Cambodia has become the 100th country to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said yesterday. The protocol allows people to submit complaints regarding rights violations to the UN committee on women's rights.

Government soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) have been accused of the New Year's Day mass rape in Fizi of over a dozen women. The coordinated attack also left many more injured and included the looting and burning of several town homes and businesses. A spokesperson for the military, Vianney Kazarama, has confirmed that eight soldiers have been arrested in connection with the attack.

SHORTLY after the birth of her sixth child, Mathilde went with her baby into the fields to collect the harvest. She saw two men approaching, wearing what she says was the uniform of the FDLR, a Rwandan militia. Fleeing them she ran into another man, who beat her head with a metal bar. She fell to the ground with her baby and lay still. Perhaps thinking he had murdered her, the man went away.

The new United Nations gender agency, known as U.N. Women, quietly opened on Jan. 3 without any publicity or announcements.

The superagency's midtown Manhattan headquarters remain unoccupied, said U.N. Women spokesperson Gretchen Luchsinger. Employees from the four U.N. gender agencies and offices that this new entity is uniting continue to work out of their own, scattered offices around the U.N. Secretariat building.

Nepal´s development partners have expressed readiness to continue their support to the peace building process in the days ahead as well.

The Commonwealth has announced its theme for Commonwealth Day 2011, which will highlight 'Women as Agents of Change'.

The Commonwealth will celebrate women whose work has made a positive difference to the lives of others, and will emphasise the Commonwealth message that by investing in women and girls we can accelerate social, economic and political progress in our member states.

Maria, 20, whispers as she recounts being raped by soldiers two days before Christmas.

“They entered our house in the night. One after the other they went over me, in front of my son and husband. I thought the pain would kill me,” she says. “The second time I died was when my husband refused to touch my body or the food I had prepared for him.”

In October 2001, the United Nations Security Council endorsed a resolution recognising that women's participation is essential to sustain efforts for peace in the world. But did the international body ever ask world's women leaders to take part in the decision-making process?

Activists associated with a global coalition of women's right activists say the answer is "no".

On the first day of the New Year, history was made when the newest agency of the United Nations, UN Women, became operational with a mandate to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women. The new agency launched pretty quietly with no major celebration, despite representing a major step in the right direction for the United Nations, which has not made enough progress to advance gender equality.

Nasawiya, a feminist collective in Lebanon about to celebrate its first anniversary, is seeking to change the discourse about women's issues in the country by creating a safe space for discussion and initiatives to educate Lebanese society about feminism.