Participation

Glued simultaneously to the TV, Blackberry, laptop, and my own windows, I watched Arab politics come back to life just a few short weeks ago. As someone who has devoted her life to promoting women's human rights and political participation, I continue to rejoice at the role women are playing in the ongoing revolutions spreading across the Arab world.

Women from across West Africa on Wednesday pleaded with Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to double their efforts in restoring peace to Cote D'Ivoire immediately.

Loznica town management senior official Ljubinka Gordanic is one of the many high-ranking women that heads to work each day in the west Serbian town.

In the country as a whole, women make up 51.4% of the population and just 2% occupy executive posts. In Loznica, out of the 176 town administration employees, 114 are women -- exceeding the European standard of women accounting for 30% of an administration.

War-torn countries trying to break repeated cycles of violence should closely involve women in building a more resilient, wealthy and secure society.

That's one of the lessons that can be learnt from nations making successful transitions from conflict to peace, according to this year's World Bank development report.

Seizing on a rare opportunity, Toms River resident Brandon Karkovice was the first to ask Ireland's first female President Mary Robinson a question Tuesday night.

Robinson, a former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, was the featured keynote speaker at the 10th annual Monmouth University Institute for Global Understanding Convention.

Police in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, disrupted meetings and marches observing International Women's Day, detaining a speaker at a meeting and 17 trade union demonstrators.

Sources said police raided a meeting called by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights at a church in Bulawayo's Luveve suburb, detaining speaker Prisca Dube who was released two hours later.

"Women in Zimbabwe are largely seen as a huge demographic to be exploited by politicians who seek our support," says Ntombikayise Mswela. "But when we take to the streets to demand respect and our rights from the same government we are thrown into prison.

Gender trainers and women's rights advocates have been urged to hold each other accountable in the work they do.

The regional director of United Nations Women, Elizabeth Cox, made the comment at a Fiji Women's Crisis Centre gender training of trainers workshop on Monday.

The Central Committee of the Palestinian Democratic Union convened Saturday in Ramallah and Gaza City and elected the first ever female secretary-general of a Palestinian faction, Zahira Kamal.

Kamal was born in Jerusalem in 1945 and has held several official political positions. She was the first Palestinian Minister of Women's Affairs.

A New Zealand MP Carmel Sepuloni says it's a continuing battle to improve the abysmal numbers of women in Pacific Island parliaments, but hope is on the horizon.

Pacific women MPs and candidates who haven't succeeded in recent elections have gathered in Wellington this week to discuss female representation in politics.