Azerbaijan’s first women’s bar association was officially launched in mid-May with the backing of the Rule of Law Initiative and USAID. Azerbaijan has one of the lowest rates of female legal professionals in the NIS, and support to women lawyers is greatly needed.

EU Commissioner on human rights, Thomas Hammarberg, is concerned about the lack of women’s representation in politics and leading positions. “Still the power between men and women is not given equally”, said commissioner.

The Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the State Committee for Family, Women and Children’s Affairs signed today a joint project “21st century without violence against women” aimed at creating an enabling environment for reducing violence against women in Aze

Twenty years ago tonight, the assassination of Rwanda’s president set in motion the most gruesomely efficient genocide in modern history.

The call was made on Tuesday by the Minister for Gender and Family Promotion, Oda Gasinzigwa at the closure of a two-day workshop on building capacity of prisons warders on international peacekeeping missions.

The National Women Council (NWC) has elected two new members to its board.

Beatrice Mukasine and Liberatha Kakuze were elected to the council executive for a five-year term during a general assembly on Thursday at Nyandungu in Kigali.

Candidates aspiring to join parliament on the women ticket have since Monday campaigned in different districts upcountry. A total of women have hit the campaign trail in the race for the 24 slots reserved for women, in a college vote that will take place on September 18.

The National Electoral Commission (NEC) yesterday released the final list of candidates who will run in the September 16 parliamentary elections, exactly a week ahead of the campaign trail.

With constitutional quotas for interest group seats in their favour and all political parties legally bound to respect women's quota of at least 30 per cent of their parliamentary nominees, women may retain or even widen their majority in the Chamber of Deputies after the upcoming September e

The National Electoral Commission (NEC) has urged women to participate in the forthcoming parliamentary elections by turning up in large numbers on Election Day.

The polls are slated for September.

Rwanda Women Network-Village of Hope received a prize for the best practices to improve the living environment.
For more information, please visit All Africa's Website

Business Council for Peace, a Non Governmental, non profit making organisation is offering a helping hand to Rwandan business women.
For more inforamtion, please visit All Africa's Website.

Gender equality should be given priority in the national budget in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the president of the Forum of Rwandan Women Parliamentarians (FFRP), Specioza Mukandutiye, has argued.

President Paul Kagame has said that for a country to exclude women, who form a big percentage of nations' populations, is shortsightedness and a waste of human resource.

Peace keeping missions that have no women and lack awareness of gender issues can result in unnecessary tensions between peacekeepers and local civilians.
To read the full article, please visit the All Africa's Website.

Rwanda became the first country in the world where women outnumber men in parliament, according to provisional results announced Thursday at the close of a four-day legislative vote. Women won 20 of the 53 seats attributed in direct elections.

Angelina Muganza, has been elected President of the Rwandan Association of University Women's (RAUW) General Assembly.

The Gender Monitoring Office (GMO) focus on implementing the use of a gender disaggregated data framework in its 2011-2013 strategic plan. The gender disaggregated data enables stakeholders to report on the gender situation in the public and private sector.

Last month, Rwanda achieved something no other country had ever done before: produce a legislature in which women outnumber men.

Twenty years ago tonight, the assassination of Rwanda’s president set in motion the most gruesomely efficient genocide in modern history.

The call was made on Tuesday by the Minister for Gender and Family Promotion, Oda Gasinzigwa at the closure of a two-day workshop on building capacity of prisons warders on international peacekeeping missions.

The National Women Council (NWC) has elected two new members to its board.

Beatrice Mukasine and Liberatha Kakuze were elected to the council executive for a five-year term during a general assembly on Thursday at Nyandungu in Kigali.

Candidates aspiring to join parliament on the women ticket have since Monday campaigned in different districts upcountry. A total of women have hit the campaign trail in the race for the 24 slots reserved for women, in a college vote that will take place on September 18.

The National Electoral Commission (NEC) yesterday released the final list of candidates who will run in the September 16 parliamentary elections, exactly a week ahead of the campaign trail.

With constitutional quotas for interest group seats in their favour and all political parties legally bound to respect women's quota of at least 30 per cent of their parliamentary nominees, women may retain or even widen their majority in the Chamber of Deputies after the upcoming September e

The National Electoral Commission (NEC) has urged women to participate in the forthcoming parliamentary elections by turning up in large numbers on Election Day.

