The effective way to tackle the growing menace of human trafficking in Southern Africa is for governments to seize the assets of criminal organisations involved in the practice, suggests an expert. "Targeting the proceeds of crime is a very effective way of tacking syndicates," says Charles Goredema, a senior Researcher at the Johannesburg-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS).

Terror is a matter of fact. Globally. Much before the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, large parts of the world had lived with and resisted terrorisms that often masqueraded as liberation struggles. Women across the world have spoken out against terrorism, militarism and violence of all kinds as an unacceptable strategy for resolving differences and conflict. This anthology, ranging over the last decade, is a powerful statement by them against all terrorism and any counter-terrorism that uses the same violence to deal with it.

The strikingly higher infection rates among adolescent girls compared to boys in Zambia and many other parts of Africa reveal a disturbing trend: the AIDS epidemic is being fueled by the abuse and subordination of young women. Sexual violence and coercion of girls is widespread, often fuelled by intergenerational sex when men choose younger and younger girls because they are assumed to be HIV-negative. The increasing number of orphans created by the AIDS epidemic is contributing to the crisis.

Malawian women’s high fertility rate averaging 6.3 children per woman is among the factors contributing to population increases despite government’s interventions to balance population growth and available resources, officials have said.

After her husband died, Louise Anagonou was banished from their matrimonial home, which she and her husband had built at Ouidah, a small town some 40 kilometres west of the commercial capital, Cotonou. ''In Benin, women are still kidnapped, forced into marriage, beaten and raped by their husbands,'' says Genevieve Boko-Nadjo of Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF), a non-governmental organisation, which has offices all over sub-Saharan Africa.

Gender is one of the World Bank's 14 "corporate advocacy priorities". Yet a 2001 report from the Bank's Operations Evaluation Department echoed the views of many independent commentators, finding that the Bank had not established processes for institutionalising and operationalising its gender policy and had not organised systematic gender training for its staff.

The new globalized world is the result of processes relating to the restructuring of capital. It has changed the relationships between sexes, changed people’s opinions and values, and has reordered the political world landscape. This globalization process has evolved unequally across regions, socio-economic groups within regions, and between sexes, with multiple consequences that continue to erode the quality of people’s life. Women are not only affected as part of the family and as a disadvantaged group of society, but also as a result of their position in the sexual division of work, says this report from WHRnet.

Nominated Member of the National assembly Fatoumatta Jahumpa Ceesay has reiterated the strides government has made in empowering Gambian women, citing the adoption and ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw) as an example of progress.

Close to 200 policy makers, researchers, health care providers, activists, academics, lawyers and advocates from 22 different African countries came together for the African Women's Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights conference in Johannesburg, South Africa in February. The conference succeeded in creating an on-going forum and opportunity for progressive forces in Africa to come together and support each other in their joint efforts to improve the health, social, and civil rights status of women and girls. Read the executive summary of the conference and copy of the draft International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) statement written at the conference which outlines the position of the delegates in attendance regarding the ICPD + 10 process currently taking shape.

This paper looks at how gender concerns are being integrated into policies and programs that shape post-conflict societies. Findings indicate a slow but positive shift in international opinion and understanding about the consequences of conflict on women and the importance of their participation in peace building processes and post-conflict social transformation. However, gender discrimination continues to manifest itself in such forms as political exclusion, economic marginalization, and sexual violence during and after conflict that deny women their human rights and constrain the potential for development.

This Oxfam paper provides practical examples of situations where women and children have consistently suffered disproportionately from the negative impacts of mining projects due to the policies and behaviour of the companies involved and presents a list of common grievances expressed by women during the research.

Theatre in most of Africa has for centuries been an important social phenomenon, playing a central role in religion, ritual and social practices, as an art form and as a vehicle for passing on information and traditions, as well as for expressing ideas. In recent years, theatre has started to play a role in development and as a means of political expression. Women and women’s groups have also started to make use of this powerful expressive medium to promote equality in the home and in society, as well as to educate and advocate around their issues. This report explores the significance of theatre as a means to freedom of expression for women in four African countries: Zimbabwe, Kenya, Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Despite the efforts of South Africa and Uganda to genderize their energy policy, a clear idea of what engendering energy policy is about is still lacking. The study addresses the question: what are the characteristics of a gender-aware energy policy and what conditions, based on the experience of South Africa and the developments in Uganda, enable the integration of gender in a national energy policy?

The representation of women in national parliaments currently stands at 15 percent worldwide although it is shown that 76 countries have introduced some type of gender quota. Given the slow rate by which the number of women in politics is growing, quotas have come to be seen as an important mechanism to increase the political representation of women, with more and more countries legislating the introduction of quotas for women. A new website gives the first overview of the use of electoral quotas for women worldwide.

Somali women attending the ongoing peace conference in Nairobi, Kenya, have called for women's rights to be included in all stages of the peace process. Their call came at a three-day workshop for women delegates, supported by the regional body Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) expressed grave concern on Tuesday over reports of violence against women in Mali. Apart from forced marriages and polygamy, which are common, 24 percent of Malian women marry before the age of 15 years and 94 percent undergo female genital mutilation (FGM), OMCT said in a report to the UN Human Rights Committee.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has launched a new report on the nature of the trade in women and children in southern Africa. The report points out that Southern Africa hosts a diverse range of human trafficking activities, from the global operations of Chinese triad groups, and Russian organized crime, to the local trade in persons across land borders perpetrated by local syndicates. The region's young women and children are especially vulnerable to the recruitment tactics of traffickers because civil unrest and economic deprivation leave them with few opportunities at home.

The southern African media give very little space to the views of women, and, when it comes to subjects such as politics, economy, sport or agriculture, their voice is virtually unheard. Women journalists are, however, given more exposure than men in reporting on subjects that have to do with the body, home and beauty. It is in television that they find the best professional opportunities – essentially as presenters – but they are only employed for a limited time, because in that part of the world it is uncommon to see women working beyond the age of 50 in any media. These are some of the findings of the Southern African Gender and Media Baseline Study.

An appeal, due to begin in northern Nigeria for a Muslim woman convicted of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning, has been postponed because the judges failed to turn up. The case of Amina Lawal, has provoked strong opposition from human rights organisations across the world, many of whom sent representatives to attend the hearing.

While the team works with the children at Chissindo camp I have a chance to talk to some of their mothers, who have come to watch the activities. Many of the women we meet are widows, and all have several children to care for. They survive by growing food, and supplementing this with a small income from trading charcoal or traditional maize beer. Read the latest instalment in the diary of an Oxfam worker in Angola.