General Women, Peace and Security

Colombian and American universities, together with several non-governmental organizations released ten lessons they think should be learned from the 1999 - 2002 peace talks that ended unsuccessfully exactly ten years ago on Monday.

Sexual and gender-based violence, or SGBV, does not just affect an individual but also has the power to permeate an entire community. Often these acts are carried out during periods of conflict or post-conflict transitions when rule of law is weak and a culture of impunity reigns.

The National Council of Women in Solomon Islands says women in the country are not ready for police to be rearmed.
The NGO's comments follow the Prime Minister's announcement yesterday that specially trained police officers will be rearmed with weapons of non-lethal force including spray devices and rubber bullet guns.

Saudi Arabian officials strip-searched 29 Christian women and assaulted six Christian men after arresting them for holding a prayer meeting at a private home in the western city of Jeddah, a Christian human rights advocacy group informed The Christian Post.

It was 1996 when Micaela Flores and 15 other women from Peru's highlands accepted an ambulance ride to a Cuzco clinic, lured by the offer of a free medical checkup.

But when they arrived, the clinic's doors were locked behind them.

"'We're going to make a small incision,'" Flores, now 54, said she was told. When she resisted, the mother of seven said health workers tied her feet and hands and anesthetized her.

The women's Leadership for Peace and Security in the Greater Horn of Africa project was launched in 2009. The project seeks to maximize the participation and contribution of women in national and regional peace building processes. Forty women from the Greater Horn of Africa are the backbone of the project (G40) held a high level mission in Hargeisa, Somaliland on Women Building Peace from the 10th to 14th February 2012. P.M.

At least 600 Ugandan girls have been forced into Malaysia's sex trade in what has become a human trafficking epidemic, a foreign diplomat has said.

Hajah Noraihan, the Malaysian consul to Uganda, said despite an early warning to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2008 when the number of trafficked girls stood at 30, the constant flow of victims has not slowed.

When three women, including Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, an alumna of Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), received the Nobel Peace Prize in October, it was more than just a testament to their work. The prize was also a clear signal to the many unheralded women around the world that their peace building efforts were not only noble but necessary.

Zimbabwean police have disrupted a Valentine's Day march aimed at promoting peace and love between foes in the troubled southern African nation.