The United Nations' newest agency - UN Women - takes an ambitious and sometimes startling look at gender equality and women's rights around the world with its first-ever report. The 2011 'Progress of the World's Women: In Pursuit of Justice' report is 'a global survey of women's access to justice -looking both at legislation passed by governments and the steps taken (or not taken) to implement those laws,' according to the Guardian. 'The report highlights the practical barriers that women - particularly the poorest and most excluded - face,' says former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet in the report’s introduction. It states that 127 countries do not explicitly criminalise rape within marriage, while 603 million women live in countries where domestic violence is not a crime.

The Women’s Health and Equal Rights (WHER) Initiative, established in 2010 to fight for the right of Nigeria’s lesbians and bisexual women, last week held a picnic to create awareness about their work. Nigeria’s first lesbian/bisexual rights organisation, WHER, was set up to counter the repression faced by people whose sexual orientation and gender identity do not conform to the 'societal norm'. The establishment of the WHER Initiative was meant to enable a holistic and more representative approach to LGBT rights activism in the country.

The 1972 Succession Act identifies the persons eligible for inheritance and their respective share entitlements in Uganda, but the majority of women in rural communities are not aware of this office and its function, nor do they understand Uganda's legal provisions for inheritance, says this policy brief from the Uganda Land Alliance and the Uganda Media Women's Association. Current policy on the implementation of women's legal rights must be revised to address this problem. Action needs to be taken to educate and sensitize the community as well as women their legal entitlement to land inheritance of property.

Being rooted in sexuality rather than gender, the issues of lesbian, gay and bisexual people are completely different from those of transgender people, writes Audrey Mbugua.

A woman paddling a canoe no longer arouses curiosity in eastern Rwanda. While still not a common sight, you can readily spot women wearing orange life jackets and sitting alongside men, paddling canoes and fishing on Lake Rwakibare. The president of a co-operative says, 'We currently have over 260 members, including more than fifty women.' The president says, 'Why should women expect their husbands to provide everything? In addition, current government policy requires that women are involved in all sectors, and that includes fishing.'

Little attention is being paid to African women and children in Europe, who are faced with new forms of slavery and colonialism which they experience day in and day out in democratic states of the 'North', which are otherwise mindful of human rights. Eurostat estimates that there were some 90,000 African migrant women in Europe in 2007, but countries like Italy, France, Ireland and Portugal had not given any data. In 2009, very few countries provided the numbers. Italy, however, reported about 30,000 African migrant women.

Of the millions of dollars spent on climate change projects in developing countries, little has been allocated in a way that will benefit women. Yet, in Africa, it is women who will be most affected by climate change. According to United Nations data, about 80 per cent of the continent's smallholder farmers are women. While they are responsible for the food security of millions of people, agriculture is one of the sectors hardest hit by climate change. 'There is a lot of international talk about climate change funding for local communities and especially for women, but not much is actually happening,' says Ange Bukasa, who runs investment facilitation organisation Chezange Connect in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Representing 25 African countries and the Diaspora, the 2011 most outstanding women leaders represent a Pan-African diversity with multi-disciplinary academic, professional and social backgrounds. From poverty to women’s economic empowerment, to global warming and African women’s political participation, this new generation of African women leaders are proof that Africa can produce bold, visionary and inspirational leadership needed to lift Africa to its rightful place on the global stage.

The Law, Gender & Sexuality Research Project at the Makerere University School of Law in Uganda is putting together a book on the life, work and legacy of David Kisule Kato. David was murdered in his home in January and is considered a founder of Uganda's LGBTI human rights movement. The project is calling for submissions of essays, fiction, poetry, web blogs, art, crafts, photographs, film, documentaries, speeches, diaries, letters and other correspondence, music, academic publications, etc. that reflect any aspect of the life and work of David Kato.

The head of Egypt’s military intelligence has promised Amnesty International that the army will no longer carry out forced ‘virginity tests’ after defending their use, during a meeting with the organisation in Cairo on Sunday. Major General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), discussed the issue with Amnesty International’s Secretary General Salil Shetty months after the organisation publicized allegations of the forced ‘tests’. Major General al-Sisi said that ‘virginity tests’ had been carried out on female detainees in March to 'protect' the army against possible allegations of rape, but that such forced tests would not be carried out again.

