In this tradition-bound nation scarred by a brutal Islamist-led civil war that killed more than 100,000, a quiet revolution is under way: women are emerging as an economic and political force unheard of in the rest of the Arab world.

In recent decades, human rights advocates have won passage of a system of international human rights treaties, helping to address a wide range of social justice concerns. More and more, local activists are devising ways to use these international standards to make real change at home.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Oberlene Smith-Whyte, is making an impact as a United Nations peacekeeper, winning the respect of her colleagues and even insurgents in some of the most inhospitable countries around the globe.
United Nations Peacekeeper, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Oberlene Smith-Whyte.

Dekha Ibrahim Abdi, a courageous woman from the arid north of Kenya, devotes her life to building peace. She compares this work to an egg. "An egg is delicate and fragile. But if given the right conditions, it gives life." Likewise, the potential for peace is fragile, and it needs careful nurturing if that potential is to be fulfilled.

(Chicago) - The vast majority of DNA evidence collected from rape victims in Illinois cannot be confirmed as tested, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today and based on data collected across the state.

Food is scarce in Ethiopia, where most of the population lives in rural, drought-prone areas in a state of chronic poverty. In 2010, the Government of Ethiopia identified 5.2 million people in need of emergency food aid. Not surprisingly, this hunger crisis also impacts the thousands of refugees living just within Ethiopia's borders.

179 SGBV incidents were reported in Kakuma as at 31 May 2010.Domestic violence is the highest reported among SGBV cases. KAKUMA, 1 July 2010 (IRIN) – Mariam* is one of about two dozen female refugees who have been subjected to sexual or domestic violence and who, in many cases shunned by their families, now live in a safe haven inside a camp in Kakuma, in northwest Kenya.

Human rights organisations in Cambodia have called for the government to tackle the rising incidence of rape. A report by Amnesty International says victims have limited access to justice, medical services and counselling. It claims that rape cases are often settled by cash payments to the victim - or bribes to the authorities.

When nine-year-old Jeanne* from North Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was raped by a neighbour, her parents were determined he would not get away with it. With the help of an international organization that provides legal services for victims of sexual violence, they contacted the police and got a lawyer.

Then the DRC's legal system kicked in.