The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project (LGEP) has described the Traditional Courts Bill as 'highly anti-democratic, unconstitutional and discriminatory'. The organisation says it is 'extremely concerned' that the Bill puts rural women in a discriminatory position. 'The Bill basically opens the door for women not to approach the customary court but be represented by a man. Women’s rights to equality before the law is compromised in this situation which make it worse for lesbian women since it is the general knowledge that customary law is not favorable to people who have intimate relations with people of the same sex,' said LGEP in a press statement.

Sign this letter to the governor of Saint Petersburg and ask your friends and colleagues to do the same.

The Ugandan government must protect its citizens against threats, violence and harassment based on their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

While there is a strong relationship between increasing urbanisation and increasing prosperity, it cannot be assumed that gender inequalities are reduced at the same time. In several spheres of urban life such as labour, education and transport, urbanisation may have contradictory effects for women and girls.

New laws governing traditional courts could strip 22-million rural South Africans - and women in particular - of some of their most basic rights. The Traditional Courts Bill, on which public comment closed this week, aims to set a framework whereby customary courts will have legal clout. Civic organisations have slammed it as being unconstitutional, but traditional leaders argue that the Bill has been grossly misinterpreted by civil society.

Across the Darfur region of western Sudan, female workers weighed down by heavy buckets are a common sight on building sites. The work is arduous and the pay pitiful, but many women in Darfur have no other way of earning a living. 'This work is very hard,' said Aisha (not her real name), who works on a construction site in Nyala. 'Most days, we stay on the site from six in the morning to six at night without eating anything. We drink water perhaps once or twice a day. Anything we do eat is taken out of what we are paid.'

'LGBT Liberians live in fear, disempowered and daily imperiled. The war for them has not ended. Their lives are defined by danger and violence, persecution, hate speech and threats, discrimination and harassment. They are stigmatized, publicly rejected and almost completely abandoned by government. Their vulnerability affects all areas of their lives – church, school, employers, landlords, media, street mobs, rapists, predators, political actors, opinion leaders, family.'

Blog Black Looks has listed a number of Ugandan and African human rights organisations who have condemned the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, including the Ugandan Law Society, Coalition of African Lesbians, Urgent Action Fund Kenya and Ugandan Frontline Defenders.

In South Africa, policy with respect to HIV/AIDS has had a strong rights-based framing in line with international trends and in keeping with the constitutional overhaul in the post-Apartheid era. Since HIV in this setting has heavily affected women of reproductive age, there has been discussion about the particular needs of this subgroup, especially in the context of service integration. This paper is concerned with the way in which HIV positive women conceptualise these rights and whether they wish and are able to actualise them in their daily lives.

It is unacceptable that through the bill close to 17 million South Africans living in the former homelands will be stripped of their constitutional rights.

Women, who are already compensating for rising food prices and energy costs with additional time and labour - are now further disadvantaged through land grabbing. Land grabs are land lease or sale agreements between parties with unequal bargaining power, often transacted through covert or illegal means. Although land grabs in the 21st century bear some resemblance to massive land grabs that characterized colonization and empire-building in Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries, grabs today are courted by African governments, endorsed through intentionally vague paperwork and lauded in official speeches espousing their trickle-down merits.

At least 600 Ugandan girls have been forced into Malaysia’s sex trade in what has become a human trafficking epidemic, a foreign diplomat has said. Hajah Noraihan, the Malaysian consul to Uganda, said despite an early warning to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2008 when the number of trafficked girls stood at 30, the constant flow of victims had not slowed.

A post on the Free Gender blog explains how in a meeting between LGBTI activists and church leaders, their sexuality was referred to as 'a thing'. 'Some left the boardroom with so many unanswered questions as they felt that conversation had a lot to do with dictatorship instead of opening up a holy and safe space for proper discussion that will make LGBTI feel welcomed at churches regardless of one’s sexuality or gender expression.'

‘Such actions are in direct contravention of the Constitution of Uganda, The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, amongst other international human rights instruments’.

Egyptian women are angry, again, at presidential hopeful Hazem Saleh Abu Ismail’s comments that as president he would require the veil, or higab, on all women in the country. Abu Ismail said that women in the country must 'change creed' and that Islam gives no special personal freedom.A group of young Cairo University students, who are forming a women’s alliance organization on campus, told Bikyamasr.com that 'this forcing of women to do this or that is not Egyptian'.

Health officials and women in Liberia say family planning options can empower girls and women to stay in school and concentrate on their businesses. But many fathers and husbands here don’t approve of the introduction of family planning. As a result, many young women are keeping their contraceptive choices secret, reports Global Press Institute.

Zimbabwean homosexuals claiming asylum in the United Kingdom are more than likely to be turned down because the African country has a thriving 'gay scene' and is 'not the worst place in the world to be gay or lesbian', a court ruled. A Zimbabwean asylum seeker, known by the initials LZ, arrived in the United Kingdom in 1999. She claimed asylum in 2009, stating that she feared persecution as a lesbian back home. The UK Home Office turned down her asylum bid leading to the case reaching the Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber.

A Ugandan cabinet minister has said the government does not support the Anti Homosexuality Bill 2009 which was re-tabled for debate in Parliament. However, he was quick to add that the debate on homosexuality was good for Uganda. Ethics and integrity minister, Lokodo Simon who is also a Catholic priest said, 'Whilst the government of Uganda does not support this bill, it is required under our constitution to facilitate this debate. The facilitation of this debate should not be confused for the government’s support for this bill.'

From conflict and natural disasters to progressive laws and the ascension of women into key political posts, 2011 brought progress and setbacks to women's rights. The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) has put together a visual overview of the year through a women's rights lens.

The 2012 World Development Report (WDR) is a watershed moment: it is the first time that the World Bank, the world’s largest and most influential development institution, has devoted its flagship publication to gender. Kate Bedford of the University of Kent argues that the report leaves the Bank failing to face up to its role in perpetuating policies that harm women, and is seriously limited in its approach to women’s movements, markets, and households.