Participation

The Minister of State for Women's Affairs in the federal government revealed on Monday forming a joint committee with the Ministry of Culture to develop a joint work plan and identify mechanisms for its application, pointing out that she discussed with the Minister of Culture , mechanisms to broaden the participation of women in order to access the decision-making positions in cultural institutions.

Uzbek authorities recently held a roundtable to discuss increasing the participation of women in political life, the Uzbekistan Daily news web site UzDaily.com reported on Monday.

The event put parliamentary deputies together with representatives of the Central Election Commission and political experts.

Argentina's president is a woman, Cristina Fernández, and the country has one of the highest percentages of women lawmakers in the world. But women also have other leadership roles, outside the political system.

In a speech at Ahfad University for Women in Omdurman, Sudan, on April 9, USAID Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg announced a new USAID global grant program to increase the substantive involvement of women in peace processes.

African women from more than 12 countries in the region will from today meet in Harare and deliberate on ways to accelerate implementation of international commitments for the advancement of gender equality and economic empowerment.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Wednesday on Arab women to take advantage of the wind of change blowing in the Middle East and North Africa region to claim their rights.

A group of women in Saudi Arabia has launched a website to campaign for the participation of women in municipal elections.

The initiative, called 'Baladi', has so far attracted over 2,000 members and, according to organisers, the campaign is independently run by women with support from different parts of the Kingdom, the Arab News report said.

One impact of two decades of war is that women now make up over 60 percent of the eight million people of South Sudan, says the Government of Southern Sudan's Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare.

And while women fought alongside men during the conflict with the north, or helped the effort in other ways, after the ceasefire, many women feel they did not get the same recognition or respect as men.

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield says that a women-sponsored legislation calling for the enactment into law the reservation of 30% legislative and political positions for women is unnecessary.

Back in 1960, Sri Lanka made headlines across the globe when it became the first country to elect a female leader. This could have been the start of a promising future for Sri Lankan women in politics. Instead it became painfully obvious that Sirimavo Bandaranaike and her daughter after her were only able to reach such a position through their family connections.