Asia

In Syria, rape is being used by armed groups as a means to an end. In this context, reports have emerged detailing the use of sexual violence by Syrian armed forces and paramilitaries loyal to Assad.

To bring attention to the intolerable trade, “Never Again!” recounts the stories of several victims and illustrates the harsh realities of trafficking in persons, with relation to labour migration. One of the accounts chronicles the personal experience of Memey, a 28-year old former Indonesian migrant worker who was sold to traffickers in Malaysia in 2006.

The slow progress stands in contrast to the government's tall claims regarding women development and empowerment — with such a body in place since March 23, 2012.

That put Indonesia lower than South Africa and Mexico, and just above Saudi Arabia and India.

The poll of 370 gender specialists, conducted by TrustLaw, a legal news service run by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, found that policies promoting gender equality, safeguards against violence and exploitation and access to health care made Canada the best place to be a woman among the G20 nations.

“Today, women account for 70 percent of the 1.3 billion people worldwide still living in poverty,” said Marzuki Alie, president of the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA).

“Indeed, literacy among girls and women is lower than among males, and there continue to be violations of their civil and human rights.”

Project Respect, which provides support for victims of trafficking, estimates that at any given time there are around 1000 trafficking victims in Australia with approximately 300 brought into the country every year. It has been suggested that the mining boom has increased demand for sex workers in Australia and this may increase the incentives for traffickers.

The US-led International Security Assistance Force initially said an air strike targeted about 45 insurgents, but later extended its “deepest regrets and sympathies” over “civilians who died or were injured” in Laghman province.

Such incidents have strained ties between the United States and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. In June, Isaf ordered an end to air strikes on homes, except as a last resort.

They were speaking at a seminar organised by a NGO on “role of women as leader in crisis” at the press club on Saturday.

Comrade Jam Saqi said that women played a dominant role in agriculture sector in Sindh but they were gradually deprived of their rights over land through a conspiracy. Women should be made part of decision making and there would be no peace till it happened, he said.

Delana's achievement is not only outstanding but in the history of Fiji, there has never been a gold medallist at the Olympics.

“More and more women are becoming politically active and so the number of women in prison is rising too.”

First impressions and meetings of the delegation