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24/4/2012
Afghanistan: 'Where is justice?' Afghans march to protest violence against women

Members of Afghan Young Women for Change staged a protest march in Afghanistan's capital Kabul Saturday, denouncing violence against women, according to AFP photographs.

Some among the group of about 30 women were pictured holding placards that read "Where is justice?"

They took to the streets following the killing of five Afghan women in less than a month in three provinces of the country, AFP said.

24/4/2012
Indonesia: 'Struggling to survive sexual violence'

Survivors of sexual violence in Indonesia face an uphill battle in recovery as a result of an inadequate legal system, police inaction, and prevailing societal attitudes that tend to be suspicious of victims, say activists.

24/4/2012
Middle East and North Africa: 'Why Do They Hate Us?'

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20/4/2012
South Africa: 'South Africa searches soul over alleged rape of disabled 17-year-old girl'

It is a country that can seem inured to violence from sheer familiarity. But this was a crime so shocking that even South Africa has begun to search its soul.

A disabled 17-year-old girl, said to have the mental capacity of a five-year-old, was allegedly gang-raped by seven men and boys in an assault that came to light only when a mobile phone video of the brutal attack went viral online.

18/4/2012
Mali: 'Crisis in Mali: fundamentalism, women's rights, and cultural resistance'

In conversation with Jessica Horn, a leading Malian women’s rights activist identifies the roots of the crisis in Mali, and the opportunistic use of the crisis by Malian and international Islamic fundamentalists to gain a popular foothold in the north of the country

Jessica Horn: Were there any early warnings that this crisis would emerge? 

17/4/2012
Turkey: 'Kurdish Women: Resilience in the face of double discrimination'

The Kurdish ethnic group historically inhabited Kurdistan, an area now divided between the modern states of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria.  Kurds form about 20% of Turkey’s population. Since the formation of the state of Turkey, Kurds in Turkey have faced marginalization  and suppression of their cultural identity and a very severe assimilation policy. In 1984 the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) launched an armed uprising against the Turkish state demanding an independent Kurdish homeland.

17/4/2012
Iran: 'Supporter of "Mourning Mothers", Ms. Mansoureh Behkish, sentenced to 4.5 years of prison'

Paris-Geneva, April 5, 2012. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), deplores the sentencing of human rights defender Ms. Mansoureh Behkish and calls for an end to her judicial harassment.

17/4/2012
Bahrain: 'My Father is Dying'

This is the thought constantly running through my head.

As a human rights defender I have learned to numb my emotions and continue working. I have been working on covering human rights violations in Bahrain for more than two years now, documenting all the arbitrary arrests, systematic torture, rapes, kidnappings, extra-judicial killings; the list goes on.

2/4/2012
Syria: 'Imam tells rape victims they deserved to be honoured'

Women Under Siege, a Women’s Media Center project that documents rape and other forms of sexual violence as a weapon of war, launched acrowd-sourced initiative today to map instances of rape in Syria.

As the project gathered reports, director Lauren Wolfe said, it found something striking. “Generally women are shunned when they are raped in war. They sometimes are not allowed to go home, and whole families can be dishonored,” she said. “But what’s really interesting is that we have a report that an imam called for Syrian women who were raped to be honored, for people to embrace them. He said they’re raped and so they are heroes.”

29/3/2012
Bosnia and Hertzegovina: 'Still no justice for women survivors of wartime rape'

It is time the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina enacted its 2010 commitment to ensure justice, truth and reparation for hundreds of survivors of wartime sexual violence, Amnesty International said in a briefing published today.

"Nearly two decades after the end of the war, hundreds of women continue to live with the effects of rape and other forms of torture, without proper access to the medical, psychological and financial assistance they need to rebuild their shattered lives. Meanwhile, most of the perpetrators go unpunished," said Jezerca Tigani, Europe and Central Asia Deputy Programme Director.