A new Senate committee urges the government to put women's rights in Afghanistan at the top of its priority list for the post-2011 mission.

A Palestinian woman being held in prison by the Israelis has entered the fifteenth day of a hunger strike. Linan Abu Ghalma, 28, from Nablus in the occupied West Bank was abducted from her home by the Israeli occupation forces in July at the same time as her sister. It is reported that her health is deteriorating badly.

Over the next five years, more than a quarter of a million Congolese will benefit from assistance aimed at preventing sexual and gender-based violence and assisting survivors thanks to three programs funded by the United States through the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Algeria's National Consultative Committee on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (CNCPPDH) held a conference in Algiers on Thursday (December 9th) on ways to implement civil rights legislation and enhance the role of women in politics.

At 4am, Abdul Malek and his pregnant wife were in a rented car heading to Boost Hospital in Lashkargah, capital of southern Helmand Province.

The couple decided to leave their home in the Sangeen District as early as possible to avoid roadblocks by pro-government forces or being seen by anti-government forces.

Good gender representation in the Namibian Defence Force (NDF) offers opportunity to women to empower themselves through a career in the military, said Defence Minister Charles Namoloh at Ondangwa on Thursday.

As calls for an early election grow louder, the country's civic society groups want government to launch a countrywide investigation into politically motivated rape cases against women.

What's the ugliest side of Islam? Maybe it's the Somali Muslim militias that engage in atrocities like the execution of a 13-year-old girl named Aisha Ibrahim. Three men raped Aisha, and when she reported the crime she was charged with illicit sex, half-buried in the ground before a crowd of 1,000 and then stoned to death.

According to statistics, roughly 5.5 million unsafe abortions are performed annually in Africa and the deaths from the dangerous exercise account for approximately 14 per cent of all maternal deaths in the region.

Director of the African Centre for Gender and Social Development at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Ms. Thokozile Ruzvidzo, made the statement recently quoting World Health Organisation (WHO) data.

Nairobi/Khartoum - A human rights watchdog has called on Sudan to end the practice of lashing and refrain from arresting peaceful protestors, after over 44 activists were arrested at a demonstration in Khartoum.