On a press conference call in honor of the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, UN Women executive director Michelle Bachelet discussed her plans for the new organization, the challenges facing women in Libya and Cote D'Ivoire, and why she thinks women and girls need to stay on top of the international agenda.

On Jan. 10, Afghanistan's Council of Ministers, at its regular weekly meeting, decided that women's shelters needed to be brought under government control, reflecting a long-simmering discontent with women's shelters in Afghanistan. It's a discontent fanned by a media campaign spearheaded by right-wing broadcaster and ideologue, Nasto Naderi, who has pushed the idea that shelters are simply fronts for prostitution.

Soon after the launch of the US-led war in 2003, Iraq witnessed the emergence of a violent conflict and the deepening of splits along communal, religious, confessional, tribal and ethnic lines. The resulting chaos gave rise to growing insecurity and lawlessness and an upsurge in religious extremism. A backlash against women's rights and feminist activists was seen, opening old and new avenues for discrimination and violence against women.

The north-east African nation of Sudan, currently Africa's largest country by territory, will soon be split into two, following a referendum which took place in the south of the country in January 2011. On February 7, 2011 it was announced that an overwhelming majority (98.83%) of Southern Sudanese had voted in favour of secession from Sudan.

Donald Steinberg is the deputy administrator for USAID. He previously served as deputy president of the International Crisis Group. He is also a former member of the U.N. Civil Society Advisory Group on Women, Peace and Security, a former board member of the Women's Refugee Commission, and also previously served on the advisory panel to the executive director of the U.N. Development Fund for Women.

In August 2010, the United States marked the formal end of combat operations in Iraq with divergent assessments of the nearly eight-year war. At the closing military ceremony in Iraq, Gen.

To mark the international day of women, protesters in Sulaymanieh called for a special day for women's rights. Hundreds of women joined the usual daily crowd of protesters in the city square with many speaking from the podium about the problems Kurdish women face.

In the midst of a Middle East meltdown, in the midst of the most dangerous mayhem and madness, can a feminist and human rights revolution really be brewing in…Saudi Arabia? We know that Saudi Arabia is exceptionally barbaric towards its women and to all progressive thought. Women are not allowed to drive, and they cannot travel, accept employment, or open a bank account without the approval of a male relative.

The United Nations today accuses world leaders of "turning a blind eye" to systematic rape in conflict countries as it calls for those responsible to be charged by the international criminal court (ICC) in the Hague.