Hanging from a rafter in Jane Wanjiku’s home is a calendar bearing the image of the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo. It's an illustration of how the ICC has seized the imagination of ill-treated people around the world. Wanjiku has lived in Kibera for more than 60 years and witnessed many upheavals. But the 74-year-old says she has never seen violence as severe as what followed the 2007 elections.

A leading London-based gay rights campaigner has blamed the recent break-up of Malawi's first openly gay couple on what he called the southern African country's homophobia. Peter Tatchell of Outrage! said 26-year-old Steven Monjeza and his 20- year-old partner Tiwonge Chimbalanga caved in to pressure from threats on their lives.

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Somalia (SRSG), Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, and the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Mark Bowden, invited Somali women to share their experiences, concerns and recommendations on the implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1325 in Nairobi on 9 June, on the occasion of the Global Open Day on women, peace and security.

Writing on his experiences as a gay westerner interested in LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) issues in the Middle East, A of Arabia highlights the misplaced, 'imperialist' nature inherent in Western efforts to 'improve' gay and trans rights in other parts of the world. Western-based approaches commonly neglect acknowledgement of the economic security and opportunities associated with being openly gay within a given society, A of Arabia contends, failing in the process to take individual circumstances into account.

Migration in search of work has long been common in Sourou Province, northern Burkina Faso, but the trend is increasingly for younger girls to join the exodus, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the NGO Terre des hommes (Tdh). “Migration is after all a method of survival,” Herman Zoungrana, head of Tdh’s protection programme in Burkina Faso, told IRIN. He said traditionally after the harvest people would fill up their granaries then set out to find work until the next planting season.

Progress on a "Zero Tolerance" national campaign in Côte d'Ivoire to eliminate female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C) by the end of 2010, has been slowed down by health and education infrastructure, aid groups said. Since the campaign began, 180 villages in Marandallah prefecture, in the north-central Worodougou region, no longer practise FGM/C and the aim is to double this by the end of the year

Religious leaders and organisations have greatly fuelled homophobia in Burundi. These are the findings of a report titled Religion and homophobia, released recently by the Movement for Individual Freedoms (MOLI), a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) organisation in Burundi.

President Museveni has said Ugandans are opposed to homosexuality because it is not part of African culture. Speaking to Christians who gathered to mark the Uganda Martyrs Day at the Anglican shrine in Nakiyanja, President Museveni castigated Europeans for imposing what he called western culture onto African countries.

While the two Malawian gay men Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga have been granted a presidential pardon on “humanitarian grounds”, annulling a 14 year sentence for “gross indecency and unnatural acts”, speculation is mounting on the exact conditions of their release.

With the first Review Conference of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) under way in the Ugandan capital Kampala, women are crying out for justice for gender-based violence inflicted upon them during the civil conflict in the country’s north. "Women who were raped, those who were once abducted and have since come back with children, as well as those who have lost property during this conflict are all crying out for some form of justice," says Jane Adong, Legal Officer of the Hague-based Women’s Initiative for Gender Justice (WIGJ).

This report is the number "80" of series of economic and social rights that addresses some of the manifestations of violence against women in legislation and the Egyptian laws, which takes place as a result of the gap between law making and enforcement. The report contains an analysis of this gap and the reasons that led to the occurrence.

Amnesty International has warned that a Malawian couple given a presidential pardon following their conviction of “gross indecency” and “unnatural acts” could face further harassment unless the law is changed. Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga were released from prison on 29 May 2010 after President Bingu wa Mutharika pardoned them on humanitarian grounds.

Three women in Namibia are suing the state for allegedly being sterilised without their informed consent after being diagnosed as HIV positive. The women say the doctors and nurses should have informed them properly about what was happening. The rights group representing them, the Legal Assistance Centre, says it has documented 15 cases of alleged HIV sterilisation in hospitals since 2008.

Uncertainty around food and fuel supply globally has sparked investor interest in the acquisition of large parcels of productive land around the world, for commercial production or long-term investment, writes Nidhi Tandon. But these developments, which effectively take land away from local farmers and in many cases perpetuate ‘environmentally damaging farming methods’, threaten to have ‘serious negative impacts for small farmers, in particular women, who have no say in the political and trade decisions around their lands,’ Tandon warns.

Women provide up to 90 percent of the rural poor's food and produce up to 80 percent of food in most developing countries, and yet they are almost completely ignored when policy decisions are made about agriculture and biodiversity. That's about to change thanks to a United Nations agreement on biodiversity that will ask countries to ensure women are involved in decisions regarding biodiversity - including agriculture.

Three women have been selected to fill senior-level positions at the African Development Bank, AfDB president Donald Kaberuka announced on May 14th. Cecilia Akintomide will serve as the first-ever female Secretary-General of the bank, while Hela Cheikhrouhou will head the New Energy, Environment and Climate Change department. Gemina Archer-Davies will direct the Corporate Human Resources Management branch.

In a move that probes the limits of freedom of expression in Morocco, a group of gays and lesbians is working to raise their community's profile by publishing a trail-blazing magazine. The organisation Kif Kif (Similar) released a limited number of copies of the first edition of Mithly (Gay) in April, without applying for a government licence that they claim would have been denied.

Surveys of condom use in women based on self-report may be seriously unreliable, to the extent of overestimating true use by 100%, the 2010 International Microbicides Conference has heard. This finding comes from a South African survey, but if it applies broadly it may have significant effects on trial design and mathematical modelling of the effect of microbicides.

The Pill has touched the lives of many people but – like so many other technologies – remains an unknown luxury to around 200 million women, the majority of whom live in developing countries. Unintended pregnancy is a major public health concern that endangers the lives of women and children and perpetuates the cycle of poverty. The percentage of women who do not want to get pregnant but are not using any type of contraceptive method, the “unmet need,” is alarmingly high across the globe.

Amid what he characterised as renewed grabs for Africa’s resources, former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said that women’s empowerment remains crucial for Africa’s development and must be prioritised as the continent moves forward. Annan currently chairs the Africa Progress Panel and was speaking at the Johannesburg launch of the Panel’s latest progress report entitled, “From Agenda to Action: Turning Resources into Results for People,” which identifies gender inequality as a major barrier to Africa’s development.