The 9th of February, 1996. That was a Friday evening I will never forget. When I heard the news of the Canary Wharf bombing, the breakdown in the IRA ceasefire, I stopped everything. With the support of Women Together members I started to help organise a vigil to take place outside City Hall, Belfast, at 12 noon the following Monday.

JUBA, 13 May 2014 (IRIN) - Sexual and gender-based violence might not be a new phenomenon in South Sudan, but the current crisis and the near absence of protection for civilians has exacerbated it, analysts say.

The UN-backed war crimes court in Cambodia has been asked to examine a range of allegations covering the Khmer Rouge's period in power, including the regime's use of sexual violence.

Around two million people are believed to have died during the Khmer Rouge's rule during the late 1970s, most from execution, starvation, disease and overwork.

May 13, 2014 (JUBA) – The leaders of a South Sudanese women's group have called on the government and rebels to cease hostilities and begin to implement the security deal signed by both parties on 9 May.

BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – In Sri Lanka, formerly friendly neighbours threatened two women with rape after discovering they were a lesbian couple. In the Philippines, several men publicly beat up a transgender woman, cut her hair and threatened her with a gun because “they were offended by her wearing a dress”.

Nepal recently hosted a "Conference on democracy and inclusive good governance for gender equality and sustainable development in South Asia" in capital Kathmandu. The programme opened with the SAARC anthem, a song penned by Kathmandu-based Indian diplomat Abhay Kumar.

NEW DELHI (WOMENSENEWS)--The alleged gang rape of a 32-year-old Muslim woman, associated with the predominantly Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party, by members of her own community last month reportedly as punishment for her political affiliation drew international and national attention, and safety activists are waiting to learn more.

Women may get 79 or 14 percent of the total seats in the House of Representatives following April's legislative election; a figure that was lower than the historic high of 18 percent or 103 seats in the 2009 election, researchers said Monday.

This is despite more women candidates, accounting for 37 percent or 2,467 of the total 6,619 candidates, contesting the 560 House seats.

The Western Bahr el Ghazal State government in collaboration with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan organized a workshop on the role of women in peace-building and conflict resolution on Thursday.

Naema Abbas, a women's activist in Wau, told Radio Tamazuj that about ten women's organizations in the state participated in the workshop organized by UNMISS.

Yangon ( AsiaNews) - The current political initiatives "based on religion", including the proposal for the amendment of the law on mixed marriages, "are not in agreement with the goals of peaceful coexistence between all faiths". At the same time, they do not contribute to the fight against "extremist violence and conflict" but only serve to "distract the public in view of the 2015 elections".