TB is a leading cause of death among people living with HIV in Zambia, according to Justin O'Brien, policy, advocacy and communications manager for The Zambia AIDS Related Tuberculosis Project, ZAMBART, a nongovernmental organisation that aims to improve the quality of life of people with HIV and TB. About 70 per cent of Zambian TB patients have HIV, according to the World Health Organisation. Dr. Peter Chungulo of ZAMBART says that poverty and malnutrition, or undernutrition, also contribute to TB infections, whether it's new cases or relapses.

Nigeria’s new law on Freedom of Information (FOI) may impact positively on LGBT rights advocacy in the country. The law will address the situation of corruption and promote good governance, which is a foundation for the protection of fundamental human rights. LGBT rights activists could leverage the provisions of the new law to improve on their research and documentation of human rights violations on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression.

Eucharia Uche, the coach of the Nigerian national women’s soccer team, the Super Falcons’ has said she will use spirituality to combat lesbianism on the side. Speaking about what she termed, 'spiritual warfare', she recently said, 'I came to realize it is not a physical battle; we need divine intervention in order to control and curb it [lesbianism].' As soon as she was hired as the first female coach of Nigeria’s powerful women’s national soccer team, Uche expressed her concern about rumoured lesbians on the national side, describing it as a 'worrisome experience' at a seminar.

Amnesty International’s 2010 annual report on Senegal found that sermons by religious leaders fuel homophobia and undermine the fundamental rights of gay people in that country. The report was presented recently to media and civil society during a press conference held at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Dakar. Seydi Gassama, director of Amnesty International Senegal said, 'The situation of human rights in Senegal is far from brilliant. Religious tolerance is one of the characteristics of Senegalese people and we cannot tolerate religious leaders that pronounce threats against homosexuals.'

When the monthly contraceptive injection that Bernadette Asiimwe, a mother of four, got from government health centres in western Uganda was out of stock for weeks she fell pregnant with her fifth child. By the time Assiimwe decided to pay for the contraceptive and went to Reproductive Health Uganda, a family planning association, she was already four weeks pregnant. Asiimwe is not alone -many mothers like her in western Uganda have had unintended pregnancies due to shortages of commonly used contraceptives in government health facilities.

Women in Africa may be the backbone of the continent’s agricultural production, but they are not profiting as much as they should from agroforestry - the growing of trees on agricultural land, according to a study by the World Agroforestry Centre. It recommends women increase their income by moving into producing high end items like soap and wine from the same products they currently sell as raw materials.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa's first female president, has been proactive about fighting sexual and gender-based violence. The Liberian government and the United Nations jointly committed to reducing gender-based violence by 30 per cent by the end of 2011. The Ministry of Gender and Development also has a special unit dedicated to tackling sexual and gender-based violence, the Gender-Based Violence Task Force, which aims to coordinate violence prevention and response. Despite the end of the nation's civil war, many Liberian women still face violence daily.

Research from social and digital media research firm Mediabadger on the role of Muslim women in social media concludes that: 'Muslim women are a multi-dimensional part of societies all over the world and this is no exception in social media. They enjoy a rich, complex and overall positive presence online. They are very engaged and have adopted social technologies as rapidly as any societal group. The roles of Muslim women in Islamic and Western societies are changing drastically, perhaps more than any other online demographic we have researched to date. With the changes in Egypt, Muslim women there are working to better define their role and emancipation.'

The Sonke Gender Justice Network has welcomed Julius Malema’s court ordered apology to rape survivors, despite it being 15-months late. Malema, the ANC Youth League President, who had been sued by Sonke apologised to all women, particularly the woman known publicly only as Kwezi, who in 2006 accused then deputy president Jacob Zuma of rape. Malema told students in 2009 that Zuma’s accuser had had a 'nice time' because 'those who had a nice time will wait until the sun comes out, request breakfast and ask for taxi money'.

In 17 June, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on violence and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. It is the first time the UN has adopted a resolution on LGBT issues. This post reproduces the introductory statement for the resolution by South African permanent representative, Ambassador JM Matjila, during the 17th Session of the Human Rights Council.