NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has appointed Norwegian diplomat Mari Skåre as his Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security.

The Federal Government will soon develop a roadmap for the full implementation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Zainab Maina has said.

She disclosed this in a statement signed by the ministry's spokesman, Saghir el Mohammed.

Three women from North Kivu share their stories of how CARE is helping survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in local communities and among IDPs.

United States Africa Command's Women, Peace and Security - Lessons Learned in Peacekeeping conference concluded August 24 at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center.

The three-day conference presented the nearly 40 attendees opportunities to increase awareness, facilitate dialogue, and develop practical lessons learned in regards to WPS considerations in peacekeeping operations.

Even as the armed insurgency rages on in Syria, miles away in Taksim Square, Istanbul, one women's group is making its voice heard through a peaceful demonstration in Turkey.

With war so close to home at its borders, spokeswoman for the group Women against War, says an important voice is suffering.

Leaders of 15 Pacific Island nations have pledged to remove barriers to women's economic empowerment, end violence against women and pave the way for their increased political representation, at the conclusion of the 43rd Pacific Islands Forum in Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, last week. The meeting was also attended by the Executive Director of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet.

Somalia has recently selected its parliament on Somali soil for the first time since the civil war of the late 1980s. This is a significant achievement since regional power brokers such as Ethiopia and Kenya, with the financial and logistical backing of the European Union, the United States and the United Nations, concocted Somali governments in neighbouring countries.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Fatou Bensouda announced on Tuesday that she has picked a veteran advocate of women's human rights to be her new special adviser on gender issues.

Brigid Inder, Executive Director of the Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice based in the Hague, will assume the new position to will replace Catherine MacKinnon who held this role since November 2008.

It is hard for most foreigners to understand the poor state of Haiti's infrastructure. Only 30% of the country's population has access to electricity. Haitian firefighters often lack basic supplies and local police routinely fail background checks. Due to the fact that Haiti's emergency phone number, 114, fails to work in most areas, alternatives were needed.

As Haiti continues to rebuild itself from the 2010 earthquake that left it in ruins, the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, took a different approach to its humanitarian efforts by facilitating the training of gender specialists from the country in an effort to strengthen their advocacy for gender rights.