The polls are slated for September.

Rwanda Women Network-Village of Hope received a prize for the best practices to improve the living environment.
For more information, please visit All Africa's Website

Business Council for Peace, a Non Governmental, non profit making organisation is offering a helping hand to Rwandan business women.
For more inforamtion, please visit All Africa's Website.

Gender equality should be given priority in the national budget in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the president of the Forum of Rwandan Women Parliamentarians (FFRP), Specioza Mukandutiye, has argued.

President Paul Kagame has said that for a country to exclude women, who form a big percentage of nations' populations, is shortsightedness and a waste of human resource.

Peace keeping missions that have no women and lack awareness of gender issues can result in unnecessary tensions between peacekeepers and local civilians.
To read the full article, please visit the All Africa's Website.

Rwanda became the first country in the world where women outnumber men in parliament, according to provisional results announced Thursday at the close of a four-day legislative vote. Women won 20 of the 53 seats attributed in direct elections.

Angelina Muganza, has been elected President of the Rwandan Association of University Women's (RAUW) General Assembly.

The Gender Monitoring Office (GMO) focus on implementing the use of a gender disaggregated data framework in its 2011-2013 strategic plan. The gender disaggregated data enables stakeholders to report on the gender situation in the public and private sector.

Last month, Rwanda achieved something no other country had ever done before: produce a legislature in which women outnumber men.

Member of parliament Eva Abdulla, who belongs to Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) – which won power in May 2009, thus ending the 30- year-old reign of dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom – said the government firmly believes in affirmative action policies benefiting wome

It is a South African political match made in heaven: a revered black academic, international activist and former freedom fighter – Dr Mamphela Ramphele - joins the rising, bu

If women are not at the centre of the fight against poverty, we won't achieve what we want to, warns new head of UN Women.

 Women leaders in Parliament have called on female MPs to influence decisions on the adoption of tough policy measures to curb gender-based violence. 

African women make less than one percent of the senior counsel in the legal profession in South Africa, the Sunday Times reported. 

South Africa's Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Bridget Mabandla, became the first woman in 51 years to hold the seat of President of the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organisation today.

A 21-year-old air force lieutenant has become South Africa's first black female pilot, displaying her skill when she flew an army helicopter, media reports said Thursday.

The seventh sub-regional workshop on capacity-building of the Network of African Women Ministers and Parliamentarians (NAWMP) on Advocacy, Leadership and Resource Mobilization starts in Windhoek today. Thirty-two MPs from seven SADC countries are expected to attend.

The Capricorn District Municipality (CDM) at the weekend hosted Limpopo's first provincial Women's Parliament.

SADC leaders have deferred the signing of the Protocol on Gender and Development because some member states need more time to conclude internal consultations following late changes to the document.

Law enforcement against gender-based violence is to be strengthened, following the signing of a cooperation agreement between South Africa and the United States of America.

The Joint Committee on Improvement of Quality of Life and Status of Women will discuss women advancement and the empowerment of women in politics and gender equality with their Vietnamese counterparts.

The North West provincial government is providing a forum for women to improve their skills in Information Communications Technologies (ICT), and discuss a wide range of issues in the sector.

The United Nations Security Council has urged countries to enhance female participation in decision-making and to take specific steps to protect women and girls from gender-based violence during conflicts.

Gender activists are planning to march against the ANC Women's League's nomination for Jacob Zuma as the next party president.
To read the full article, please visit IOL's Website.

South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said she would not refuse a nomination to head the ruling African National Congress, which is due to choose a new leader next month.

Government should channel finances towards gender equality and women's empowerment programmes, says Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi.

Senior education official Angie Motshekga is the new president of the African National Congress’ Women’s League (ANCWL). Motshekga, who hails from Soweto, was elected president yesterday at the league’s national conference having received 1826 votes.

Government is considering a law that will force companies and the state to implement 50/50 gender equity, according to the Minister in the Presidency Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.

The National Gender Machinery launched its 50/50 national campaign, which aims to increase equal representation of women in decision-making positions, on Thursday.

