A parliamentary select committee has begun compiling comments on a new constitution, gathered at 4,000 meetings held across Zimbabwe over the past three months. Gender activists are confident that women's views have been expressed; it will be up to the eventual drafters of the new constitution to ensure they are reflected.

An estimated half a million women die each year following complications during pregnancy and childbirth, a report launched in September 2010 showed.

As part of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's two-week Asia-Pacific tour, Clinton stopped in Papua New Guinea (PNG) on Wednesday to "promot[e] human rights and women's empowerment in a South Pacific nation suffering from an epidemic of rape and police brutality," the Associated Press reports (Lee, 11/3).

The perception that women are only ever victims of conflict ignores the large numbers of female combatants, which can result in their exclusion from disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programmes.

Despite the little socio-economic changes brought about by the unity government after a decade of political and economic instability, a latest World Economic Forum (WEF) report showed that Zimbabwe moved merely three places up the Global Gender Gap Index to 92nd position in 2010, from 95th last year.

The Philippines on Friday supported adoption of two Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) declarations—Enhancement of Welfare and Development of Asean Women and Children and Human Resources and Skills Development for Economic Recovery and Sustainable Growth.

When NATO unveils its new doctrine later this month, it will include a revamped nuclear policy, a section on cyberwar and fresh thinking on how to engage Russia.

But will it follow a little-noticed recommendation (from an expert group led by Madeleine Albright, a former U.S. secretary of state) to give women greater say in matters of war and peace?

Ten Nepalese women composed the first exclusively female team that first scaled Mount Everest on May 23, 2008. In doing so, they accomplished a unique feat. Equally significant was the message this historic act embodied for all women in Nepal: "There is no peak in the world that women cannot conquer."

Ten years ago, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security.

In short, “1325” (as the international law is known among advocates) seeks to elevate the decision-making of women in war zones and protect women during armed conflict.