Asia

A conference on Peace and Justice for Kashmiri Women in Srinagar [ Images ] recently brought together representatives of more than half a dozen major women's organisations and Kashmiri academics, students, doctors, psychiatrists and human rights activists.

On August 30, 2012 on the eve of International Disappearances Day, numerous Kashmir families took a pledge that they would fight the legal battle to prove that enforced disappearances in Kashmir have occurred over the past two decades. Women who have husbands or sons who are part of the ‘The Disappeared' have also promised they would continue to work and not shy away from bringing justice forward.

In the offices of the General Union of Palestinian Women –a bastion for older-generation prominent women politicians– two young Palestinian women listen to the discussions, feeling a little shy in the midst of such veteran advocates.

A pair of Iranian dissidents — a jailed human rights lawyer and a banned filmmaker -- were named winners Friday of the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov Prize.

The award went jointly to Nasrin Sotoudeh, an attorney who has represented political activists and others in Iran, and to Jafar Panahi, an internationally acclaimed director now banned from movie-making.

Mi Kun Chan Non, a representative of the Mon Women's Organization, and one of the only two female observers of the Mon peace talks expressed her hope that the workshop will lead to “a stronger voice of women at the peace table through the sharing of collective experiences and network-building of women negotiators.”

Keen to defend the country's record because of candidacy for the Nov 12 election to HRC and hopes of qualifying for next GSP+ preferential trade programme, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar herself led the delegation to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva.

Speaking at the launch ceremony held at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat in Suva, Fiji, the Forum Chair, Hon. Puna said: “In the short history of our region, the women and girls of the Pacific have suffered as victims of armed conflicts and social unrest.”

Several of them are regular visitors to Peshawar High Court where their respective cases have long been pending.

They usually book a van in Swat to reach Peshawar and once in the provincial capital, they stay together for hearing into their cases.

Mohammad Ishaq Aloko told TOLOnews that because most women in the remote areas of the country do not have access to or in some cases do not even know of the judicial bodies, many incidents are never reported.

"You see that women in the provinces such as Badghis and Daikondi don't know at all where the judiciary organisations are and what they do," he said in an interview Thursday.

The Department for International Development (DFID) must do more to improve the lives of women in Afghanistan who continue to suffer discrimination and abuse, MPs have demanded today.

Chairman of the International Development Committee, Rt Hon Sir Malcolm Bruce MP, said: