Congo is “the rape capital of the world,” according to Margot Wallstrom, the UN's Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict. Speaking to New Europe last September she had a sharp message for the warlords and bandits that were preying on civilians in Eastern Congo, “This time we'll get you. We do not accept this.”

A man and his son are driving in a car one day, when they are involved in a fatal accident. The man is killed instantly. The boy is badly injured, but he is still alive.

He is rushed to hospital, where it is decided he needs immediate surgery. The surgeon walks into the emergency room, looks at the boy, and says..."I can't operate on this boy, he is my son." How is this possible?

As the UN prepares to celebrate the centennial International Women's Day, its new agency, UN Women is planning to make important impacts on the way in which both member states and the UN itself help women worldwide.

The sexual assault on CBS news correspondent Lara Logan at the hands of 200 Egyptian men in Tahrir Square the night former president Hosni Mubarak resigned came as no surprise to any woman who has been to or lived in the country. Logan, who was in the heart of Tahrir Square in the midst of the frenzy of celebration, was sexually assaulted and beaten for almost 30 minutes.

The UN refugee agency says parts of Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan, resemble a war zone. On Thursday, security forces shot dead at least six women marching in support of Alassane Ouattara, witnesses say. Mr Ouattara is recognised by the UN as the winner of November's presidential election, but Laurent Gbagbo has refused to concede power.

The endless battle against extortion, drug smuggling, sexual abuse and gender based violence - crimes that have exposed the activities of our security forces along the borders of Liberia are nothing short of a stinging state of affairs. The more we think the situation has been minimized, the more it hits the roof.

Programs marking this year's International Women's Day celebration with the Global theme: ‘'Equal Access to Education, Training, Science and Technology and the Pathway to Decent Work of Women,” are expected to be graced in Liberia and the World over.

UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet today announced a new initiative to boost women's roles in conflict resolution.

Among the most prevalent Western stereotypes about Muslim countries are those concerning Muslim women: doe-eyed, veiled, and submissive, exotically silent, gauzy inhabitants of imagined harems, closeted behind rigid gender roles. So where were these women in Tunisia and Egypt?

Perhaps for the first time since inception of armed militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, the Kashmiri women broke silence over the continued violence in the state of which the women folk has been the prime victim.