Participation

Rwanda President Paul Kagame has spoken out on the importance of women leadership, accountability for commitments to women empowerment and the need to accelerate the momentum towards greater inclusion and fairness.

While parliamentarians discuss a new electoral law to govern the 2013 parliamentary elections, women politicians are seeking stronger presence in the country's legislature.

Lebanon signed the Beijing agreement in 1995, which stipulated a female quota of no less than 30% but this has yet to be implemented in parliamentary elections.

Zimbabwe may become the world's first country to pass a law requiring that women hold at least 50 percent of posts in parliament and other government bodies, according to a new constitution.

Concerned over the stand-off in the implementation of the different political and socio- economic agreements that were signed between the two countries, a coalition of women leaders in Sudan and South Sudan has decided to come together to promote peace for the benefit of the citizens of the two neighboring states.

Bangladesh has won second place in an annual United Nations Development Programme competition, with a story that highlights the success of the country's poverty alleviation efforts.

The story had a specific focus on the contributions that destitute women made in the economic sphere, said a press release of the UNDP Dhaka office issued on Wednesday.

Colombian Conservative and former Uribe defence minister, Marta Lucía Ramírez on Wednesday announced her intention to run in next year´s presidential elections.

Ramírez must first gain the support of the Conservative bigwigs before her candidature is confirmed, but she is by a clear margin the best hope the party has of securing a meaningful representation in the race for the Casa de Nariño.

Haneen Zoabi is an Arab member of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament). In late December 2012, the Israeli Supreme Court overruled a Central Elections Commission decision and ruled that Zoabi can stand for re-election in 2013.

Zoabi is a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause. She was the first Arab woman to be elected to the Knesset, where she has served for almost four years.

Finland wants to make it easier for women to enter peacekeeping forces, but this could mean loosening physical fitness requirements.

Most Finnish peacekeepers carried out their military service as members of an elite crisis preparedness group. Last year 600 conscripts sought a spot on the team. Not a single woman made the cut. The test involves running 2,600 metres in 12 minutes.

If sorted out from the floating theories on the culprits and their motivations, what the execution-style killings of three female Kurdish activists in Paris showed was that the conflicting parties, and third actors, of the long-standing conflict in Turkey over the Kurdish issue still maintain their deep-rooted, old habits.

A three-day symposium on gender issues that impact the 1986 constitutional reviewing process got underway in Monrovia yesterday with women groups calling for the preservation of certain basic rights in the Constitution seeking equal participation in political governance.

The women's zealous advocacy began despite a legislative action squashing a bill seeking 30% representation of women at all levels of governance.