Delegates from Asian countries gathered in Jakarta on Wednesday to discuss how best to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security.

Foreign Minister Urmas Paet spoke at the UN General Assembly conference dedicated to conflict zones and alleviating the situations of the women in them. Speaking at the conference along with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Finnish Minister Elisabet Rehn, and many other ministers, Paet emphasised that in order to improve the situation of women in conflict zones, increased attention and support will be required first.

On the International Day of Peace, the United Nations Development fund for Woman (UNIFEM) organized a press conference at Hotel Betsy on September 21. The Belgian Senator Madam Dominique Tilmans along with the representatives of the Armenian and Azerbaijan woman NGOs discussed ways of peacefully resolving the Karabakh conflict.

The contributions that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) can make in the areas of gender equality and humanitarian aid were the focus of talks between the agency's chief and top world body officials.

Mass rape during armed conflict may account for several thousand new cases of HIV per year in sub-Saharan Africa, according to an article in the journal AIDS.

Researchers drew this conclusion after analysing data from seven conflict-affected countries with high HIV prevalence: Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda.

Lalitha* was 23, from Petiva Pullumalai, deep in Sri Lanka's eastern interior, when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) came for her.

At the time, each family living under LTTE control was required to provide a child to the separatist forces fighting for an independent Tamil homeland for three decades. Lalitha joined up to spare her younger sister.

Layli Miller-Muro wasn't even out of law school before she helped litigate a case that revolutionized asylum law in the United States.

The case involved Fauziya Kassindja, a 17-year-old girl who fled the West African country of Togo to avoid a tribal practice known as female genital mutilation.

A United Nations report about to be released on human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 1993-2003 lists rape among the abuses committed. Sexual violence against women shatters victims' relationships with their families and society. Many seek refuge abroad, including in Switzerland.

Rape as a weapon of war continues to take a heavy toll on women's lives in today's conflicts around the world. A high proportion of the women who are victims of rape end up infected with sexually transmitted diseases and infections, including HIV. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is experiencing an almost perpetual state of internal strife and lacks medicines and basic health-care services, particularly in rural areas.

A UN expert pushed Monday for the prosecution of rebel leaders for the mass rape of civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, saying urgent action was needed "before the trail goes cold."

Margot Wallstrom, UN special representative on the prevention of sexual violence in conflict, singled out the rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and the Mai-Mai militia.