This weekend I was invited to speak about women's issues at the Model UN taking place here in Washington. I have to say, though there has been unprecedented attention to women's issues over the past few years, I struggled to present an optimistic picture given a number of unsettling developments.

A pair of Iranian dissidents — a jailed human rights lawyer and a banned filmmaker -- were named winners Friday of the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov Prize.

The award went jointly to Nasrin Sotoudeh, an attorney who has represented political activists and others in Iran, and to Jafar Panahi, an internationally acclaimed director now banned from movie-making.

NATO and its partners are taking concerted action to support implemention of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325, which was adopted in October 2000. UNSCR 1325 recognizes the disproportionate impact that war and conflicts have on women and children, and highlights the fact that women have been historically left out of peace processes and stabilization efforts.

With today's challenges, UN peacekeepers continue to play an essential role in furthering global peace and stability. Supporting these efforts is the United States' Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI). GPOI has worked tirelessly to build the peacekeeping capacity of countries currently contributing or preparing to contribute forces to global peacekeeping operations.

The Security Council has called on the international community to give women's civil society organizations a prominent role in the negotiation, planning and implementation of peace processes and post-conflict development programmes.

“The Security Council takes note of the important role that civil society, including women's organizations, can play in the prevention and resolution of armed conflict, peacebuilding and post-conflict situations,” Ambassador Gert Rosenthal of Guatemala, which held the rotating Council presidency for October, said in a statement read out on behalf of the 15-member body on Wednesday.

IIDA Women's Development Organization today launched a policy brief report detailing how Somali women's two decades of struggles have been crystalized in the Provisional Constitution.

If you walked past the Roger Smith Hotel on Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York, you would have had a window into the work and world of 1325 activists, on the eve of October 31st, which 12 years ago was the day when the UN Security Council adopted the groundbreaking resolution on Women, Peace and Security.

Ghana on Wednesday launched a National Action Plan for the implementation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (GHANAP 1325).

More than one in three men surveyed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's war-torn east admits committing sexual assault, and three in four believe that a woman who "does not dress decently is asking to be raped", researchers have found.