Asia

Lebanon's parliament should adopt a draft law that would specifically criminalize violence against women, Human Rights Watch said today. The bill, which would criminalize physical, mental, and sexual abuse, marital rape, and so-called honor crimes, was approved by the former Council of Ministers on April 6, 2010, and referred to a special parliamentary committee.

Despite efforts to initiate a ceasefire negotiation on June 17 and 30 by means of meetings between representatives of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Burmese government, fresh clashes between the KIA and Burma armed forces took place on July 2 and 3 in different parts of the Kachin State, Kachin News Group has reported.

Afghan women face a bleak future unless women's rights are included as a non-negotiable element of any future political settlement, a report warned on Wednesday.

As arbitrary arrests continue in Iran, EU High Representative Catherine Ashton released a statement on 5 July condemning the recent arrests of women journalists, artists and women's rights defenders.

In her statement, she specifically referenced the arrests of photographer Maryam Madj, film-maker Mahnaz Mohammadi, journalist Zahra Yazdani, and women's rights advocates Maryam Bahrman and Mansoureh Behkish.

Experts have called for evolving a comprehensive strategy to control the overall situation of violence in the country in order to make substantive improvement in combating Violence Against Women (VAW).

It took a video going “viral” of a Libyan woman being dragged from a Tripoli hotel -- shouting that she'd been raped for two days by 15 men -- to put a face and name to a weapon of war that dates back at least to the founding of ancient Rome.

There is no meaningful equality in Israel between men and women when it comes to matters relating to marriage and family relationships, according to a new UN report.

The report was compiled by a panel of experts overseeing implementation of the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The panel submitted its conclusions to Israeli authorities in February of this year.

The Fiji's Women's Rights Movement's (FWRM) retreat and planning at the Pearl Resort in Pacific Harbor was shut down by police. Two staff members were taken in for questioning. It was noted that another NGO was holding a strategic planning event at the same venue and this event was not interrupted or by the Police.

Women must not be sidelined by the new political systems being born from the Arab Spring, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a conference of democratic nations Friday.

"In the Middle East and North Africa, women have marched, blogged and put their lives on the line," Clinton said in a speech at a gathering of the Community of Democracies.

Today, April 30, should be a red-letter day for Filipino women because it is the 74th anniversary of the plebiscite that gave them the right to vote, according to election lawyer Romulo Macalintal.

“It is one of the most memorable and historic events for women, for 74 years ago marked the very first time that Filipino women exercised their right of suffrage,” Macalintal said in a statement.