A wedding in Kyrgyzstan is a huge celebration. For most girls it is an event they await from their birth. Parents spend a great amount of money preparing the dowry and the feast. However, there is one moment that can ruin not only the outcome of the event and the fate of the bride, but also tarnish the family honor - the display of the first night bed sheet.

For more than a decade, NOW Foundation's Love Your Body Campaign has been calling out the fashion, cosmetics and advertising industries for promoting unrealistic images of women. The campaign encourages women and girls to celebrate their bodies and reject the narrow beauty ideals endorsed in the media.

Accusations of witchcraft in Africa have gained increasing attention because of the severe impact they can have on the lives of those accused, including imprisonment, deprivation of property, banishment from villages and in some cases physical violence.

Overall, the audit reveals that by far this is a better document in terms of women rights than the earlier Kenya constitution. The gains made include:

Guatemala, a human rights emergency is raging, and no one is paying attention.  

Women and girls are being raped, tortured and murdered, their mutilated bodies discarded in public places.

A drought developing across the Horn of Africa is now the worst in 60 years - affecting 10 million people, according to the United Nations.  

Among the most prevalent Western stereotypes about Muslim countries are those concerning Muslim women: doe-eyed, veiled, and submissive, exotically silent, gauzy inhabitants of imagined harems, closeted behind rigid gender roles. So where were these women in Tunisia and Egypt?

It's been 25 years since Phyllis Chesler wrote "Mothers on Trial" to help women fight their child-custody battles. In this excerpt from her revised book, she reviews what's changed, for better and worse.

The press conference organised by the European Women’s Lobby on 17 June 2011 in Brussels to launch its campaign ‘Together for a Europe Free from Prostitution’, was a great success. It was attended by journalists from national and European media, including the Parliament Magazine. EWL Vice-President Alexandra Jachanova introduced the EWL and its work on ending prostitution, and presented the EWL campaign material, including the video clip directed by Frédérique Pollet Rouyer and Patric Jean.

Sexual harassment against women in Bangladesh is turning deadly. According to local human rights groups28 women committed suicide this year to escape frequent sexual harassment.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Poland violated a woman’s human rights when she was repeatedly denied a prenatal genetic examination after a doctor discovered fetal irregularities during a sonogram. The test would have informed the woman’s decision on whether or not to terminate her pregnancy. For the first time in its history, the Court specifically found that an abortion-related violation amounted to inhumane and degrading treatment. The Court also cited a violation of the woman’s private life and ordered the Polish government to compensate her.

GENEVA - The UN Independent Expert on water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, the Independent Expert on extreme poverty, Magdalena Sepúlveda, and the Special Rapporteur on housing, Ms. Raquel Rolnik, issued the following joint statement:

Domestic workers -- nannies, housekeepers, and caregivers -- are some of the most exploited workers in the world. But a new international treaty has been adopted to help protect them, thanks in part to 10 years of Human Rights Watch research and advocacy. The treaty is the first of its kind.

Joanna Lipper traveled to Zanzibar in the summer of 2009 to photograph women in urban and rural settings. While in Zanzibar she visited Jambiani, a rural village on the east coast of Unguja, where some women work as seaweed farmers.

According to the United Nations and The International Campaign Against Honor Killing at least five thousand women and girls worldwide are murdered each year to preserve ‘family honour’. Many of these women are killed for making personal choices that don’t match the limits placed on them by their families and local society.

On the occasion of its 49th session, to be held in New York from 11 July to 29 July 2011, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women will hold a general discussion on the protection of women in conflict and post-conflict situations in the context of the following provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW):

NEW DELHI - India's law ministry wants the government to fund women candidates during polls, saying it will help keep a check on election funding and provide an incentive for them to join politics, the Hindustan Times reported on Monday.

VIENNA- The OSCE Strategic Police Matters Unit launched a new guide today for police on identifying and assisting victims of human trafficking.