South Africa has soared to third place, behind Rwanda and Sweden, in global rankings on women representation in Parliament after last week's elections, a report released by Gender Links on Tuesday has revealed.

South Africa's newly elected president Jacob Zuma has appointed 14 women ministers with 12 as deputies. According to media reports in the country, Zuma made sweeping changes to the cabinet making almost half of the ministers he announced on Sunday.

Women are still strikingly underrepresented in the world’s parliaments: their share of representatives is less than a fifth. However, the situation shows signs of progress in developing countries.

Since the first democratic elections in 1994, women representation in Parliament has soared, owing partly to the ruling party's 50/50 principle at national and provincial spheres of government.

Chief electoral officer Pansy Tlakula called on Friday for a quota system to improve women's representation in the public and private sector. She said the Independent Electoral Commission was not happy with the number of women candidates in local government elections to be held on May 18.

South Africans will take to the polls on May 18 to vote in the country’s fourth local government elections but women’s issues are glaringly absent from many of the party manifestos, observers say.

Victoria Zanele KaMagwaza-Msibi admits she is no angel. But for 30 years she’s navigated through South Africa’s tough political landscape, mainly as a member of a male-dominated party, and now as the leader of her own political party.

Political parties should be forced, through changes in legislation, to bring more women into government.

From June 9 to 10 iKNOW Politics participated to the workshop on the analysis of political parties’ policy documents from a gender perspective.

They move carefully between constantly changing checkpoints, where they’re often harassed. Extremists have been known to target female activists—beating them for not dressing conservatively enough. Or they may be detained.

There will be some 35 countries making statements in Montreux today. But there will be no voice for the people who have the greatest stake in these talks: the women of Syria and civil society. 

Closing remarks by UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka at the Conference on Promoting Syrian Women’s Engagement in the Syrian Political Process, held in Geneva, Switzerland, 13 January, 2014.

Women took 25 more seats in Syria's latest local elections, which also saw a bigger turnout than the ballot, four years ago, according to a minister quoted by the official press Thursday.

The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) has worked in Kosovo since 1999 to promote sustainable, democratic governing institutions in the wake of armed, inter-ethnic conflict.

Most of Macedonia's top companies are managed by men, but women are increasingly making inroads in the world of what they term "elite" business. Macedonia passed a Law on Gender Equality and legal provisions for greater involvement of women in politics, yet there is not a single woman mayor

NDI organized a public signing ceremony to launch a code of conduct for snap parliamentary elections on June 5. Though not legally binding, the document was signed by leaders of 38 political parties who pledged to respect all politicians’ freedom to campaign.

Almost three-quarters of Czechs are of the view that there are few women in Czech politics, according to a poll conducted by the polling agency CVVM and released today.

Prague- Female mayors from European Union countries have to deal with similar problems at the municipality level as their male colleagues, but it is difficult for them to advance to higher levels of politics, participants in the first meeting of women mayors from EU countries agreed in Prague tod

The Forum 50 % civic group promoting women’s participation in public life and politics has launched a new online learning project entitled “Otevrena Univerzita” or “Open University”.

Many people say that politics are rough, inherently masculine and simply not for women. This is nonsense. Politics are only "masculine" because so few women are involved in them.

Almost three-fifths of Czech men and more than four-fifths of Czech women believe that the number of women in Czech politics is insufficient.
To read the full article, please visit the České Noviny's Website.

Women in the Czech Republic face many gender-related frustrations — unequal hiring procedures, lower wages and sexist attitudes at home and on the job.

Czech women are almost absent from the lists of candidates for the autumn regional and Senate elections, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) reported Monday.

At an international conference on the new ways to overcome gender stereotypes that took place in Prague within the Czech Republic's EU presidency Kocab said stereotypes in people's thinking complicates the position of women in the Czech Republic.

The Czech Interior Ministry is to propose law amendments that would raise women's share in the list of candidates to at least 30 percent, Lejla Abbasova, spokeswoman for Human Rights and Minorities Minister Michael Kocab, said Monday.

While the proportion of women in the post-communist world’s parliaments has been slowly rising, they remain woefully under-represented in high legislative positions and in government than in many Western European countries.

The recently released Social Watch 2010 reports point out the low participation of  Czech women in top politics. The report criticizes the fact that no woman was in the Czech government last year.