Asia

LAST week, 19 emerging young women leaders completed the YWCA's Rise Up! Leadership Program, which ran from the 29th June – 2nd July at the EU Non State Actor's Building in China Town. The workshop was the first of many to be run on a regular basis by the Solomon Islands YWCA with the aim of building the capacity of young Solomon Islands women to create positive social change in their communities.

THE Solomon Islands Democratic Party (SIDP) strongly wants to see women in parliament, according to party executive Mathew Wale.
Speaking in a media forum organised by the Media Association of Solomon Islands (MASI) on Sunday, Mr Wale said there are many ways women can be given a chance to be in parliament.

“One way was through the scrapped proposal to reserve 10 temporary seats for women,” Mr Wale said.

A WOMAN who has given her life to teaching the country's children with disabilities has had her work recognised yesterday.

Catherine Anilafa, headmistress of the Red Cross Handicapped Centre in Honiara, was the recipient of the United States sponsored 2010 International Women of Courage Award.

She became the fourth local woman to be given the award since its introduction four years ago.

FORTY-TWO victims have been confirmed to give their stories to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's (TRC) third provincial hearing in Gizo, Western province next week. TRC Communication Officer, Dykes Angiki said 16 of them come from Choiseul, including two women.

He said the other 26 are from Western Province.

Mr Angiki said the victims are already in Gizo for the hearing.

“Women's rights are human rights,” Hillary Clinton declared at the United Nations Fourth Conference on Women in 1995. As President Barack Obama's “good war” in Afghanistan goes bad and negotiations with the Taliban increasingly seem likely, there has never been a greater need to recall these words.

Afghan women and girls fear they will pay the price for any deal to end the insurgency cut by President Hamid Karzai with the Taliban, a rights group said on Tuesday, pleading for safeguards of hard-won freedoms.

The United States on Monday confirmed media reports about Afghan President Hamid Karzai's moves to get 50 Taliban leaders from the al-Qaida Taliban sanctions list of the United Nations Security Council.

The U.S. State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley cautiously told journalists, “I would be careful about putting a particular number on this.”

A UN committee on the elimination of discrimination against women has begun a review of the situation of women in India and seven other countries. During its 19-day session, India will be reviewed on an exceptional basis, with the committee considering the country's follow-up report on the impact of the 2002 Gujarat massacres on women, the rld body said.

Ongoing Taliban attacks on women in Afghanistan show why women's rights should be a priority in any political agreement with insurgent forces, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

Jean-Michel Tijerina, CEO and Founder of the Cambodia Project, insisted I must meet her.

After an hour over coffee, I fully comprehended why.

I was talking to the Cory Aquino or the Aung San Suu Kyi - of Cambodia.

And given her courageous outspokenness, I am now very concerned for her safety.