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by the Women's League of Burma [released 18 May 2009]

Burma's national democratic leader and Nobel Peace Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been put in the notorious Insein Prison to stand trial on new charges by the military authority. This act of the regime provoked widespread outrages globally.

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by Nina Somera

Alas the fears of Philippine women's movements came true.

On 22 April 2009, the Philippine Court of Appeals (CA) reversed the earlier decision that convicted United States soldier Daniel Smith for raping a Filipina, known to the public as “Nicole.” Three women justices of the Court of Appeals penned the decision, pointing out that what transpired was not rape but rather a “spontaneous, unplanned romantic episode.”

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by C. Nicole Mason

[Editor's Note: While somewhere in the global South women are disappointed with Obama's alleged intervention for the release of a convicted American rapist, women of coulour in the US have reasons to celebrate Obama's first 100 days in office. This commentary originally appeared on Women's e-News on 27 April 2009

On April 29, President Barack Obama will mark his 100th day in office.

For women of colour, it's also the time to mark a new era of political visibility and prominence.

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by Nina Somera

As the term of Yakin Erturk as Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women comes to an end in June 2009, various feminists and women's groups are campaigning for Charlotte Bunch for the post, which women lobbied for during the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights. Bunch is the founder and long-time executive director of the Rutger's University-based Centre for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL) which has been critical in the formation of the International Coalition of Women Human Rights Defenders and the development of the now global campaign, 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence Against Women.

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by Eman Mohammed, Women’s e-News

(Editor’s Note: This story was originally published by Women’s e-News on 19 April 2009 and can be found on this URL: http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=3984)

Every morning Mariam Al-Bursh prepares a bottle of milk for her 1-year-old baby. Then she gets her badge and gun.

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By Nina Somera

“I was shocked but not totally.”

That was how Esperanza Santos described her initial reaction to the news of Nicole’s “recantation.” Santos has been actively convening Task Force Subic Rape, a group of feminists and gender advocates who supported Nicole even before the beginning of a landmark case that convicted an American soldier for rape for the first time.