News Library

Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, more than a million people have fled, causing a refugee crisis of enormous magnitude. According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), upwards of 3,000 Syrians a day have registered as asylum seekers in neighboring Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Turkey. The lion's share of these refugees—between 300,000 and 400,000—have ended up in Jordan, with approximately 30 percent of the total settling in the Al Zaatari refugee camp and 70 percent moving into host communities throughout the country. UNFPA further estimates that three-quarters of the refugees are women and children.

Islamic fundamentalist politicians in Afghanistan have stopped a debate on whether to give parliamentary approval to a law protecting women against violence.

“Wahhabist fighters have called the rape as ‘Jihad al-Nikah,' assuming women and girl as war prisoners, and raping them as permissible,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said, in the first official recognition of the phenomenon in Syria.

A constitutional body in Iran has ruled that women cannot run in presidential elections scheduled for June 14.

In a classroom tucked away from the world in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, students practice spelling. Ranging in age from 6 to 11, these girls all have one thing in common: They have either been raped or suffered through the rape of a loved one.

Across the world, women make up about half the population yet they never come close to holding 50 percent of the positions of power in any government.

The long struggle for justice has come to a point of resolution this week as the High Impact Court “A”courtroom conviction of Guatemala's ex-president General Efraín Ríos Montt brings relief and emotional tears to many of Guatemala's indigenous.

Three officers of the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) of the Liberia National Police have reportedly ganged raped a 23-year-old woman in Yekepa, Nimba County.

Two things, at least, matter more to Ramata Touré than the outcome of the donor conference in Brussels on Wednesday at which representatives of more than 100 countries will be asked for €2bn ($2.6bn) to help bring peace and development to Mali.

At the age of 20, Damián Valencia speaks knowledgeably about every aspect of gender equality. He is a member of Cascos Rosa, a young people's initiative working for cultural change against machismo and violence against women in Ecuador.