General Women, Peace and Security

Inspector Dwamena Akenten, Station Officer of the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service in the Western Region at the weekend disclosed that persons who are convicted on rape charges would be sentence for between five and twenty-five years.

He said for defilement cases the sentence ranged between seven years and 25 years imprisonment.

Imagine a world where women living directly with the realities of war help build the peace. Jacqueline O'Neill says three major events this month show that vision--and the ideals of "inclusive security"--gaining hold.

I remember one day, when I was working in Belfast – it was back in the nineties. That battered city was very poor and very violent. But it had one thing going for it – it had quite a few women's community centres. I remember so clearly a woman in one of them who said to me, “Don't talk to me about war. My life's a battlefield.”

This past year there were signs that the world is waking up to the power and contribution of women. Three women — two African women and a Muslim woman, only the second in history — this year won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has organised a community sensitisation programme on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence for Ivorian refugees and Ghanaians.

The programme, held at Egyeikrom in the Central Region, was to educate the participants on how to fight violence against women and children in all situations especially, among populations in crisis.

Twenty years ago, the first “Zene u Crnom” demonstration in Belgrade was held on October 11, 1991 to protest against rape and ethnic cleansing. This was one of the first Women in Black demonstrations to be held outside Jerusalem, where Israeli and Palestinian women had started a weekly vigil in 1989. Since then, the Women in Black movement has spread around the world, from India to Colombia, London to Seattle.

Two women Members of Parliament from the Central African Republic (CAR), yesterday met with members of National Women's Council (CNF) in Musanze district, to draw lessons on various women activities in political and economic development.

Rachel Ningawong Mallo, and Alima Diarra, both members of the gender and development commission, are in the country on a three-day visit to learn about Rwanda's achievements in women emancipation.

A week of events to highlight human rights issues in the Commonwealth began yesterday with the testimony of Ugandan activist Marjorie Nshmere Ojule.

Earlier this week, through the promotion its Gender Unit, the Minustah held at the Hotel Montana, workshops with eleven women leaders from nine departments. On this occasion, Mr. Mariano Fernandez, the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations in Haiti, and Mr.

Recently there has been increased focus on the issue of violence against women. First, Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat (who also heads the Ministerial Committee on the Status of Women) exclaimed during a heated cabinet debate, “Where there's an exclusion of women, violence against women eventually grows.”