Asia

Gender trainers and women's rights advocates have been urged to hold each other accountable in the work they do.

The regional director of United Nations Women, Elizabeth Cox, made the comment at a Fiji Women's Crisis Centre gender training of trainers workshop on Monday.

The Central Committee of the Palestinian Democratic Union convened Saturday in Ramallah and Gaza City and elected the first ever female secretary-general of a Palestinian faction, Zahira Kamal.

Kamal was born in Jerusalem in 1945 and has held several official political positions. She was the first Palestinian Minister of Women's Affairs.

A New Zealand MP Carmel Sepuloni says it's a continuing battle to improve the abysmal numbers of women in Pacific Island parliaments, but hope is on the horizon.

Pacific women MPs and candidates who haven't succeeded in recent elections have gathered in Wellington this week to discuss female representation in politics.

The FWCC's Gender Training of Trainers continued into its second and last week yesterday in Pacific Harbour with the training facilitated by world reknowned and Australia based Gender Trainer Dr Juliet Hunt.

Hunt's teaching is aimed at strengthening the skills of current gender trainers to:

Israeli troops stormed a village near near Nablus early Thursday, arresting more than 100 women as they hunted the killers of an Israeli family, local officials said.

Hundreds of troops entered Awarta shortly after midnight and imposed a curfew after which they began rounding up the women, local council head Tayis Awwad told AFP.

Fiji Women's Crisis Centre hopes to create a society where people are aware of gender equality.

FWCC national co-ordinator Shamima Ali said women would enjoy their rights like men if there was gender equality.

Ms Ali said the centre was hopeful that trainers in gender equality would be able to work with various communities in their home countries and create awareness to ensure women enjoy their rights.

Many countries are celebrating growing numbers of women in political life, however the Pacific Islands continue to have the poorest level of women's participation in municipal governance. The International Women's Development Agency reports on their efforts to change this.

Egyptians were glued to their televisions on Wednesday as the military handed down the country's new working constitution.

Some here would have preferred more time for emerging political factions to organize before elections that will be held by the fall, but most saw the announcement as a hopeful step toward democracy, equality and unparalleled freedoms in the wake of the January 25 Revolution.

Around 150 men employed in the different national and local government agencies in the province of Biliran, including male barangay officials, attended the first ever provincial forum dubbed as “Male Involvement in Eliminating Violence Against Women”.

The FWCC's Gender Training of Trainers continued into its second and last week yesterday in Pacific Harbour with the training facilitated by world reknowned and Australia based Gender Trainer Dr Juliet Hunt.

Hunt's teaching is aimed at strengthening the skills of current gender trainers to: