Amnesty calls for the immediate release of Zhila Bani-Yaghoub

The Iranian authorities must release prisoner of conscience Zhila Bani-Yaghoub, an award-winning journalist and women's rights activist held solely for exercising her right to freedom of expression, Amnesty International said.

Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi issued a letter to the United Nations Women Executive Director, Michelle Bachelet, last Friday calling for an investigation into women's rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Prompted by recent bans on women's education, the letter outlines an increasingly deteriorating situation for women's rights and women's rights defenders in Iran.

A new Lebanon based human rights and equality initiative is now partnering with men to reach the goal as advocates for equality of the sexes in the Middle East region and beyond.

The elections taking place across Africa this year present an opportunity for a rising tide of women to take political office. An enouraging precedent was set a few weeks ago, when the proportion of women in Senegal's parliament swelled from 22% to 43%. But without action to tackle the barriers that keep women out of power, the great wave of equality may amount to no more than a trickle.

(WNN/PI) Santa Domingo, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: With Dominican Republic's national legislation against violence in place, as well as the international laws on human rights, it is clear that the duty to exercise due diligence to prevent, prosecute and punish violence against women should exist. But very little real protection exists for women in reality as many continue to suffer violence on a daily basis as the majority of perpetr

Occupied West Bank, Aug 16 2012 (IPS) - After the brutal murder of a Palestinian woman in late July in a busy Bethlehem marketplace, local human rights groups are pushing for stronger reforms to stem violence against women in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

From 6 to 7 September, UN Women and the Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice are bringing together the Chief Prosecutors and key staff of international courts based in The Hague, together with gender justice experts, states parties, academics, donors and women living in armed conflict situations to advance and strengthen international justice including accountability for sexual and gender-based violence.

Women in Israel have very different views on what the basic threats against their security are, depending on factors as ethnicity, health status and socio-economic conditions. That is one of the major findings in the Israeli Women's Security Index, a survey based on interviews made with more than 700 women, both Jewish and Palestinian, living in the country.

The latest ICTJ Program Report explores transitional justice issues in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and charts our work in this important and dynamic region.

Claudio Cordone, ICTJ's program director covering the MENA region, discusses individual country scenarios, prospects for transitional justice processes and explains ICTJ's involvement and impact.

The Ethiopian military responded to an April 2012 attack on a large commercial farm in Gambella region with arbitrary arrests, rape, and other abuses against scores of local villagers. Forced displacement, inadequate resources, and other abuses against Gambella's population persist in the second year of the government's “villagization” program.