(Goma) – M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are responsible for widespread war crimes, including summary executions, rapes, and forced recruitment. Thirty-three of those executed were young men and boys who tried to escape the rebels' ranks.

Representing a collective membership of 324 diverse rural women they have documented and shared a series of priorities they would like to be accounted for in the work of the Constitution Commission.

This is the case in the autonomous region of Bougainville in the east of the country, where disarmament remains elusive more than ten years after a civil war fought over resource exploitation.

“Guns are now being used in domestic violence and armed robberies, and to settle land issues,” said Helen Hakena, director of the Leitana Nehan Women's Development Agency in Bougainville.

Since 2009, when current President Andry Rajoelina ousted then-president Marc Ravalomanana with the army's support, Madagascar has faced serious economic and social instability. Against the backdrop of a poverty index of 76,5% where the majority of the Malagasy population lives below the poverty line, people have also endured poor governance, insecurity and violence.

The Pacific region has one of the highest documented rates of violence against women in the world, with as many as 69 per cent of women reporting having experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. Recent research in the region is stimulating new discussion on responses to the scourge.

The Women Situation Room WSR, with the theme "Peace in our Hands" will be officially launched by President Ernest Koroma on Friday September 21 by 10am at the Family Kingdom.

The Women Situation Room in Sierra Leone which is supported by the UN Women as a room that would comprise mainly of non-partisan female personalities who will sit, receive and analyze information before, during and after the November 17 elections.

World Water Week recently concluded in Stockholm with a special emphasis on the linkages between water and food security.

From the worst drought in 56 years in the United States Midwest, to the Karnataka's drought in India, to the protracted drought in the Sahel region of West Africa, we have also seen how in our globalised world the nexus between lack of water and food security in one corner of the world affects us all.

Some nonpartisan commentators finally recognize that current US foreign policy continues to escalate militarily as though on steroids. It has become evident that use of deadly force by a US-dominated NATO is not only outside the parameters of international and constitutional law, but also in some cases outside basic legal principles that have stood the test of time not only for decades, but for centuries.

Journalists often play a key role in disseminating information about human rights. As such, journalists are often threatened, attacked, and killed in an attempt to silence their voice.

Carla lost everything when she got pregnant at the age of 13: her first year of secondary school, her family, her boyfriend, and her happiness. She spent a year panhandling on the streets of the Nicaraguan capital before she was taken in by a shelter for young mothers.