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by Nina Somera, Isis International

Iranian women's human rights defender Shadi Sadr was abducted by plainclothed agents on a busy street last Friday morning, 17 July 2009. Sadr has been one of the leading feminist activists in the country. She served as director of Raahi, a legal centre for women. She is also a journalist who regularly writes for Meydaan and a pioneer of the first website dedicated to Iranian women, Zanan-e Iran.

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by Annie Serrano, Asia Pacific Women's Watch and Miriam College

This serves as an invitation to all organizations interested in conducting workshops during the forthcoming Asia Pacific-NGO Forum on Beijing+15. Parallel workshop sessions should contribute substantive inputs and discussions to the Forum theme and agenda.

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by the Chinese Women’s Research Society and Cai Yiping, Isis International

The All-China Women's Federation International Liaison Department and the Chinese Women’s Research Society held a non-governmental organisation conference on the 15th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women. on 15 June 2009 in Beijing, China

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No Commitments to Reforming the Financial Architecture!!!
by the Women's Working Group in Financing for Development

[This statement was issued at the end of the UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development that was held from 24 to 26 June 2009 in New York, United States. For more information on the conference, please visit, http://www.un.org/ga/econcrisissummit/ ]

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Asia Pacific NGO Forum on Beijing+15
22-24 October 2009
Miriam College, Quezon City, Philippines

Sisters in Asia and the Pacific,

I am pleased to accept my nomination as Convener of the Asia Pacific NGO Forum on Beijing + 15, which will be held on 22-24 October 2009 at Miriam College, Quezon City, Philippines. I thank the Asia Pacific Women’s Watch (APWW), the Forum organizers, for entrusting to me the challenging and exciting task of bringing together women from Asia and the Pacific and beyond to once again take stock of the situation of women and craft responses to overcome persistent and emerging threats to the realization of commitments made in Beijing.

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by Bianca Miglioretto, Isis International

Whatever happened five years after Beijing + 10?

Ten experts from the Asia-Pacific region assessed the past five years since Beijing + 10, which seem to have lost its place on a horizon of policy priorities, during a recent Experts Meeting at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) in Bangkok, Thailand. Representatives of non-government organisations, academe and the United Nations agreed that Beijing + 10 has been left behind with the attention that has been given to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the UN Aid Effectiveness. While the latter are equally important, it cannot be denied the dent such shift has made on women's movements.