General Women, Peace and Security

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

While recent attention has focused on the absurd remarks U.S. Senate candidate from Missouri, Todd Akin, made about “legitimate rape,” it is easy to miss one of the most under-reported stories of the summer. On August 10, 2012 President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order on preventing gender-based violence globally. This order was also accompanied by the release of a U.S.

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.

Since 2009, when current President Andry Rajoelina ousted then-president Marc Ravalomanana with the army's support, Madagascar has faced serious economic and social instability. Against the backdrop of a poverty index of 76,5% where the majority of the Malagasy population lives below the poverty line, people have also endured poor governance, insecurity and violence.

The Women Situation Room WSR, with the theme "Peace in our Hands" will be officially launched by President Ernest Koroma on Friday September 21 by 10am at the Family Kingdom.

The Women Situation Room in Sierra Leone which is supported by the UN Women as a room that would comprise mainly of non-partisan female personalities who will sit, receive and analyze information before, during and after the November 17 elections.

World Water Week recently concluded in Stockholm with a special emphasis on the linkages between water and food security.

From the worst drought in 56 years in the United States Midwest, to the Karnataka's drought in India, to the protracted drought in the Sahel region of West Africa, we have also seen how in our globalised world the nexus between lack of water and food security in one corner of the world affects us all.

Some nonpartisan commentators finally recognize that current US foreign policy continues to escalate militarily as though on steroids. It has become evident that use of deadly force by a US-dominated NATO is not only outside the parameters of international and constitutional law, but also in some cases outside basic legal principles that have stood the test of time not only for decades, but for centuries.