General Women, Peace and Security

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has denounced the rape of women and men who are, or appear to be, lesbian or gay.

Igniting a firestorm of global debate, the results of a Thomson Reuters Foundation poll identifying the five most dangerous countries for women are generating controversy in the blogosphere and on news organisations' websites around the world.

By July, President Obama plans to decide how many troops to pull out of Afghanistan in the first initial US withdrawal. While a host of factors are in play, a big one comes from Afghan women.

Many of them fear that a possible US rush to the exits or a peace deal made in desperation could result in the return of Taliban rule and their medieval treatment of women and girls.

Fatima Osman Bulle lives in an internally displaced ppeople's camp in Mogadishu. Her makeshift house consists of cloths and sticks and has no running water, electricity or toilet. She and her husband, seven children and three relatives are crammed into one room.

"I feel that I am a low-class member of the family," Bulle says. "I am the most disrespected person in the home."

A Thomson Reuters Foundation poll may have found that Afghanistan is the most dangerous place to be a woman, but Somalia's women's minister is astonished any country could be worse than her own.

"I'm completely surprised because I thought Somalia would be first on the list, not fifth," said Maryan Qasim.

The United Nations Office for West Africa held a consultative meeting in Dakar with West African Women leaders within the framework of the Global Open Days on Resolution 1325 (2000) of the United Nations Security Council related to Women, Peace and Security.

As world leaders gather in New York for a high-level conference on HIV/AIDS, United Nations agency heads, goodwill ambassadors and activists alike hope they will remember the virus's most vulnerable victims: women and girls.

Hillary Clinton's weeklong trip to sub-Saharan Africa takes her to a continent hungry for economic growth and political accountability but still shackled by poverty and government corruption.

The U.S. secretary of state will see the effects of that poverty close-up:

-- In Tanzania, she'll meet with women who are victims of gender-based violence.

Young women will be given pepper spray to fight off rapists, the state minister for youth and children, Ronald Kibuule, has said.

Kibule, 28, who took office early this week, said one of his top priorities would be the protection of women against sexual crimes. "It's my role as state minister for youth and children to ensure that the people under my ministry are safe. I will do whatever it takes to protect them."

The controversial death of Dr. Ms. Haleh Sahabi is coming under international scrutiny as the U.S. State Department, The Foreign Office (FCO) in the UK and the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) issue statements on human rights abuse in Iran and the need for transparency.