Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

Lebanon's repeal of a criminal code provision that mitigates sentences for so-called honor crimes is an encouraging step to address gender-based violence. The Lebanese parliament should remove and amend other criminal provisions that discriminate on the basis of gender, and enact a law to protect women from domestic violence, Human Rights Watch said.

When a middle-aged mother took a taxi alone from Baghdad to Nasiriyah, about 300 kilometres south earlier this year, her 20-year-old driver stopped on the way, pulled her to the side of the road and raped her. And that began a telling legal struggle. "She is not a simple case," says Hanaa Edwar, head of the Iraqi rights-based Al-Amal Association, established in Baghdad after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Migrant workers living in a squatter settlement outside Tripoli have claimed that nearly two dozen women in the camp have been raped since opposition forces began their final push on the capital two weeks ago.

Nepal's efforts to help conflict-affected women and girls gain a stronger footing in society may not be enough for the widows, rape victims and former Maoist combatants now tainted by social stigma, activists say.

When the sun sets on the refugee camp for black Africans that has sprung up at the marina in this town six miles west of Tripoli, the women here brace for the worst.

The rebels who ring the camp suddenly open fire. Then they race into the camp, shouting "gabbour, gabbour" — Arabic for whore — and haul away young women, residents say.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says Solomon Islands can lead the Pacific by example on human rights issues and ending violence against women.

Walter Astrada doesn't view his four-chapter project, Violence Against Women, as a story about a serious problem for women. Though it is.

“It's not a woman's problem. It's a societal problem” said Mr. Astrada. “If 50 percent of a country can be beaten, raped, killed or tortured, then it's not a free country, it's not a democracy, no matter how developed it is.”

The Research Advocacy Unit (RAU) has attacked government for failing to enact laws that criminalise politically-motivated and election-related violence against women.

Women are particularly good at building peace and creating social change. On August 9, 1956, 20 000 women marched on the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest against proposed amendments to the Urban Areas Act of 1950 – the infamous apartheid-era “pass laws” that sought to restrict where people could live and work on the basis of race.

What could be a better weapon than rape? As a male soldier, you can exterminate your aggression, demoralize your victim and even potentially create a child born from your own hate.