Gender equality is at the heart of addressing social injustice, and equitable and sustainable development cannot be achieved without addressing gender inequality at all levels. In the context of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), gender issues can be said to be effectively addressed only if strategies and solutions for achieving gender equality strike at the root of unequal power relations - not just between men and women, but more fundamentally between rich and poor, North and South, urban and rural, socially empowered and marginalised. This is part of a submission by the NGO Gender Strategies Working Group to the Second Preparatory Committee (Prep Comm 2) on the WSIS in Geneva.

Photographer Margaret Courtney-Clarke, born and raised in Namibia, understands why people in the West picture Africa as a place of starvation, military coups and disease: These images are usually the only ones they see. Throughout her career, Courtney-Clarke has devoted herself to revealing Africa's other faces to the world. One aspect that has particularly intrigued her is women who have managed to maintain artistic traditions in the face of continuous turmoil created by ongoing social, political and economic challenges.

At the male-dominated Sudanese peace talks around the world, tall, slim, dark-skinned Awut Deng Acuil is a prominent figure. For 20 years, she has made working for peace her life. Awarded the InterAction Humanitarian Peace Award last year, Deng has helped start the Sudanese Women Association in Nairobi and the Sudanese Women Voice for Peace, groups that work for peace and women's rights. The widow of a former vice president of Southern Sudan and mother of seven knows the pains of war intimately.

Judges from southern Africa met in Harare last week for a regional conference that discussed issues of common concern related to the role and challenges faced by women in the judiciary and the problem of gender bias in justice delivery systems.

No fewer than 65 women from various parts of the country are to vie for various political offices in the forthcoming elections under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the office of the party National Woman Leader, Mrs. Josephine Anenih has said.

A mobile phone company has started a national ''Take a girl child to work day'' - a concept to shatter gender stereotyping and to encourage young school-girls to go into different careers.

Most people are uncomfortable with the term "sexual rights." This is not surprising given the fact that the issue of sex and sexuality is a taboo subject in many parts of the world. While such discomfort often stems from religious and cultural mores that are difficult to overcome, the need to respect women's sexual rights is increasingly understood as a key to achieving women's rights. Earlier this month, close to 200 people from the region and around the world converged in Johannesburg, South Africa to attend the African Women's Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Conference from February 4 - 7.

This event, which now takes place once every two years, is an open space for bringing together gender and civil society members of organisations, institutions and all development actors at various levels. It provides a major opportunity for gender and civil society activists to convene, share, take stock of achievements and constraints and foster joint action plans to further the civil society development agenda. At the conference, individuals and groups share outputs of their work, sharpen their skills and capacities, network and establish further linkages with other different actors.

The Rural Women's Network of Senegal and ENDA-PRONAT are organizing a conference on "Rural Women's Access to land" - from 25-27 February 2003 in Thiès, Senegal. An online discussion is now open on the new Dimitra website in preparation for this event. The themes of the conference include women and cultivable land, natural resources and land inheritance.

A new gender and HIV/AIDS web portal will provide researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners access to cutting edge information at their fingertips. Developed by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), in collaboration with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the portal is a one-stop online resource center on the gender dimensions of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

This paper approaches questions concerning human rights and discrimination against women from a perspective that differs from the dominant view within the human rights literature. The author argues that the existence and defense of national, regional, and international rights of Nigerian women against discrimination must necessarily be located within Nigeria's particular historical experience. The identification of instances of discrimination and the struggle to defend and extend women's rights has to be critically examined in light of the power relations that structure the regime of human rights worldwide.

A February 17 appeals court ruling in Egypt may signal an increasingly harsh campaign of entrapment, arrest and conviction of men solely on the basis of alleged consensual homosexual conduct, Human Rights Watch says. The organisation has urged the Egyptian authorities to conduct a fair review of all sentences handed down in such cases, and to free from prison anyone convicted solely for private, consensual conduct among adults.

The candidate will develop & manage a 3-year multi level campaign to enhance the quality and quantity of coverage of health issues in the African media with a focus on HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. Fluent written and spoken English and French are essential. This position requires an experienced journalist with knowledge of public health issues in Africa and a proven track record of coordination and management of media projects in Africa.

Women and girls in particular experience conflict and displacement in different ways from men because of the gender division of roles and responsibilities. Increasingly, says this UN report, modern warfare is wreaking havoc on the lives of women and girls, and on the health and educational services that are key to family and community survival and development.

This Occasional Paper published by the Conflict Research Unit of the Clingendael Institute in the Netherlands identifies seven different roles and positions of women in armed conflict. The institutional analysis analyzes how 16 international organisations address these roles and positions of women in armed conflict in their mandates, policies, structures, instruments and activities and budgets. It outlines specific policy options per organisation for strenghening the position of women in armed conflict and conflict-related interventions.

It is hard to be a boy in South Africa these days. A recent survey of 30 schools in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province found that, across all races, male students and teachers experience uncertainty about their role and status and a sense of displacement due to the loss of their privileged space in society. The study examined how masculinity is constructed and maintained in schools to better understand how deeply-held notions of masculinity lead to high-risk behaviour for HIV infection among men and women.

Of the 40 million people worldwide who are living with HIV or have AIDS, approximately 50% of those infected are women. The percentage is higher in Africa with 58% of the total number of people that are HIV positive being women and a large number of women in Sub-Saharan Africa continue to contract the virus because of factors that they are unable to control.

As abortion-related mortality continues to rise, attitudes and lack of supportive policies on reproductive health are conspiring to send more young women of reproductive age to the graveyard. There is apparent need to increase the awareness on risks of unsafe abortions, but for those who abort, the intervention would be to improve post-abortion care, argues this commentary.

Eldis, a gateway to information on development issues, has produced a dossier on Gender and HIV/AIDS that provides narrative and up-to-date resources to guide the user through the key issues and debates on this theme. The web resource is regularly updated with new debates, case studies and research papers. Contributions from researchers and practitioners are welcomed.

As gender issues and land rights assume greater importance, how are Ghanaian women seeking to redefine the terms on which they gain access to and control of land? How are women farmers being affected by growing land scarcity? Is enough being done to enable poor women farmers to gain improved access to extension services and productive assets?