Participation

The Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that there was no cruelty bigger than depriving women from their right to vote.

The apex court issued notices to respondents in an appeal against the Peshawar High Court's suo moto notice regarding barring women from casting votes during the by-elections in NA-5, Nowshera.

The National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) and civil society members expressed concern over the reduced number of women's seats in local government bills enacted in Punjab and Sindh in a meeting held on Tuesday.

By the launch of the National Action Plan on United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR 1325) in Abuja Tuesday, the UN and Nigeria are working to increase the roles of women in peace, security and conflict resolution in the country.

An exile women's rights group will for the first time co-host an event in Burma when the Women's Forum (Burma/Myanmar) kicks off in Rangoon on Friday.

In February 1997, four residents of the north who were mothers of soldiers then serving in Lebanon established a protest movement called “Four Mothers.” The movement was created following a helicopter collision that killed 73 soldiers on their way to the security corridor north of the border.

The Women's Initiative Network for Peace (Win-Peace) has expressed serious concern at the continued imprisonment of hundreds of political prisoners including women activists in various Burmese jails and urged the reform savvy from President Thein Sein to take necessary initiative to release them at the earliest.

Media coverage of the Colombian peace process has focused on the politics surrounding the talks in Havana. Some have accused representatives of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) of using stall tactics, and President Santos has signaled a willingness to adjust his self-imposed timeline, indicating that a peace agreement is unlikely to materialize before the original deadline of November 2013.

As the departure of the international security forces approaches, each day turns every bit of hope into desperation for advocates of Afghan women's rights. In 2010, soon after the United States announced the planned withdrawal of NATO and international forces at the end of 2014, Afghan women leaders communicated to SRSG Estefan de Mistura their concrete agenda for sustainable peace.

Over 770 people have filed their bids for participation in the parliamentary elections in Chechnya, a republic in Russia's North Caucasus, election commission chair Ismail Baikhanov said on Wednesday, August 14.

At a meeting with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, Baikhanov said more than 200 of them were women.

The Female legislative Caucus of Liberia's National Legislature says it will shortly introduce a parity bill.

The bill, according to the chair of the Female Legislative Caucus Representative Josephine Francis (UP- District #1 Montserrado County), will promote equal participation of women and men at the level of the Legislature and in other places of work.