Asia

Ministers from Asian labor-sending countries meeting in Dhaka this week should together endorse protections for migrant workers, Human Rights Watch, Migrant Forum in Asia, and CARAM Asia said in a briefing paper released today. They should give priority to protecting migrant domestic workers, who are at especially high risk of abuse, and to ending recruitment-related exploitation, the organizations said.

The Saudi government's refusal to let women vote in municipal elections in September 2011 unlawfully deprives women of their rights to full and equal status under the law, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called on the election committee to allow women to vote and to run for seats on the municipal councils.

Despite its political and financial stability, India lags behind all other South Asian countries in making laws to protect the rights of home-based workers, said Sapna Joshi.

In Afghanistan's Herat province, the chief prosecutor general has a difficult job.

Fighting for justice against a profoundly corrupt political system is an uphill struggle, but for Maria Bashir the challenge is all the more acute.

It is a society that is still trying to shake off the worst excesses of the Taliban's patriarchal rule and being a woman in a position of power is not only rare, it is dangerous.

Stung by fresh US criticism of its ability to defeat the Taliban on the Afghan border, Pakistan is turning to women in its latest bid to quell the terror threat and reduce poverty.

The government's Benazir Income Support Programme is designating $750 million, nearly half from US coffers, to create jobs and alleviate poverty by providing women with funds for food, health and training in the tribal belt.

The Minister of State for Women's Affairs in the federal government revealed on Monday forming a joint committee with the Ministry of Culture to develop a joint work plan and identify mechanisms for its application, pointing out that she discussed with the Minister of Culture , mechanisms to broaden the participation of women in order to access the decision-making positions in cultural institutions.

Uzbek authorities recently held a roundtable to discuss increasing the participation of women in political life, the Uzbekistan Daily news web site UzDaily.com reported on Monday.

The event put parliamentary deputies together with representatives of the Central Election Commission and political experts.

“They say Gaza people can cope with everything. But why do we have to? We just want to lead a normal life.” Medical doctor Ghada Al-Jadba is one of the three Palestine refugee women working for UNRWA and living in Gaza who came to Brussels two weeks ago to help us understand what daily life is like in Gaza.

The United Nations envoy for children and armed conflict and a political movement in the Philippines today agreed to develop an action plan to ensure that no children are among the ranks of the military group known as the New People's Army (NPA), or are involved in the armed conflict.