Uganda's Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Ms Rebecca Kadaga has called for a review of the resettlement process in northern Uganda and asked the government to invest more in post-war healing programmes.

"The Uganda government should not care more about constructing roads and classrooms in post-conflict areas but also think about the lives of post-conflict victims," Ms Rebecca Kadaga said.

A THREE-DAY workshop on the 2010 National Diagnostic Study and Think Tank on Women in Shared Decision Making will officially open tomorrow in Honiara.

The workshop will focus on the efforts of women leading up to the 2010 general elections and to analyse the barriers to women's representation in national and provincial governance.

Think Tank will also be linking these issues to the electoral and political governance reforms.

A special UN representative on Saturday condemned alleged rapes of women deported from Angola to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and demanded an investigation.

"I call upon the authorities of both countries to investigate these allegations," said Margot Wallstroem, the secretary-general's special representative for sexual violence in conflict.

A convention was held at the Istanbul Congress Center on Friday to evaluate the degree to which the internationally recognized Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, or CEDAW, has improved over the last 30 years.

Helen Samu Hakena exudes a serenity that belies her extraordinary energy and inner strength that she has devoted to the cause of justice, peace building and advocating for women's and human rights and the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325.

Last week, Euromed's Gender Equality Program (EGEP) published a report on gender equality and women's rights in Palestine. Despite optimistic movement forward, the report said that women's rights in Palestine have many hurdles that must be overcome.

A number of the hurdles to women's empowerment and gender equality, the report said, were a direct result of Israel's occupation of the territories.

A jeep screeches to a halt in front of the house, and with a slamming of doors, three Kurdish fighters emerge, two of them women. They stride into the villagers' house, and even though it is late and the family wants to sleep, their hosts bring out some fruit and tea.

On the tenth anniversary of a groundbreaking U.N. resolution, a conference on "Women and War" opened here Wednesday to discuss the disproportionate impact violent conflict has on women and possible ways to prevent these atrocities.

In politics, as they say, there are no permanent foes or friends but only interests. With the youth now having the largest bloc vote ahead of the 2011 general elections, parties are pulling all stops to court young voters at the expense of their erstwhile darlings - the women, writes Benon H. Oluka:-

Dozens of women were arrested en masse in Urfa during their march against gender-based violence and for the protection of women's rights.Women marchers had begun in Hakkari and were headed for Ankara, where they would meet up with the rest of their compatriots from Diyarbakır. Those in Hakkari had marched since Tuesday.