Arab women possess the DNA of social change..

When the Egyptian poet Ahmed Shawki declared that “the mother is a school; empowering her is nation building,” he expressed a dream: if women were offered the social and economic opportunities they deserve, they would build strong nations.

Do poets today provoke the conscience of society as they did in the past?

Women's empowerment can not simply be defined in one way, and can take on many different shapes and forms. A simple definition could be: the harnessing of a womans ability to transform her community, society and economy through development and to equip other women to be able to fully participate in the decisions that directly impact their lives.

Nobel Prize nominee Mu Sochua, an advocate for rule of law and rights for women in Cambodia, is a remarkable study in contrasts.

Nursing in war and peace

KARIONGO VILLAGE, Angola, 15 November 2010 – Nurse Judith Abrantes has a warm and kindly face, and a tough temperament. The women who jostle in the queue of her paediatric clinic can expect care and understanding, but the ones who push to the front get a stern telling-off

The first meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum Reference Group to Address Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) was held on 16 November 2010 at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat in Suva.

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The invasion of Iraq heralded promises of freedom from tyranny and equal rights for the women of Iraq. But three years on, the reality of everyday life for women inside Iraq is a different story.

To make this film, two Iraqi women risk their lives to spend three months travelling all over the country with a camera to record the lives and experiences of women they meet.

The plan to resolve the conflict in the Kivu by emphasising a military solution is failing. Two years after the rapprochement between Congolese President Joseph Kabila and his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, government soldiers are still battling militias for control of land and mines. Neither side has the strength to win, but both have the resources to prolong the fighting indefinitely.

UNICEF welcomes the adoption by the United Nations Security Council of a resolution calling for increased protection from sexual violence for women and children in conflict countries. Sexual violence is a horrific violation of human rights and a despicable weapon of war used against women and children.