Asia

Women and girls continue to be the worst affected by Syria's conflict, but their suffering rarely makes the headlines. Among the men who have died in the conflict, many will be honoured as martyrs. Those who have survived suffering at the hands of the regime will return to their homes as heroes.

The new normal in Syria's civil war involves mass killings, torture and sexual violence, the United Nations said Monday.

Scores of people were reported dead in the latest reports of fighting between rebels and government forces in several cities, including Aleppo, where an embedded journalist revealed her view inside a recent street battle.

Findings of the Assessment of Gender-based Violence in Syria include violence against women and girls, rape, kidnapping, killings, exploitation, trafficking, sexual abuse and domestic violence

The intention to set up Civil Society Advisory Groups for UN Women at the global, regional and national levels was announced earlier this year at the 56th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, as a way to ensure strong, effective civil society engagement with the organization.

Representing a collective membership of 324 diverse rural women they have documented and shared a series of priorities they would like to be accounted for in the work of the Constitution Commission.

This is the case in the autonomous region of Bougainville in the east of the country, where disarmament remains elusive more than ten years after a civil war fought over resource exploitation.

“Guns are now being used in domestic violence and armed robberies, and to settle land issues,” said Helen Hakena, director of the Leitana Nehan Women's Development Agency in Bougainville.

The Pacific region has one of the highest documented rates of violence against women in the world, with as many as 69 per cent of women reporting having experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. Recent research in the region is stimulating new discussion on responses to the scourge.

After filing the first-ever class-action lawsuit on the issue of gender segregation in Israel, a local religious women's rights group says it hopes to protect the rights of women in the public sphere of Israeli society.

A technical team from the UNHRC office in Geneva on the advice of HR High Commissioner Navi Pillay will arrive in the country on September 14, External Affairs Ministry officials have said.

The Minister at a press briefing today said that at first a delegation representing the UN Human Rights High Commissioner Navi Pillay would visit the island prior to her visit.

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.