Activist groups called on African government officials to ban child marriage amid President Barack Obama's first U.S.-Africa summit Tuesday.

“Child marriage is a complex human rights issue. It violates myriad women's rights,” said Amanda Klasing, a women's rights researcher for Human Rights Watch, during a discussion at United Nations Foundation on Tuesday hosted by the International Center for Research on Women.

“EMPOWERMENT to women around our region is something I feel is very important because we have the lowest rate of female representation at the political decision making tables of the world. So that is concern for me and am sure it is concern for many people around the world.”

Electoral commissioner of Samoa Papali'i Malietau Malietoa highlighted in a press conference on Wednesday.

Too often the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is reduced to ‘the rape capital of the world,' a tragic title that has worn out its welcome. We see DRC as the world's capital of survivors, of courageous women whose bodies – and humanity – have come under attack, but who carry remarkable hope. And their hope deserves not only our attention, but our action.

The Sadc Protocol on Gender and Development is a perfect instrument that needs to implemented by all member States to ensure the advancement of women in the region.

That there is no gender equality in most of Sadc countries is not a secret, considering that many countries are taking measures in a bid to address the situation.

Minister in the Presidency responsible for Women, Susan Shabangu has launched the 2014 National Women's Month programme, which will see the building of almost 2 000 houses in each province.

Speaking during the launch of Women's Month on Thursday, Minister Shabangu announced that the Department of Human Settlements will on 4 August 2014 launch its annual Women's Built Project, where 1 956 houses will be built in each province.

Since the Seneca Falls Convention launched the women's rights movement in the United States 166 years ago, wise men have aided women in their pursuit of legal and economic inclusion.

Africa will celebrate on 31 July the African Women?s Day, which was declared by the African Union after the first Pan-African Women's Conference in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1962.

This important date honours the achievements of all African women, and offers a space to reflect on progress towards the recognition of women's rights and gender equality at the political, economic and social level in all the countries of Africa.

April, Syeda Ghazala made headlines in Pakistan, becoming the first female to head a major police station in restive Karachi.

For years women in Mogadishu have been on the side-lines in the fight against al-Shabaab, but more recently they have begun to play a more active role by providing critical information about suspicious activity and people to security agencies, officials told Sabahi.

The Convention on the Elimination of Violence against Women is still missing, but progress on other dimensions of this issue has taken place rapidly since the early 1990s and also as part of implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. The UN Security Council has expressed its views strongly and effectively on this issue for the first time in its history.