In Namibia, gender-based violence (GBV) has traditionally been regarded as a private matter and shrouded in a culture of silence. As a result, cases of GBV are under-reported because of shame, stigma and fear of retribution.
Unfortunately, the victims of GBV are mostly women and children.

Uzbekistan should "translate words into practice" to improve its human rights situation, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday during a brief visit to Tashkent.

The US is ready to "support and assist in that effort", Clinton added while meeting President Islam Karimov on Thursday during a visit to the ex-Soviet state that lasted only a few hours.

The gendered status of the HIV and AIDS pandemic is obvious when we look at countless statistics showing that more women than men are infected - and many more women than men bear the brunt of caring for those infected.

The link between gender-based violence and HIV and AIDS in southern Africa is also quite clear.

After helping resettle Cambodian immigrants in the United States and earning a master's degree in social work from the University of California at Berkeley, Mu Sochua returned to Southeast Asia in 1981 to work with the 300,000 Cambodian refugees living in camps along the Thai border.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is visiting Uzbekistan today as part of her short Central Asian tour, and her actions there will be watched probably more closely than anywhere else on her trip. The U.S. is walking a tightrope in Uzbekistan, relying on the country heavily for its role as a transport hub for military cargo to Afghanistan but wary of embracing a government with one of the worst human rights records on the planet.

UN Secretary-general Ban Ki- moon is in Central Asia following recent unrest in the region to discuss empowerment of women and the UN's contribution to building stability and peace with regional leaders, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said here on Tuesday.

Working women have added their voices to the clamor for the passage of the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill, amid strong opposition from the Catholic Church.

In a press release, the Partido ng Manggagawa said the bill is “critical given the impact of the global financial crisis on working people and the poor, especially women.”

Publishing a finding on sexual violence during the conflict period, Advocacy Forum and International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) have urged the government authorities to formulate programmes and policies to improve the conditions of conflict-hit women in Nepal.

Tasha Ncube* has no kind words for the police. Early last month, the 31-year-old mother of two was beaten several times by her husband over what she says were small arguments. This was the first time in a marriage that has gone for years without any such occurrence.

As World AIDS Day is commemorated across the globe today, health officials in Indonesia are warning of a worrying increase in the number of young women contracting the virus, particularly through sexual violence.

In 1989, women accounted for just 2.5 percent of all people living with HIV/AIDS in the country, according to the National Commission on AIDS (KPAN). By 2009, however, they made up 25.5 percent of cases.