Human and sexual trafficking in Burma has been pushed up by economic mismanagement and human rights abuses in the military ruled country, a new report said.

Woman and Child Rights Project (WCRP) of the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) in a new report released on Monday said many Burmese children and women are becoming victims of human trafficking because they are left with few alternatives to eke out a living.

Paraguay's justice system is seeking to address a major pending issue: eliminating the hurdles and inequalities in cases of violence against women. When victims turn to the police and the courts, instead of finding a solution, they are often only revictimised.

It's another day marked by gunfire in the Morro da Providencia "favela", one of the most dangerous slums in this Brazilian city, and the only area where people can move around in relative safety is in the lower part of the neighbourhood, towards the foot of the hill.

Tuesday night, a candidate from the opposition PakatanRakyat (People's Alliance or PR) defeated a candidate from the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition in a semi-rural constituency on mainland Penang. That brought the by-election tally to 7-1 in favour of the PR since the last general election in March 2008.

The Brazilian government is congratulating itself on the first-stage approval of a draft electoral law that increases women's participation in party politics. However, the women's movement says it introduces no changes to a power structure that excludes women from politics.

With the three administrations of Governor D.S.P Alameiseigha, Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan and Chief Timipre Sylva, many Bayelsa women and youths seems to have continued to count their blessings in terms of mobilisation, empowerment and political development.

Shockingly high levels of violence against women in Haiti forced the U.N. to send peacekeepers to the Caribbean country in 2004.

The country while not in a state of war is one of the world's most unstable. Kidnappings, criminal violence, gang warfare and violent armed confrontation with the U.N. Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) has increased the number of reported cases of sexual violence against women and girls.

A police helicopter rattles through the skies over Rio, black-clad snipers poised at either side.

Below, in the Morro da Mineira shanty town, locals scatter for cover, shop-fronts clatter noisily shut and nearly 200 rifle-toting police operatives begin sprinting up the steep hillside, among them Inspector Santos de Mello, a member of the anti-weapons and explosives unit, better known as DRAE.

Gender desk officer of the ministry of social welfare, gender and children's affairs in the southern region said illiteracy and poverty are challenges to ending gender violence.

Alice Jeneba Koroma disclosed yesterday to Concord Times that many women choose to stay with husbands who abuse them, even though violence against women is against the law and a violation of human rights.

A record number of over 100 newly-trained women police officers, making up two-thirds of the cadets completing the training for the Liberia National Police (LNP), prompted a senior United Nations official to hail the progress made since the first batch of recruits passed through the gates of the National Police Training Academy in 2005.