Today sees the launch of a new Global Campaign to Stop Stoning. Rochelle Terman examines the history of this gendered practice of violence against women. With stoning, as with all forms of culturally-justified violence against women, it is very difficult to see where culture ends and politics begi
The battle over women's sexual and reproductive rights is at the centre of much debate at the CSW and the anti-abortionists are out in force. At one event participants were confronted with a pile of small pink plastic foetuses on a table at the entrance of the room. Valeria Costa-Kostrisky reports
The engagement of women as suicide bombers in the Taliban insurgency manifests fresh directions in the approaches and ideologies of those who are behind it. Counterinsurgency measures need to pay attention to the factors that drive women and girls to join the Taliban as suicide bombers, says Masso
We are worlds apart. Separated not just by First Avenue, but by a vast gap in beliefs, philosophy, ideas and hopes. Margaret Owen, director of an NGO, reports on the battle over the text of the Agreed Conclusions at the 57th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women
Women activists from Guatemala, Colombia, Kazakhstan and Fiji came to the CSW to share their experiences of agrofuels and mining in their countries, Valeria Costa-Kostritsky reports from the CSW
Recent court decisions in Canada on HIV non-disclosure are bad science, bad public health policy, and bad medicine for women, says Louise Binder
Our peace process is a vessel for enabling more human rights violations to ensue in the near future. We need the international community to join us in strengthening the human rights of Afghan women. Let no country stand alone in protecting its people, says Massouda Jalal
Women's organisations working to address violence against older women are calling a for special convention of older people, and for amendments to the Agreed Conclusions now being argued over at the CSW.
"We want to be included. We are still invisible in the process of consultation. We are the key stakeholders. Inequality is part of discrimination. We want inequality to be included in the goals"- Jhocas Castillo, community organiser in Manila. Valeria Costa-Kostritsky reports from the UN CSW
The 57th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women opens today with member States - and thousands of women's rights advocates and organisations - set to debate how to end violence against women. Valeria Costa-Kostritsky reports from New York
Putting episodes of post-Arab spring violence against women down to a routine manifestation of patriarchy and its allied misogyny in the societies concerned may unwittingly shield power-holders from more searching scrutiny. What is at stake is no longer just women and their bodies but the body pol
