General Women, Peace and Security

The United Nations has invited a newly established group of independent experts to advise on ways to better protect women in conflict situations, and to ensure that their voices are heard in peace processes and that they are included in post-conflict reconstruction and governance structures.

Under Saddam Hussein, women in government got a year's maternity leave; that is now cut to six months. Under the Personal Status Law in force since Jul. 14, 1958, when Iraqis overthrew the British-installed monarchy, Iraqi women had most of the rights that Western women do.

In an interview Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke to NBC's Andrea Mitchell about women's rights and Middle East peace efforts.

Below is the complete transcript.

Donald Steinberg, Crisis Group's Deputy President for Policy, was recently named to the United Nations Civil Society Advisory Group on Women, Peace and Security.

The first "Peace and Equal Opportunities in Congo after 50 years of independence" fair opened on 18th March at the premises of the Kinshasa International Fair (FIKIN). The three-day event, which was organised in collaboration of the United Nations system in the DRC, was held as part of the celebration of International Women's Day.

One minute Halimo Mohamed, 40, was at home with her children, the next she was on the move, fleeing violence in Somalia's capital, after her Karan neighbourhood, in north Mogadishu, was hit by a barrage of shells, killing dozens and destroying homes, including hers.

The next two years will be critical in determining Sudan's future. The country faces national elections in April, the first multi-party elections in 24 years, and a referendum on southern independence in January 2011.

For over two decades now, the tiny nation Somalia, in the Horn of Africa, has endured protracted militarized violence and statelessness.

They work like stepping stones to pave a major fresh path in women's history: First 1325, then 1820, now 1888. These are U.N. resolutions that in the past 15 or so years have put wartime sexual violence on the international policy map.

Seven women affected by Congo-Brazzaville's (also known as Republic of Congo) civil wars between 1997 and 2003 came together in November 2009 for a four-day digital storytelling workshop organized in a partnership between the United Nations Development Programme Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (UNDP-BCPR) and the Center for Digital Storytelling's initiative Silence Speaks.