“In the garrison they had rooms where they would rape us; sometimes there were three, four or five soldiers,” Rosa Pérez*, one of the women used by the Guatemalan army as a sex slave during this country's civil war, testified in court.

Gathered at the Ford Foundation in New York Monday, international luminaries, family planning experts and women's rights activists repeatedly expressed a common sentiment: “I cannot believe that we are still having this discussion today.”

They were there to mark the launch of a new 26-member high-level task force to galvanise support behind the goals of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).

WE Act 1325 wishes to be counted among the many civil society organizations and other stakeholders who celebrate the breakthrough in the peace negotiations between the GPH and MILF. We commend the Aquino administration for the political will it demonstrated, and thank the members of the negotiating panels for having forged the framework agreement which is up for signing a week from now.

Late last year, the United Nations declared Oct. 11 the International Day of the Girl. Celebrated for the first time this month, the occasion aims to highlight the challenges girls face around the world to gain access to education and other basic rights, and empower them to advocate on their own behalf.

Ten. Eleven. Twelve. Those are the ages that for many girls, the world becomes a much more dangerous place.

For the 250 million adolescent girls in poor countries, the world often becomes smaller as they approach puberty.

One in seven girls is married by age 15. Few, if any child brides have a choice about who they marry or when.

From high-level public figures to grassroots activists, the winners include a survivor of a rocket-propelled grenade attack who now helps women with disabilities in Afghanistan, reformers who push for women's place at peace talks, advocates for human rights, and supporters of women's entrepreneurship to fight poverty. They were selected from 100 nominations through an online voting campaign that included more than 55,000 voters worldwide.

Be prepared. International organizations, policymakers, politicians, armed groups, and researchers will be analyzing the Mindanao peace process in detail. They'll be anxious to extract lessons that could be relevant to making peace in Burma (Myanmar), Kashmir, Colombia, the Caucasus and elsewhere. Maybe also Afghanistan.

To this end, the judges awarded the Peace Prize jointly to three women, recognizing their "non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work".

Concluding a four-day visit to Mali, a top United Nations human rights official today cited ongoing abuses in the northern part of the country, and highlighted the plight of women, whose rights have been particularly restricted.

A Guideline for the Development and Implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, was on Tuesday launched with the hope it would deepen women's contributions in peace-building efforts.