Asia

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.

As Victims Of The Conflict

She pointed out that although many women should like to take part in representative politics, the prevailing political system discourages them, despite being 53 percent of the county's population.

She could have added that women make the biggest contribution to Sri Lanka's economy; besides doing the bulk of domestic work, they pluck tea, sew garments (the main exports) and provide the greater part of overseas workers' remittances.

Under the slogan ‘'together to administer our areas autonomously'' the permanent People's Council in Western Kurdistan has held its second meeting.

Access to information including education programmes for rural women to enable them to participate in formal decision making structures, transforming structures to increase levels of participation at local level to comply with women's human rights treaties and conventions including UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (Women, Peace and Security) will be some of the key issues to be raised during the next television simulcast in conjunction with

In the beginning of August, a memorial evening was held in Gori, a city in eastern Georgia, to commemorate the anniversary of the 2008 August war that broke out between Georgia on one side, and Russia and the breakaway state of South Ossetia on the other side.

Amnesty calls for the immediate release of Zhila Bani-Yaghoub

The Iranian authorities must release prisoner of conscience Zhila Bani-Yaghoub, an award-winning journalist and women's rights activist held solely for exercising her right to freedom of expression, Amnesty International said.

Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi issued a letter to the United Nations Women Executive Director, Michelle Bachelet, last Friday calling for an investigation into women's rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Prompted by recent bans on women's education, the letter outlines an increasingly deteriorating situation for women's rights and women's rights defenders in Iran.

A new Lebanon based human rights and equality initiative is now partnering with men to reach the goal as advocates for equality of the sexes in the Middle East region and beyond.

Occupied West Bank, Aug 16 2012 (IPS) - After the brutal murder of a Palestinian woman in late July in a busy Bethlehem marketplace, local human rights groups are pushing for stronger reforms to stem violence against women in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.