In the period since the beginning of the 1990s, CODESRIA has been at the forefront of the quest to harness the efforts of African scholars in both extending the frontiers of knowledge production around issues of gender, and doing so in a manner that ensures that for as many scholars as are active in its networks and at other African sites of scholarly work, gender is integrated into their frames of analyses.

The United Nations has conducted more investigations into sexual exploitation and abuse by its peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) than in any other country, according to figures recently released by the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations. Out of a total of 313 investigations of civilian and military staff since the beginning of 2004, 202 have been carried out in the DRC, UN News said on Friday (August 25).

VSO needs an exceptional fundraiser to fight domestic abuse in South Africa, leading the KwaZulu Natal Network on Violence Against Women as a Fundraising Manager. As a paid VSO volunteer, you'll secure crucial income, inspire colleagues, and directly improve the lives of countless women across the province.

Through the Rule of Law Program UNDP Sudan is implementing its Addressing Gender Based Violence in Darfur project. The principal objective of this project is to strengthen the immediate protection of civilians by addressing sexual assault and gender-based violations by strengthening the legal response to such crimes. This project is meant to address existing rule of law gaps through formal and informal training, confidence building and means of strengthening accountability.

The GBV Coordinator will be responsible for the implementation, monitoring, evaluation and further development of the GBV program and all GBV-related activities. The primary focus is on program quality with monitoring and evaluation against quantifiable benchmarks.

More than 200 women have been sexually assaulted in the past five weeks alone around Kalma camp, Darfur’s largest for internally displaced persons (IDPs), the International Rescue Committee (IRC) warned on Thursday (August 24). "All these women have been subjected to sexual assault; some women say they have been raped," Nicky Smith, IRC country representative for Sudan, told IRIN.

On Tuesday 22nd August 2006, history was made by the Nigerian Senate following its first reading of an Executive Bill for the domestication of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

The African Women's Development Fund (AWDF) launched a campaign in support of its HIV/AIDS Fund on Monday, August 14 2006 at the Brassaii Restaurant, 461 King Street West, Toronto, during the 15th International AIDS conference in Toronto, Canada. The initiative, known as The 13 Campaign was launched during an awards ceremony organized by the AWDF, Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) and Action Aid International to honour Stephen Lewis, the UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa who has done a lot of work to draw the world's attention to the pandemic in Africa, and to the experiences of African women who have borne the brunt of the pandemic.

Gemma's sexual orientation goes against norms and values imposed by society. In the eyes of her parents and society, she must be either depraved or mad. The story of two young women takes place in Mauritius, the island that prides itself on having one of the most mature democracies in the region and advertises itself as the island of "sun, sea and sand." That freedom turned to trauma for two young women whose only crime is their passionate love affair.

In order to advance towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), gender equality cannot merely be limited to a number of specific objectives, but must be the lens through which all the targets are viewed, say experts and representatives of women's movements in Argentina.

The Republic of Benin's National Assembly voted July 17 to pass the country's first comprehensive sexual harassment legislation aimed at protecting girls and women in schools, workplaces and in homes, according to the Women's Rights Initiative, a program of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Astraea's International Fund for Sexual Minorities supports groups, projects, or organizations working towards progressive social change which are led by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) communities and directly address oppression based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression.

This paper presents the preliminary findings of a study of land conflicts between refugees and host communities in Southwestern Uganda and their impact on refugee women's livelihoods. Uganda has a long history of hosting refugees that dates back to the 1940s when it hosted Polish refugees.Refugees were placed in gazetted areas in close proximity to the local population. As the refugee situation became protracted, hospitality gave way to a competition fpr resources such as agricultural and grazing land, water and forest resources.

Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali reiterated his support for the promotion of the rights of women in the Arab world as ''a central issue in the process of development and modernization''. Speaking on the occasion of Tunisia's celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Personal Status Code, which granted Tunisian women their rights, President Ben Ali said, ''the various contemporaneous world changes show that a society's attainment of progress and invulnerability depends on the freedom and rights women enjoy in that society, and on the duties and responsibilities they assume therein.''

Amnesty International launched a campaign to highlight the problems faced by women in Sierra Leone in accessing the justice system. Every day, women in rural Sierra Leone face discrimination and violence at the hands of the men in their homes and communities. When they try to access justice to address such abuses, they are often faced with further abuse and violence - often as a result of local chiefs exceeding their legal authority and imposing punishments against women based on customary law.

The International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Canada this week (August 15-19) attracted more than 24,000 activists, policymakers and scientists to reflect and strategise on responses to the global pandemic. Celebrities such as Bill and Melinda Gates, Bill Clinton and Richard Gere, brought much needed public attention and media to the feminization of HIV/AIDS, however, it also highlighted the danger of having these personalities dominate the discourse and promote a depoliticized analysis of women's rights, as was often witnessed in Toronto this week.

In developing countries, girls lag behind boys, according to the latest World Bank research. The discrepancy is explained in part by the fact that male teachers discriminate against girls. Girls are perceived as less intelligent while boys are given more opportunity to talk and participate.

Pregnant women aged between 25 and 29, living in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Gauteng are worst affected by HIV. But the biggest increases in HIV are among pregnant women aged 35 to 39, and those living in North West. This is according to the annual HIV and syphilis prevalence survey for 2005.

This handbook aims to help journalists and media professionals internationally to be sensitive to gender issues such as negative portrayals of women in the media, the lack of women in leadership positions in media organisations, etc., and to provide practical help for people who want to see things change.

The indefinite suspension of the WTO Doha negotiations offers a unique opportunity to review and reconsider the multilateral trading system as a whole, and to start with a new approach to a global trading system that will promote social and gender justice, women's empowerment and environmental sustainability. "The collapse of the Doha negotiations creates a momentum to review the past negotiations and analyse the flaws in the WTO system in its entirety. The current neoliberal approach to the multilateral trading system subordinates the needs of women and men in developing countries to corporate-driven interests," stated Barbara Specht, WIDE Information Officer.