Improving women's access to jobs and economic opportunity could significantly boost worker productivity in the Philippines and the rest of the East Asia and the Pacific region by as much as 18 percent.

ZANU PF and the two main MDC parties have agreed controversial new plans to establish a bloated Parliament with close to 400 legislators.

The measures are contained in a new draft constitution. The parties resolved to retain the 210 parliamentary seats, 88 Senate seats and add a further 60 seats for female lawmakers.
Under the new arrangement, Parliament will now have 368 lawmakers in both the Lower and Upper Houses.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Zainab Hawa Bangura, currently the Minister of Health and Sanitation of Sierra Leone, as his new Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict.

She will replace Margot Wallström, a Swedish politician with a long history of defending women's rights, who had served in the position since it was created two years ago.

A group of women claiming to be from the Syrian city of Homs announced this week the formation of the first exclusively female armed organization to fight against the Syrian regime.

“We are a group of women from Homs and we have formed the Banat al-Walid battalion,” announced a member of the group in a video posted on the Internet Monday.

Last Sunday, June 17, marked the first anniversary of the Saudi Women2Drive campaign. Activists had planned another driving demonstration to mark the anniversary, calling on Saudi women with international driver's licenses to take to the roads and to flood the traffic department with applications.

Bosnia's war crimes court convicted four former Bosnian Serb soldiers on Friday of participating in the execution of hundreds of Srebrenica Muslims during the country's 1992-95 conflict and sentenced them to a total of 142 years in prison.

About 800 captured Muslim Bosniaks were shot and killed at Branjevo military farm, near Srebrenica.

What does birth control have anything to do with reducing global emissions?

Everything, women around the world would say, because they know how closely linked reproductive health is to issues ranging from poverty and food security to climate change and beyond. This message was precisely what female leaders brought to the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development, but not many were listening, least of all the Vatican.

The Security Council today strongly condemned the recent mutiny by renegade soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as well as the killing and abuse of civilians, mostly women and children, by armed groups operating in the eastern part of the country.

Earlier this morning I protested along with the Democratic Alliance Women's Network (DAWN) outside the Roodepoort Magistrates Court. Our protest coincided with the start of the trial of the four boys and three men who are accused of the brutal gang-rape of a mentally disabled girl in Soweto.

A small garage in Chitungwiza has become a centre of hope and rejuvenation for victims and perpetrators of gender based violence.

Local Councillor Clara Makwara established the Instant Truth and Justice Forum from her home in 2010. At that time she had zero budget – and a big heart. Her aim: to reduce GBV in her community by at least 50% by 2015.