UNAMID today convened a preparatory workshop on women's issues at El Fasher University, North Darfur. The event brought together women from civil society organizations from 16 localities. The forum presented an overview of and discussion on United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325.

The United Nations Children's Fund urgently needs $14 million to respond to the most urgent needs of children and women in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In a humanitarian update Tuesday, UNICEF says that armed conflict, violence against civilians, rape, forced recruitment of children into armed forces and major population movements continue to affect large areas of eastern DR Congo.

A report by the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs has indicated that a total of 735 cases of domestic violence were recorded nationwide between 2002 and 2009.

Child abuse and sexual abuse were found to be 243 cases, 155 cases for the same period respectively.

Since the Security Council passed Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, there has been a push to recruit more women peacekeepers over the last 10 years. The effect has been positive with women acting as positive role models in post-conflict societies. Jocelyne Sambira reports.

Annie was seven months pregnant when she lost her baby because "at least six men in military uniform" raped her in the Republic of Congo, after fleeing conflict across the border.

Like many other refugees from tribal fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Annie had fled to the Likoula region in the north of the Congo Republic, where the population of Nyamoba village has doubled from 1,000 to 2,000.

Women in Borno State are being marginalized and this marginalization is manifest in the low participation of women in politics in the state, the Commissioner for Education Dr Ashabe Vilita Bashir has said. The commissioner said this in a speech delivered at a workshop on ‘Building skills for effective political practice for female politicians' in Maiduguri.

With the first Review Conference of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) under way in the Ugandan capital Kampala, women are crying out for justice for gender-based violence inflicted upon them during the civil conflict in the country's north.

As Afghanistan's most powerful men arrive in Kabul for a major conference aimed at starting a peace process with the Taliban, many women are worried the event could lead to a compromise of their hard-won rights.

Women from Tribal Areas Yearn the Opportunities Opened Up by Education

Donald Stienburg-Submission to the "Together for Transformation" Conference of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation's Women Peacemakers Program, The Hague, Netherlands.