Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo should immediately arrest an armed group leader running for political office who is wanted for crimes against humanity, including mass rape, Human Rights Watch said today. A Mai Mai militia leader, Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, is running as a candidate for the National Assembly in elections scheduled for November 28, 2011.

The first United Nations (U.N.) Security Council resolution to specifically address women's contributions to conflict prevention and sustainable peace was passed just 11 years ago, on Oct. 31, 2000. Today, activists continue to make the annual pilgrimage to U.N. headquarters in New York for the open debate on Resolution 1325, with the mission of "taking women beyond 1325" and taking part in collaboration, advocacy and action.

As the Arab Spring moves through the Arab Autumn towards winter, there is hope but also anxiety and apprehension about the future. The elections in Tunisia — with a record 90 per cent turnout — have triggered the hope that countries like Egypt and Yemen and now Libya, will also witness a peaceful transition to a democracy they have never known. But the grounds for apprehension are abundant.

As Tunisians await final results in their national election, the first in a country remade by the Arab Spring, it's worth paying particular attention to the outcome for women there. One hopes it leads reformers in other Arab states to understand that it will be impossible to advance their societies if half of the population is held back.

Ten civil society groups from Fiji, the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, will receive small grants between US$2500 and US$10,000 in 2011 to continue peace building efforts in the Pacific region.

In the African context, traditional leadership is a preserve of males while women are restricted to the kitchen and the house chores. It is not by design that women find themselves in such marginalized areas of everyday lives but the African society has socialised them into believing that they are subordinated to their male counterparts.

Eleven years since its adoption, once again, the international community will be debating progress towards implementing a UN commitment to ensure that women are included in peace deals.

The United Nations Security Council began Thursday debating on the need for women to have a greater involvement in achieving peace and security.

Women are the worst sufferers of conflict. Study after study has shown this.

Before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left the podium at the International Conference on Afghanistan in London on 28 January 2010, she pointed to four women wrapped in green scarves and clustered together in the corner of the crowded press conference room and asked them to stand up.