October 28, 2009 - (IPS) Although the enacting in August of the Magna Carta of Women (MCW) - a major law aiming to end discrimination against women across the archipelago - was well-received here, there remain concerns about whether the legislation will be fully implemented.

Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a state of emergency for parts of the southern island of Mindanao on Tuesday, after a political massacre there left at least 46 people dead.

Calling it as bestial act, Mindanao women expressed their outrage over the Maguindanao massacre where innocent civilians, mostly women and journalists were summarily killed in broad daylight.

“If unarmed women, lawyers and journalists are not safe, who is safe?” the Mindanao women in their statement said.

Most or all of the 22 women among the 57 people massacred Monday in the southern Philippines were sexually mutilated, the authorities said Friday, adding grim details to the catalog of horrors that has already emerged.

Philippine police investigators on Thursday said five women might have been raped before they were killed in the country's worst election-related violence last week while forensic experts found evidence indicating the toll could still rise.

A woman's place is at the negotiating table, especially when the issue at hand is about winning lasting peace that has eluded the community for decades. This view was strongly expressed by Laisa Alamiya, a lawyer and member of Nisa Ul Haqq Fi, a Muslim women's group; and Teresita Quintos-Deles, former presidential advisor on the peace process, during recent discussions held as part of the National Women's Summit held in Quezon City.

PORT-LOUIS , Sandhya Boygah considers herself a victim of male-dominated politics. In 2007, she was asked by her party, the ruling Labour Party, to step aside and allow a man to stand for the elected post she sought.

From Monrovia's highest hill, the long sliver of Atlantic Ocean shoreline at the mouth of the Mesurado River, with its aqua blue waves, golden sand and wooden fishing boats, looks like paradise.

Cellphone snapshots, ugly and hard to refute, are circulating here and feeding rage: they show that women were the particular targets of the Guinean soldiers who suppressed a political demonstration at a stadium here last week, with victims and witnesses describing rapes, beatings and acts of intentional humiliation.

African Women Condemn Use of Force on Unarmed Civilian in Guinea African Women leaders meeting in Lome, Togo at a Women's Leadership Conference convened by the African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) in collaboration with ROFAF condemns in the strongest terms the use of excessive force on unarmed and peaceful demonstrators in Conakry, the capital of Guinea that has resulted in the death of at least 157 pe