An unprecedented 28 percent of seats in Bolivia's new parliament will soon be occupied by women. Female lawmakers have already launched a battle for women to serve in half the posts in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.

Male rioters in a suburb here on September 11 attacked about 20 women wearing trousers.

The men, in Rubaga, a Kampala suburb, began detaining women during their protests, police spokeswoman Judith Nabakooba said at a press conference that took place that same day.

Women wearing skirts were allowed to pass, Nabakooba said, but those wearing trousers were forcibly undressed and left to walk home in their underwear.

"I want justice. That will be a kind of peace," says Micaela, a 40-year-old woman from the Andean region of Peru who is a survivor of the sexual violence prevalent during the 1980-2000 civil war. Twenty-five years ago, soldiers assaulted her at a military base and in her own home.

Human rights organisations in Mexico and the United States sounded the alarm about abuses against women by the Mexican armed forces in the context of the government's all-out offensive against drug trafficking in the border state of Chihuahua.

Somali refugee Saada hates what she does but can see no other way to feed her six children -- working as a prostitute in the southern Yemeni city of Aden.

"My life is rubbish, but what can I do? I have to work and make some money," said the woman in her 30s, sitting with other Somali women in Aden's Basateen slum district.

Bolivia's new Constitution which came into effect a year ago, recognizes upfront that women's rights are human rights, and it has led to real progress in both legislation and policies granting women equal rights.

Laura Chinchilla of the governing National Liberation Party (PLN) will be the first female president of Costa Rica and the ninth in the history of Latin America.

The guns have gone silent – except for sporadic conflict in parts of the vast South Sudan region, such as the Eastern Equatoria State. It may not be the absolute end of the conflict in the region, but it is a reason for renewed hope.

As the East Africa Community (EAC) gradually moves
towards a political confederation, women's rights groups from the
five member states are pushing for an East African Protocol on Gender and
Development to bridge the gender gaps within the integration process.