The steering committee of the Federation of Muslim Women's Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN) for the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing 1995, met several times to review the achievement of Muslim women in Nigeria since the Nairobi Conference.

Kenyan Women want changes to the Kadhi's Act in the Constitution so that it can cater for women more effectively. The women said most rulings by Kenyan Kadhis are outdated and do not conform to the changing times.

GETNET has published a cutting-edge guidebook for trainers in the masculinities field. The book has a strong practical orientation and draws on the work of international and local theorists and practitioners. It assists trainers in putting together workshops on emancipatory masculinities.

An innovative scheme to help illiterate women learn to read and write has been launched in two regions of Eritrea.

Parliamentarians from 24 African and Asian countries met in Morocco and called on governments to implement the convention on the elimination of discrimination against women.

Gender Links, a Southern African NGO specializing in gender, media and development is pleased to announced the launch of a new website, containing detailed information on our work and several of our publications. We look forward to receiving any feedback you might have.

A new television series entitled, 'Trauma,' focusing on raising public awareness on domestic violence against women was launched in early April in Nigeria, one of the NGO's involved in the project told IRIN on Tuesday. The Programme Officer at Lagos-based Project Alert on Violence Against Women (PAVAW), Bridget Osakwe, said that the series aimed to deal with specific issues of violence against women including physical assault, male child preference and widowhood rites, within each of the five 30-minute episodes.

Today, more than a month after the presidential election, Nyasha Chinhamo (not her real name) chokes as she recounts how vicious youths supposed to be campaigning for Zanu PF raped her. "If only someone can explain to me how raping someone would enhance a party's chances of winning an election then I may understand," said the 55-year-old Chinhamo.

Highlights how gender differences play a part in natural resource use, how resource depletion affects women and men differently, and what has been done worldwide to integrate gender concerns in environmental planning.

A Chadian woman lawyer who represents victims of the regime of former president Hissene Habre, has received the 2002 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, Amnesty International reported on Thursday.

The Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University has announced, as part of their international initiative, the creation of the African Women Public Service Fellowship. The fellowship was established to expand the opportunity for African women to prepare for public service in the home countries. Funded by The Oprah Winfrey Foundation, the fellowship offers African women to study in one of the two graduate programs at NYU's Wagner School: the two-year Masters of Public Administration program or the seven-month Masters of Science in Management Program in International Public Service Organizations. For more information contact Katherine Johnson.

The Special Rapporteur on violence against women and Chairpersons of the Commission on the Status of Women and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women speaking before the Commission on Human Rights, described activities undertaken over the past year and called for greater attention to such matters as aid for the women of Afghanistan and the empowerment of women as a way of combatting poverty.

The University of Natal's Gender Studies Programme and the Agenda Feminist Media Project are offering a course on interdisciplinary themes that examine the position of women and men across disciplines as well as their private and public life.

UNDP and the Business Women's Network (BWN) recently launched a new alliance to help expand women's entrepreneurship and HIV/AIDS education throughout Africa.

The Women’s Caucus at the meeting on Financing for Development were alarmed that the meeting on Financing for Development was used as a venue for subverting development and advancing the militarist goals of the U.S. government’s “war on terrorism”.

Throughout East Africa, human rights and women's lobby groups have achieved a measure of success in pushing for the recognition and legal protection of women's rights. In practice, however, women still face economic, social and cultural disadvantages that continue to leave them exposed to violence and abuse.

UNIFEM has announced the formation of a unique Global Advisory Committee comprised of African IT entrepreneurs living in the Diaspora and in Africa, as well as representatives from the private sector and the UN system.

The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) has called on Parliament, the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs and the Ministry of Justice to support the promulgation of the domestic violence bill through Parliament.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa held a four-day meeting to articulate policies to stimulate the participation of women in development in West Africa.

CALL FOR PAPERS
The Department of Women and Gender Studies, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda is organizing the Womens Worlds 2002, 8th International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women, making Uganda the first African country to host the congress. The congress will be held between the 21st - 26th July, 2002 at Makerere University Campus in Kampala, Uganda. Women's Worlds congress is an international interdisciplinary congress on women held every three years. The focus of the congress is gender research and interdisciplinary scholarship. The first Women's Worlds Congress took place in 1981, in Israel. Since then other Congresses have taken place in Netherlands (1984), Ireland (1987), USA (1990), Costa Rica (1993), Australia (1996), and Norway (1999).