Participation

Last week, on Thursday, September 6, Sandra Ramírez filed into Havana‘s convention palace with five of her FARC comrades and seated herself at the table in front of a packed auditorium. The FARC had convened a press conference to discuss Colombia‘s incipient peace process.

Melanne Verveer, Ambassador at Large for Global Women's Issues, will travel to Belgium on September 17 - 18, 2012, to discuss progress in integrating women into peace and security efforts through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). She will travel with William Lietzau, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Rule of Law and Detainee Policy, who serves as the Department of Defense's lead implementer of the U.S.

2011 Nobel peace prize was given jointly to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia, Tawakkol Karman, a democratic activist and Lemah Gbowee , peace activist for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and women's rights by peace-building work.

Persistent discrimination has prohibited women from garnering a greater role in the design and implementation of the peace process. The Programme's gender policy, introduced in September 2011, seeks to ensure women's participation in decision-making at the strategic/political level through the High Peace Council (reconciliation) and at the operational level through gender-mainstreaming in local peace processes (reintegration).

Even though a critical mass of women have ascended to leadership positions in scarce skills sectors such as the judiciary, there are lingering challenges that still need to be addressed, says Public Protector Adv. Thuli Madonsela.

The Women Situation Room WSR, with the theme "Peace in our Hands" will be officially launched by President Ernest Koroma on Friday September 21 by 10am at the Family Kingdom.

The Women Situation Room in Sierra Leone which is supported by the UN Women as a room that would comprise mainly of non-partisan female personalities who will sit, receive and analyze information before, during and after the November 17 elections.

World Water Week recently concluded in Stockholm with a special emphasis on the linkages between water and food security.

From the worst drought in 56 years in the United States Midwest, to the Karnataka's drought in India, to the protracted drought in the Sahel region of West Africa, we have also seen how in our globalised world the nexus between lack of water and food security in one corner of the world affects us all.

Journalists often play a key role in disseminating information about human rights. As such, journalists are often threatened, attacked, and killed in an attempt to silence their voice.

“The lack of women's representation – of women's empowerment – affects individual women's rights – and it holds back whole countries,” Mr. Ban told participants at the first World Congress of Global Partnership for Young Women and Second Global Partnership Forum in Seoul, Republic of Korea (ROK).

Talking to APP, he said reservation of four seats for minorities in the Senate and work on 'Minorities Protection Bill' to protect the Personal Laws of Minorities including legislation on Hindu, Sikh, Parsi and Bahai Marriage Acts were among important initiatives of the government.