Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

Women and girls in Iraq's Kurdistan region continue to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) because the local government is failing to enforce a law banning the practice, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.

The provision against FGM was part of a 2011 landmark law - the Family Violence Law - to tackle violence against women in the autonomous region in northern Iraq.

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.

(Goma) – M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are responsible for widespread war crimes, including summary executions, rapes, and forced recruitment. Thirty-three of those executed were young men and boys who tried to escape the rebels' ranks.

The Pacific region has one of the highest documented rates of violence against women in the world, with as many as 69 per cent of women reporting having experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. Recent research in the region is stimulating new discussion on responses to the scourge.

Carla lost everything when she got pregnant at the age of 13: her first year of secondary school, her family, her boyfriend, and her happiness. She spent a year panhandling on the streets of the Nicaraguan capital before she was taken in by a shelter for young mothers.

Although the federal government's fiscal year doesn't end until Sept. 30, the Department of Homeland Security has already reached the annual 10,000 limit on special visas for undocumented immigrants who are victims of domestic violence and sexual assaults and who also assist in investigations or prosecutions. This is the third consecutive time that the cap has been reached, and the earliest.

UNP parliamentarian Rosy Senanayake says the bill while safeguarding women and child rights would also introduce sever punishments for child abusers and rapists.

She said that immediate steps needed to be taken to address the increasing cases of child abuse and rape of women.

The MP explained that laws related to such offenses have to be amended and strengthened.