Globally, the media have embraced the understanding that freedom of expression and of opinion carries duties and obligations. This was especially well learnt within cultures that suffered from racial vilification and oppression. It has equally been the case in all countries as they combat the persistence of gender-based violence and abuse.

They are trained in sophisticated combat tactics and weaponry, crowd and mob control, counter-insurgency. They patrol the streets of the Liberian capital, expected to keep the peace after years of war.

The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Serry, received a group of 20 women leaders and peace activists in Gaza, for a consultation on their concerns regarding peace and security in the Gaza Strip. The meeting was the last of a series of Global Open Days on Women and Peace, held around the world in the context of the 10th anniversary of Security Council Resolution (SCR) 1325.

Education provided an ‘initial window of opportunity' for women, says Haifa Al Kaylani, the founder and chairman of the Arab International Women's Forum (AIWF).

On a cold winter day, Iranian women's rights activist and journalist Fariba Davoodi Mohajer made an about-face: Having worn the hijab for 25 years, she decided to cast her head scarf into the sea. That was in 2006. But she still remembers every detail of that day in Ireland: how she walked along the seaport in Dublin for several hours pondering the act; how she watched as her head scarf was pulled away by the waves.

Women's rights activists are trying to push CEDAW, the major U.N. women's rights treaty, out of a Senate committee where it's been stuck for decades and up for a vote on ratification. "Call Senator John Kerry," urges U.S. lawmaker Caroline Maloney.

The new UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women will pump the bulk of its projected US$500 million annual budget into programming to directly benefit the world's most vulnerable women, but this unprecedented boost may still leave the agency lacking influence and impact, civil society advocates say.

Iran needs to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians at risk of serious harm from artillery bombardment and other military operations in an area that includes dozens of Kurdish villages inside northern Iraq, Human Rights Watch said today.

A seven-person delegation from the West Point military academy in the United States visited the UN office in Kigali, Rwanda on 11 June for a briefing on the reconciliation process in Rwandan society after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi ethnic minority, and the role of women in supporting sustainable peace.

The United Nations said on Wednesday it was investigating allegations of sexual exploitation by two of its peacekeepers serving in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Spokesperson Farhan Haq said the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) was looking into the charges against the two military personnel assigned to the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in DRC (MONUSCO).