Mi Kun Chan Non, a representative of the Mon Women's Organization, and one of the only two female observers of the Mon peace talks expressed her hope that the workshop will lead to “a stronger voice of women at the peace table through the sharing of collective experiences and network-building of women negotiators.”

Keen to defend the country's record because of candidacy for the Nov 12 election to HRC and hopes of qualifying for next GSP+ preferential trade programme, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar herself led the delegation to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva.

Speaking at the launch ceremony held at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat in Suva, Fiji, the Forum Chair, Hon. Puna said: “In the short history of our region, the women and girls of the Pacific have suffered as victims of armed conflicts and social unrest.”

Several of them are regular visitors to Peshawar High Court where their respective cases have long been pending.

They usually book a van in Swat to reach Peshawar and once in the provincial capital, they stay together for hearing into their cases.

For long Zimbabwean women have played second fiddle to their male counterparts in all spheres of life but a new constitution is set to change all this.

The new constitution contains the equality and non-discrimination clause, making it different from the current Lancaster house constitution, agreed in London in 1979 and amended 19 times since independence in 1980, where equality rights are not clearly stated.

The Chief Gender Monitor, Oda Gasinzigwa, has advised a visiting Kenyan delegation, to seek political leadership positions in their country as a way of prioritising gender equality.

Gasinzigwa made the remarks when she received officials from the National Gender and Equality Commission at her office yesterday.

The Senior Police Advisor to the Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASFCOM), Torbjorn Sande, has called on regional countries to emulate Rwanda by deploying more women in peacekeeping and conflict resolution missions.

He made the call while opening a two-week long peacekeeping course organised by the United Nations and EASFCOM at Gishari Police Training School in Rwamagana district.

TODAY is the twelfth anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, on women and peace and security.

In 1979, newly recruited policewoman, Asha Hassan Hussein, was the first female to ride a police motorcycle to patrol the streets of Mogadishu. Three decades later in a nation devastated by conflict, now a Captain, Asha specialises in tackling violence against women as head of the Somali Police Force's (SPF) Gender Based Violence Department.

About 70 per cent of Rwandan women deliver under the supervision of a professional medical practitioner, an official has said.

In 2000, only 10 per cent women delivered from proper health facilities, according to Dr Fidel Ngabo, the Coordinator of Maternal and Child Health in the Ministry of Health.