General Women, Peace and Security

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.

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.

David Cortright is director of Policy Studies at the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. In October, he presented to the United Nations a report titled Afghan Women Speak: Enhancing Security and Human Rights in Afghanistan. It included recommendations for U.S. and NATO policymakers.

Few people are aware that a group of women – calling themselves the Peace Women, dressed in colourful lappas (Liberian cloth), bright white t-shirts and white headscarves, were instrumental in bringing peace to Liberia.

100 women in Suva planted 100 seedlings to celebrate the 100th year of the International Women's Day organized by the Fiji Women's Rights Movement Green girls.

FWRM's Executive Director Virisila Buadromo said that with the support of the British High Commission, they have worked with a group of young girls to create more awareness on the linkages between gender and the environment.

Thousands of Rwandan and Congolese women met in the middle of the Ruzizi Bridge that joins their countries. Honorata Barinjibanwa was one of them. She was tied to a tree and gang-raped for five months by one of the Congo's roving militias. Rope marks still ringed her delicate neck when a New York Times reporter visited her in hospital two months later. A Rwandan woman named Fatuma was there too.