The dark clouds that hang over the lives of many women and girls in the developing world have been witnessing recent bursts of sunshine from Australia.

In recent months, the Australian government has made a series of major announcements to support and promote equality for women and girls in developing countries such as Afghanistan, Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia and Ethiopia.

Amnesty International condemns the sentencing of Layla Ibrahim Issa Jumul to death by stoning and calls on the Sudanese government to halt the execution and to reform its criminal law without delay, with the aim to abolish corporal punishment.

There is a reason that we rarely see photo essays of serious social problems from Norway.

There are relatively few social problems.

Norway has a well-deserved reputation as one of the wealthiest, safest, best-educated and most democratic countries in the world.

But this is precisely why Walter Astrada chose Norway as the place to complete his magnum opus on violence against women.

On Friday August 10, the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) released the first ever U.S. Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence Globally, including their implementation plans. An accompanying Executive Order issued by President Obama was also released, directing all relevant agencies to implement this strategy.

The long-awaited report on the implementation of the Sexual Offences Act, tabled in Parliament last week, has shown the Justice Department's utter lack of concern with regards to the plight of women and children in our country. It has taken the Department nearly four years to produce a report on implementation activities, despite this being required in the Act.

The first-ever All-African conference on gender and media, with the theme "Empowering African women journalists, and sub-theme, Stepping up to the challenge of gender and equality" began at 10:03 am on August 26, 2011 in Kigali, Rwanda with the arrival of His Excellency Dr Vincent Biruta, President of Rwandan Senate and Hon. Protais Musoni, Minister of Cabinet Affairs of the Office of the Prime Minister of Rwanda.

Defying Victimhood: Women and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding

Edited by Albrecht Schnabel and Anara Tabyshalieva

A new documentary launched by UN Women, Side by Side: Women, Peace and Security, interviews activists, peacekeepers, humanitarian workers and survivors of violence to chart the impact of conflict on women's lives and the work being done by peacekeeping and humanitarian operations to empower women around the world.

The fifty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 4 to 15 March 2013.

Themes

Priority Theme: Elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls.