Asia

The Mindanao Peoples' Caucus (MPC), a Davao City-based peace advocacy group, considered Monday's launching of the women contingent in the Civilian Protection Component (CPC) of Malaysia-led International Monitoring Team (IMT) a breakthrough.

This is also a first time that Bangsamoro women, lumad women and Christian settlers joined their efforts, regardless of race and religion, to protect peace in Mindanao.

Sri Lanka is seeking foreign help to care for nearly 90,000 women who have been widowed due to the island's Tamil separatist war which ended last year, a minister said Wednesday.

Child Development and Women's Affairs Minister M. L. A. M. Hizbullah told reporters some 12,000 war widows were below the age of 40. Around 8,000 widows have three or more children to care for.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called for concerted efforts among South Asian countries to address the challenges of establishing women's rights in all spheres of life.

She made the call while addressing the inaugural ceremony of the 7th South Asian regional conference on women rights at Hotel Sheraton in the city yesterday morning.

Jody Williams received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work to prohibit landmines through the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which shared the Peace Prize with her that year. At that time, she became the 10th woman in its almost 100-year history to receive the Prize.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has urged South Asian leaders to prevent violence against women and remove obstacles on the path to women empowerment.

"South Asian countries have almost identical problems regarding women's rights issues due to socio-economic and political reality of this area," she said after inaugurating the seventh South Asian ministerial conference on women's rights at the Sheraton Hotel on Sunday.

The hallways of a grade school were uncharacteristically silent and absent of students as they had been for months prior to this day. Despite the vacancy, the classrooms had many new additions.

UNDP Peace and Development Program jointly with “Women-Leaders of Jalalabat” Association successfully conducted “Women's role in peace building” regional forum.

The forum was participated by representatives of Osh, Jalalabat and Batken oblast state administrations, international organizations, regional women NGOs, and women activists involved in stabilization of June, 2010 events consequences.

Delegates from Asian countries gathered in Jakarta on Wednesday to discuss how best to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security.

It is a special pleasure for me to be here today with all of you. I want to add my welcome to this extraordinary gathering of women leaders from across Asia. We at the U.S. Department of State are proud to be a partner in this enterprise. Today I hold a new position in my government-one that demonstrates the U.S. Government's commitment to incorporating women's issues into our country's foreign policy.

Women are in fact a productive working group, who in many cases in Indonesia, serve as the economic backbone for their families and to a larger extent the driving force of the country's economy.