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by Nina Somera, Isis International

Nepali women's organisation, Saathi in collaboration with other women's groups is set to produce an NGO Nepal Report on Beijing +15 in time for the Asia Pacific NGO Forum on Beijing + 15 in October 2009 in Manila and the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in March 2010 in New York. This report will be based on the outputs of a conference from 13-14 September 2009 that will be attended by over 150 feminists and women's organisations in the country.

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by Nina Somera, Isis International

Ruptured womb and anus.

This was how a nurse described the state of a beautiful woman who was rushed by men who have so much to say on her nightmares in the last days of her life.

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by Nina Somera, Isis International

About two months since Bangladesh's High Court prohibited sexual harassment, feminists are feeling all the more the opportunities and challenges of a long overdue measure. Although this policy remains temporary until a law is passed, the Bangladesh National Woman Lawyers Association (BNWLA) are already seeing some positive developments.

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by Cai Yiping, Isis International

In the recent years, sex birth ratio has become one of the more prominent issues that hound China. Chinese demographers estimate that men will outnumber women by 300 million in 2020 if the trends persist. In 2005, the national sex birth ratio stood at 119 boys to 100 girls, higher than the average 106 to 107. In some provinces like Hainan, Jiangxi and parts of Zhenjiang, this figure may even be as high as 140 boys.

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(Editor's Note: This was written by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, originally posted on the APWW mailing list on 28 July 2009.

No more discriminatory evidence practices in sexual assault law, said the main law making body in Solomon Islands. With a chorus of support the Solomon Islands Parliament made important strides towards gender equality in its law by changing four legal practices in its newly passed Evidence Act 2009. The changes should also remove major obstacles to successfully prosecuting offenders in sexual assault cases.

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by Nina Somera, Isis International

Feminist organisations and networks welcome the appointment of Rashida Manjoo as the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women. Manjoo is a South African feminist lawyer who has been working on the area of VAW for many years in various countries such as Algeria, Nigeria, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as well as in the Middle East. In South Africa, she served as an Advocate of the High Court and the country's Commission on Gender Equality. She also founded the Gender Unit of a Law Clinic at the University of Natal and the Domestic Violence Assistance Programme at the Durban Magistrates Court.