At least 5 000 women have been raped this year in the Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern province of North Kivu as a new rebellion has sown fresh unrest in the conflict-prone region, a local hospital said on Thursday.

The news that the Taliban gunned down a schoolgirl last week shocked the world, but not a young woman named Noorjahan Akbar. The 21-year-old Akbar has been leading a fight for women's rights in Afghanistan—and she's quite familiar with seeing women in her region get targeted for “crimes” such as seeking an education, refusing a forced marriage, or fleeing an abusive husband.

The Resolution 1325 is the first resolution ever passed by the UN Security Council which laid the foundation for equal participation by women in the maintenance and promotion of peace and security, conflict preventions, peace negotiations, peacekeeping, operations, humanitarian assistance and post conflict reconstruction.

Many were randomly scattered by Tamil Tiger rebels in the final months before their defeat. Both the rebels and the army made extensive use of Pakistani-made P4 mines, which can take the foot off someone unfortunate enough to step on them.

But now efforts are under way to rid the country of this scourge once and for all.

At sunrise 12 women deminers laugh and joke as they prepare for work.

Outgoing head of the ICRC delegation in Afghanistan, Reto Stocker, a seven-year veteran of Afghan aid efforts, said as the NATO-led war against the Taliban dragged into a twelfth year, the outlook for ordinary Afghans was increasingly bleak.

"Since I arrived here in 2006, local armed groups have proliferated. Civilians have been caught between not just one, but multiple front lines," Stocker told journalists in Kabul.

“While both the organisations sent in our full documents to the Commission on the 10th, as per the deadline for written documents, due to time constraints, we chose to highlight a few of the main points in our oral presentation today,” said FWCC Coordinator Shamima Ali.

Week after week, the Sunday papers lead with stomach-turning stories of misspending of taxpayers' money, corruption and political intrigues. But if there is one thing that can terrify the middle-class, it's a headline story that the highly respected Public Protector is under attack. But Thuli Madonsela is no shrinking violet, and she knows exactly how to defend her title as South Africa's anti-corruption super-heroine.

While presiding over a meeting of civil society organisations' representatives on Thursday, NCWS Chairperson Anis Haroon urged people from all walks of life and age groups to join their counterparts across the globe by launching the campaign in Karachi on Dec 2.

Police statistics and assessments by non-government organisations (NGOs) working to establish women's rights show that there is in an increasing trend in VAW.

This information was shared at a ‘group discussion on women police' which was organised by a non-governmental organization, Individualland Pakistan (ILP), in collaboration with Royal Norwegian Embassy on Tuesday.

The NGO said fear and lack of awareness discouraged women complainants from visiting police stations in the cities like Karachi and Peshawar.