African leaders, the majority of whom are men, will not easily see . This is because from the day they were born, society has taught them to view women in a particular image using a biased lense. Beliefs like: Women do not challenge men, do not speak in public, do not inherit/own property, have not rights over ther bodies, are unintelligent, are very evil etc are fresh in our leaders' minds and it explains why they marry/ cohabit with so many women.

This same attitude is translated into policies and the women will simply continue suffering. The Domestic Relations Bill was not passed by the Ugandan parliament because of the male dorminancy. They were also afraid that they would be criminalised first because they are victims of all kinds of violence against women. Female decision makers in Africa tend to forget that not everyone enjoys the same privileges as them, they need to remember the under privileged, especially their fellow women. Women just like men are human, with emotions and needs, please respect their rights.

UAF-Africa, Rural Women Peace Link and Nairobi Women’s Hospital are lobbying for services for women and children in Mt Elgon, who have been physically and psychologically traumatised by militia conflict in the region.

Two HIV-positive Namibian women who allege they were sterilised against their will in public hospitals are seeking redress through the courts, the first of more than 20 known cases, according to the International Community for Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW). The ICW raised the alarm over what it terms forced or coerced sterilisations among HIV-positive women more than a year ago, after hearing accounts of it through its regular forums for HIV-positive young women.

Twenty female detainees in the central prison in Goma, a large town in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), were raped during a recent riot, officials have said. "Twenty female prisoners were raped on Monday [22 June] night during an attempted prison escape by a group of militia sentenced to long terms and jailed in the prison," Oscar Kasangandjo, the public prosecutor in Goma, told IRIN.

The baby was born and 12 days later died on a dilapidated upper floor of the Adjamé market in Côte d’Ivoire’s commercial capital Abidjan. The mother, Aminata*, is barely 15. She does not know who the father is. Aminata exchanges sex for money – so she can eat, she said. Aminata is among scores of young girls – some as young as 10, according to a local NGO – who sell their bodies at Adjamé market, known locally as ‘Biêlôgô’; in the Dioula language, lôgô means market and biê means the female sex organ.

When the women of South Sudan welcomed the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005, they were cognizant of the fact that true democracy will be realised only when their human rights are realised. It is a young democracy battling to stay afloat against the backdrop of a fragile peace arrangement. A 22-year-war rained terror on the land, and caused unimaginable levels of destruction, killing two million people and displacing four million more according to U.N. estimates.

Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.

Through a series of five articles, it highlights key human rights issues currently affecting women on the continent, putting them within the context of the debates happening at the African Union Protocol on the Rights of Women as it provides a framework for the protection of women in Africa.

cc As the global economic crisis takes its toll on Africa’s fiscal revenues and household incomes, Hilary N. Ervin & Caroline Muthoni Muriithi fear that the continent’s achievements in human rights and development may be reversed, worsening the condition of women already struggling against an ‘entrenched patriarchy’. Despite embracing commitments to gender equity on paper, Ervin and Muriithi say many countries lack the funding and resources to implement policies and legislation. Programmes focused on women, largely funded by multi-lateral donors, are likely to decline as aid dries up the authors warn, while at a domestic level many households will prioritise the education and welfare of sons over daughters, with ‘long-term consequences for overall development’. Calling for the ratification and implementation of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, Ervin and Muriithi suggest that ‘investment in women's livelihoods, particularly in African economies,’ should be ‘a central focus of governments’ economic recovery policies’.

African Rural women farmers from Burundi, Burkina Faso, Mali and Malawi participating in the Gender Pre- Summit meeting in Addis Ababa Ethiopia convened by the Women, Gender and Development Directorate of the Africa Union and UNDP, have called on African heads of states to honour their commitment to increase investment in agriculture to 10% of their overall annual budgets.

Women Making Airwaves for Peace (WMAP) is a five-day seminar that gathers around 30 women community radio broadcasters from the Asia Pacific region. It is a space where participants share their experiences, particularly best practices towards engendered peace building and disaster management -- enabling community radio to empower women in crisis situations.

cc African women play a critical role in ensuring the food security of the continent, writes Mary Wandia in the run-up to the

cc With Sirte, Lybia, hosting the 13th African Union summit this week, Lyn Ossome of Solidarity for African Women's Rights (SOAWR) challenges African heads of state to keep women's land rights on the developmental agenda. At a time of marked global economic difficulty, women remain acutely vulnerable to unstable food prices and restricted access to land, meaning that African governments must now more than ever challenge discriminatory laws and customs, Ossome argues. If the AU's summit is offer progress, Ossome contends, African heads of state must make strong commitments to policies favourable to women's empowerment such as subsidising non-industrial agriculture and securing women's land tenure.

cc In the five years since the adoption of the Protocol to the Africa Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, some 26 countries have ratified Africa's first regional human rights instrument. But with 27 countries yet to do so, the challenge remains to see each African nation commit to fully upholding women's rights. Moral arguments aside, implementing women's rights offers clear social and developmental benefits for all, argues Norah Matovu Winyi, benefits which will only be realised through sustained political will.

“In politics and sociology you reach a tipping point and once you’ve reached it, things change,” says Min-whee Kang of the UN Children's Fund. “This is what we’re aiming at to stop female genital mutilation and cutting in The Gambia.” But a strong attachment to the practice in the country means anti-FGM activists must combat the custom indirectly through focusing on improving girls' and women's health and education.

The gays and lesbians debate threatened to split the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance into two at the just ended Constitutional Indaba held in Bulawayo as the men of cloth exchanged harsh words in defence and against the accommodation of homosexuals in the new constitution, Zimbabwe Telegraph reports. A larger fraction of the pastors who attended the Indaba felt it was the role of the church to push for the accommodation of homosexuals in the new constitution as it was left upon the church to fight for the rights of the gays and lesbians so as to win them to Christ.

An international coalition of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), mostly comprised of women’s groups, is calling for a "gender equitable" response to the global financial crisis, which is to be debated at a UN summit of world leaders next week. "The United Nations, not the international financial institutions (IFIs), must lead this process," Gigi Francisco, general coordinator of Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), told IPS.

One in four men in South Africa have admitted to rape and many confess to attacking more than one victim, according to a study that exposes the country's endemic culture of sexual violence. Three out of four rapists first attacked while still in their teens, the study found. One in 20 men said they had raped a woman or girl in the last year. South Africa is notorious for having one of the highest levels of rape in the world. Only a fraction are reported, and only a fraction of those lead to a conviction.

The mandate of the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences (SRVAW) must be strengthened if the elimination of all forms of violence against women is to become a reality. This was a key recommendation from the parallel event ‘15 years of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women: gains, challenges and the way forward’ held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland on June 5, 2009, in parallel to the 11thsession of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC).

Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and Network has the pleasure of announcing the launch of its blog platform, Zimbabwe Women's Voices. The blog will begin on the Constitutional Reform Process and seeks to provide Zimbabwean women and community at large an opportunity to voice their perspectives on the Constitutional Reform process between now and November 2009 when public consultations are scheduled to be complete.

The Bliss Women and Children Project is a Christian, non-profit organization. Our aim is to provide opportunities for women and children who are living in extreme poverty, are abandoned, orphaned, internally displaced, widowed or living with HIV/AIDS. More than 100 women and 80 children benefit from our programs every day.