Participation

South African women's rights organisations will soon have willing donors on their doorstep, thanks to the launch of the African Women's Development Fund in the country.

Today, world renowned women and children's rights activist Graça Machel will officially open AWDF's satellite office at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Rosebank, Johannesburg.

In the latest Mo Ibrahim Index on African governance (see article), South Africa is ranked fourth out of 53 African countries for its record on women's rights. In the World Economic Forum's “gender gap index” it comes an impressive sixth out of 134 countries in the world. In the UNDP's “gender empowerment measure” it also does well, being placed 26th out of 182 countries.

ISLAMABAD: A two-day regional conference on gender and policing began on Tuesday at the Islamabad National Library. It was organised by Rozan, a non-governmental organization, in collaboration with the Ministry of Human rights and the Islamabad Police.

Two former Catholic nuns will lead a 15-woman peace corps that will monitor a ceasefire between government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

“I believe that we can surmount any problem through organization and coalition work," one of the ex-nuns, Adel Nayal, said in an article posted on the Union of Catholic Asian News website.

In the last week of September, the As-Sahab Foundation, which disseminates al-Qaeda messages and propaganda, released a video clip showing a group of militants launching mortar attacks on Pakistani army sites.

The attacks and the clip were attributed to Aafia Siddiqui.

Patriarchal values in Asian politics and reluctance among mediators to include women have led to poor female representation in peacemaking, said the world's largest privately-owned mediation organization.

Like many women in East Timor, 34 year-old Mariquita Soares joined the Revolutionary Front for an
Independent East Timor (FRETILIN) party during the nation's 24-year resistance struggle against Indonesian occupation from 1975 to 1999.

As the city`s partner, Women's Organization Cooperation Body (BKOW) always support and actively participate in the city development. Through its work programs, BKOW has tried to enhance its role to cut the chain of poverty and hunger.

HANOI (Xinhua) - Vietnam will host the 14th meeting of the General Assembly of the ASEAN Confederation of Women's Organizations (ACWO) from Oct. 19 to 20, according to the Vietnam Women's Union on Tuesday.

The meeting is expected to draw more than 200 delegates from women's organizations of countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and several international organizations.

Afghanistan's parliamentary election was accompanied by claims of rampant fraud, but that wasn't its only failing. The ballot may also have given the outside world a false impression of progress on women's rights.

A record number of women ran in the September 18 election - there were 385 female candidates, 57 more than in the 2005 polls, among the 2,446 vying for 249 seats in parliament,