chief Gender Monitor in the Gender Monitoring Office (GMO), Ramathan Barengayabo, was yesterday sworn in at the Supreme Court.

The swearing in, which was presided over by Chief Justice Aloysia Cyanzayire, also saw the swearing-in of Sam Kanyemera Kaka as a Commissioner in the National Human Rights Commission.

Cyanzayire urged Barengayabo to always strive to promote gender.

The FWCC's Gender Training of Trainers continued into its second and last week yesterday in Pacific Harbour with the training facilitated by world reknowned and Australia based Gender Trainer Dr Juliet Hunt.

Hunt's teaching is aimed at strengthening the skills of current gender trainers to:

As a number of Southern African countries prepare for local and national elections, the second annual Gender Justice and Local Government Summit held in Benoni, Johannesburg last week has called for an increase in women representation.

The summit also called for an end to gender-based violence.

United Nations human rights officials are providing technical and logistical support to military justice authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in the rape trial of General Jerôme Kakwavu, the highest ranking national army officer to be prosecuted for such crimes.

Former first lady Laura Bush says women in Afghanistan are creating their own economic opportunities and that entrepreneurship will be highlighted at a conference this week at the George W. Bush Institute in Dallas.

Traditionally in Yemen, women are literally not allowed to raise their voices. Even calling out in the street to attract someone's attention is considered unacceptable.

But in recent weeks, many women in the country have discovered their voice as they joined in the revolution that has not only swept the country but the region as well.

Some 14 months after Haiti's earthquake, activists say there is an ongoing epidemic of rape and gender-based violence (GBV) in the country's more than 1,000 squalid displaced persons camps, where nearly a million people are still awaiting permanent housing.