The recent 29 May polls in Malawi saw the number of women members of Parliament rise from 14% to 22%. About 125 women competed for the 193 seats, with 43 successfully gaining ground. For the first time since independence in 1964, Malawi also has a female vice-president, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Joyce Banda. However, this is still far from the 30% by 2005 target set by the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

UNRISD is now accepting applications for a two to three-month internship position to begin in July 2009 (preferred starting date: 2 July) in the Gender and Development Programme (GAD). Eligible candidates must be currently enrolled in a master’s or PhD degree programme (as per UN Secretariat rules regarding interns) in economics, sociology, political science or a related field from an accredited university and have academic and professional experience in issues related to gender and social development. Written and spoken fluency in English is essential.

Gender Links (www.genderlinks.org.za) is commissioning research on the impact of the FIFA Soccer World Cup 2010 on the advancement of gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. The successful research will form the basis of deliberations on interventions and strategies at the Symposium on Gender and World Cup 2010 scheduled for August (Women’s Month) 2009 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Successful researchers will be required to present their submission at the Symposium on FIFA Soccer World Cup 2010.

There is an African saying that when elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. In South Africa lately, the elephants have been the two biggest winners in the April elections-the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA). The grass is democracy and women’s rights.

As the country prepares for its presidential elections in October, government has agreed to meet two members of Lesbian, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana (LEGABIBO) in court on their demand to have section 164 of the Penal Code, which criminalises homosexual conduct, declared unconstitutional. Prisca Mogapi, a transman and Caine Youngman who is gay, through their representative Uyapo Ndadi, served the Registry of Society department with a statutory notice last month.

A senior Catholic bishop has denounced homosexuality, stating that it is against both African culture and biblical teaching.Archbishop Zacchaeus Okoth of Kisumu, who is also the chairman of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, made the remarks while addressing an international seminar on the role of universities in peace building at the Catholic University of East Africa (CUEA) last week. The conference was organised by CUEA’s Centre for Social Justice and Ethics.

Many HIV-positive women in Rwanda are infected with strains of human papilloma virus associated with a high risk of cervical cancer, investigators report in an article published in the online edition of the Journal of Infectious Diseases. Their study also showed that women with cancer-associated strains of human papilloma virus who had a low CD4 cell count were more likely to have cancerous or pre-cancerous cell changes in the cervix.

The United Nations humanitarian wing is urging greater protection for civilians in the South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has witnessed a surge in sexual violence since the beginning of this year. Some 463 women were raped in the first quarter of 2009, more than half of the total number of violations registered for the whole of last year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

This document outlines a presentation given by the Salamander Trust at a meeting on women and AIDS at the House of Commons in Westminster. The presenter details how, because of global attitudes, women with HIV/AIDS have seen their reproductive health rights and rights to liberty systematically and institutionally eroded. The document shows how some countries are now sterilising young positive women, coercing them to sign consent forms when in labour, so that after delivery when they go for contraception, they learn that this is no longer needed.

When Margaret Mensah-Williams walked down the steps after presiding over the Namibian parliament for the first time, male parliamentarians rushed to ask her how she became so good at chairing the house. "I told them women are born leaders," says Mensah, Vice Chairperson of the National Council.

Three brightly-clothed women walk slowly around the fallen, charred trees strewn haphazardly across the blackened clearing, each carrying seashells filled with indigenous rice seed to bury in the rich soil. The women belong to a local cooperative, Women and Children Development Secretariat (WOCDES), and wake early for the 5-km hike down the dirt road to their farm near Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County, in Liberia’s vast forest region on the Ivorian border.

FAWE is offering a 12-month postdoctoral Gender in African Education Research Fellowship at its Regional Secretariat in Nairobi, Kenya, from July 2009. The fellowship will contribute to a FAWE research initiative that aims to build African research capacity on gender in education in Africa with a view to improving girls’ and women’s education on the continent.

In 2008, political violence erupted throughout Zimbabwe as a result of the contested national elections. Zimbabwean women of all ages, targeted for their political affiliations, were abducted from their workplaces and homes, raped, tortured, and beaten in secret torture centers. It is estimated that from May to July, state-sanctioned groups raped over 2,000 women and girls. The local police have ignored these women's pleas for protection and justice, and national leaders have been equally unresponsive to local and international demands for an end to the violence.

Religion, cultural norms and tradition promote discrimination and unequal power relations between men and women in Africa. Akina Mama wa Afrika's Christine Butegwa doesn't hesitate when asked what explains the horrific levels of sexual violence against women in conflict-affected areas on the continent.

EASSI is a member of Solidarity of African Women’s Rights (SOAWR), an organisation made up of 26 members bent on advocating for the ratification of the AU Protocol of Women’s Rights. Beverley Nambozo met with Faiza Mohammed, the African Regional Director of Equality Now, who shared how the Protocol is being used as a practical advocacy tool for women’s and girls’ rights. Faiza shares that as of December 2008, Guinea Bissau was the last to ratify the Protocol bringing the total number of countries to 26. She congratulates all members of SOAWR upon this achievement.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce the second edition of its annual conference on critical themes in the history of Africa. The conference is part of CODESRIA’s initiative aimed at achieving the triple objective of promoting the study of the history of Africa, mobilising support for the discipline of history in African higher education, and networking African historians both for these purposes and also as a worthy cause in its own right.

South Africa’s new president Jacob Zuma did his best to follow the footsteps of his nemesis Thabo Mbeki when he announced a cabinet edging towards gender parity on 10 May. But gender advocates note with concern the lack of parity in top structures of government; the declining proportion of women deputy ministers; questionable credentials of some women ministers and the establishment of a women’s ministry.

Women's groups in Kenya have started a week-long "sex strike", in an attempt to press the country's leaders to resolve rifts and work together. Ten non-governmental organisations urged women across the nation to boycott sex with their husbands and partners along with a statement calling for reforms in government and action on promoting women's rights. Rukia Subow, chairwoman of the Women's Development Organisation, said the group believed the boycott would persuade men to press the government to make peace.

Two members of the Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana Organisation (LEGABIBO) have slapped government with a notice to sue for discrimination. Prisca Mogapi, a lesbian employed at Botswana Network Of Ethics, Law and HIV/AIDS (BONELA) and Caine Youngman, a gay member of LEGABIBO have indicated their intention to fight it out with government in court over section 164 of the penal code, which criminalises same sex relationships.

A petition demanding the government of Uganda to respect people’s rights and fundamental freedoms, as prescribed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, is doing the rounds among gay rights and civil society organisations throughout Africa. This is a result of what activists call a threat to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people’s human rights in Uganda caused by the state’s failure to recognise these rights and protect this group’s rights to privacy, equality and freedom.