In a landmark decision today, Mexico's Supreme Court required all of the country's states to distribute emergency contraception and to provide access to abortion for rape victims. The decision affirms women's rights to health and life by enabling rape victims to avoid forced pregnancies, Human Rights Watch said.

Reporting on the conflict in the DRC has focused mainly on sexual violence against women. This important reporting has underscored that it is vital that women who have been subjected to sexual violence are seen as survivors, not victims; support for survivors of sexual violence is a crucial part of both individual and societal healing in the wake of armed conflict.

Fatmire Feka glanced at the skies over her Kosovo village. Storm clouds darkened the horizon, and rain started to fall.

"I felt as if God was crying tears of pain," Feka says. "God was crying because he knew what was about to happen."

Amnesty International has condemned the Brazilian Supreme Court's blocking of a reinterpretation of a 1979 Amnesty Law that protects members of the former military government from being put on trial for extrajudicial killings, torture and rape.

Four years after voters in Liberia, battered by decades of dictatorship, economic ruin and civil war, elected a no-nonsense former banker and UN official, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, as their president, the country is making slow progress towards recovery. But there is still a long way to go.

To commemorate International Women's Day on March 8th, the PSG asked UK-based NGO WOMANKIND to contribute an article to this edition of the Peru Update to bring our members up to date on its work in Peru. Besides its work in Peru, the organisation also works closely with 37 partner community groups in 15 developing countries.

This past March, Pat Mitchell, President and CEO of The Paley Center for Media, hosted a round table discussion in conjunction with the U.S. – Afghan Women's Council. The focus was to examine how to support Afghan women in media. The agenda also addressed the type of stories about Afghan women that continue to grab the headlines – when stories make it to the public's awareness.

While some members of the last Commission have courted controversy with their employment, former Commissioner Margot Wallstrom has become the UN Special Representative on sexual violence in conflict on a recent stop to Brussels she spoke to Andy Carling.

A wave of nationalism and Islamaphobia has hit Bosnia and Herzegovina as ethnic leaders bicker ahead of a general election set for October. One of the latest victims is the renowned women's group �ene �enama. Its mission: to bridge ethnic and religious boundaries in an effort to promote long-term peace in the region.