Armed with AK-47s and a unique insight, female soldiers may be the future of United Nations peace building.

The 2011 International Women's Day will be celebrated worldwide on March 8. Yet as the day approaches, Ugandan women find themselves confronting the same age-old question: Is there cause to celebrate the day at all?

Proscovia Nakalembe has been so gripped by the election fever sweeping Uganda since the turn of the year that she's momentarily taken aback when asked about her plans for the Women's Day that's fast-approaching.

Human rights violations including sexual violence and unlawful killings are being perpetrated by forces loyal to both Côte d'Ivoire's outgoing President Laurent Gbagbo and internationally recognized incumbent Alassane Ouattara, an Amnesty International investigation has revealed.

Amidst the demands for democratic change across the Middle East and North Africa, the United States is now confronted with important questions demanding both introspection and foresight. Where our relationships with each of these nations facing revolution vary to great degrees, there is one particular relationship that I wish to draw attention to from the human rights perspective.

Women and girls remain exposed to abusive conditions, says Amnesty.

Indonesian domestic workers, the vast majority of them women and girls, will remain vulnerable to exploitation and abuse unless the country's parliament enacts a Domestic Workers' Law, Amnesty International said today.

Currently, domestic workers do not benefit from many of the legal protections granted to other workers under Indonesian law.

The unstable security situation in Iraq already made women particularly vulnerable. As violence spread across the country, women's mobility and access to the public sphere was dramatically reduced. Still, Iraqi women are doing their best to hold their own. Will opportunities created by and for women be allowed to continue?

More than 50 men employees of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Field Office-7 in Cebu City formed themselves into ‘Men Oppose to Violence Against Women Everywhere' (MOVE) DSWD-7 Chapter and distributed over a hundred stickers and flyers on anti-violence against women to public commuters at the North and South bus terminals in Mandaue and Cebu cities, respectively.

In Pakistan, Salman Taseer's assassination in early January has blown the lid off the seething cauldron that has been bubbling in Pakistan for the last several years: the divide between Pakistan's extremist forces and its minority liberal community is now so wide that it seems nothing can bridge the gap anymore. Worse, the extremists greatly outnumber the liberals, endangering whatever advances have been made in the Pakistani society.

On 14 February 2011, the Serbian daily newspaper Danas published an article stigmatising human rights defender Ms Aida Ćorović. Aida Ćorović is a well known human rights figure in Sandzak and director of the citizens' organisation “Urban-In”. She works in support of women's rights and secularism in State institutions and against religious fundamentalism.

Tawakkol Karman sat in front of her laptop, her Facebook page open, planning the next youth demonstration. Nearby were framed photos of her idols: the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. These days, though, Karman is most inspired by her peers. “Look at Egypt,” she said with pride. “We will win.”