In an historic move, the United Nations General Assembly voted unanimously today to create a new entity to accelerate progress in meeting the needs of women and girls worldwide.

As part of my security induction in Liberia I was struck by the emphasis on my personal safety as a woman. Among other restrictions, I'm not allowed to be out on foot alone between 7pm to 7am.

They don't beg for pity. At home they're boss. They wield a hammer by day and at night cradle their children. These are the women of northern Sri Lanka. Some 15 months after the conflict between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan authorities stopped, these women have become sort of superheroes. With their husbands lost in the fighting, war widows are taking charge of their families and their neighborhoods, too.

“On March 20, Kumari was accused of practicing witchcraft by the villagers, and was mercilessly beaten up and forced to eat her own excreta in public,” said the Asian Human Rights Commission in an urgent April 2009 appeal letter to Nepal's leading legislators. During the incident the local police did not come to Kumari's aide.

Both the United Nations and the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) must work together to prevent the recurrence of mass rapes which were recently perpetrated in the eastern part of DRC, UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon told reporters here Thursday.

Has the world become safer and more peaceful for women and girls in the past 10 years? Not so much, says former United Nations Security Council President Anwarul K. Chowdhury.

Catherine Ashton may have struck a blow for gender equality last year when she was appointed the European Union's foreign affairs chief, but she came under fire Wednesday for naming only seven women among 28 new diplomats for the international organization.

Greens lawmakers in the European Parliament dismissed Ashton's first batch of appointments to her fledgling diplomatic service as "an old boys club."

The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation has together with the EPLO-network consisting of over 70 non governmental organisations developed ten recommendations for the 10 years anniversary of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's message to the Conference on Ensuring Women's Participation in Peace and Security, delivered by Rachel Mayanja, Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, in Brussels, 9 September:

Two women are expected to bring a breath of fresh air to the International Court of Justice. Mrs Xue Hanqin from China and Mrs Joan Donoghue from the US replace Judge Shi Jiuyong and Judge Thomas Buergenthal who both resigned before their terms expired. The women come to an ICJ that has been predominantly the bastion of men.