Q&A: “Mum, Were We Meant to Suffer All Our Lives?”

The post-election violence here has turned nearly 500,000 Kenyans into internally displaced persons (IDPs). Caught up in this unrest are refugees from neighbouring countries - such as Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia - who sought refuge in Kenya but now find themselves destitute once again.

Q&A: ‘Half Our Job Is Done If We Have The Imams On Our Side’

At 31, Dr Donya Aziz, was the youngest legislator to join the previous Pakistan Muslim League (Q) government. Busy running for the February elections, Aziz wants to get back into the assembly and resume the work she had to leave off when President Pervez Musharraf clamped emergency rule on Nov. 3, 2007 and dissolved the house.

CHILE: Anti-Discrimination Bill Undermined by the Right

The Chilean Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (MOVILH), together with members of Congress belonging to the centre-left governing coalition parties, have complained that conservative groups are attempting to water down an anti-discrimination bill.

HEALTH-US: Abortion Rights Groups Say Legal Fights Loom

The 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade - the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gave women the right to abortion - is being observed this week amid concerns over threats to erode or eliminate a woman's reproductive rights.

HEALTH: Loss of 9.7 Million Children Unacceptable, Says UNICEF

The sharp decline in deaths among infants and children worldwide during the past century is "one of the great success stories in international public health", the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said Tuesday.

HEALTH-SPAIN: Abortion – Education not Repression, Say Activists

Abortion clinics in Spain went on a five-day strike Tuesday to protest arrests of clinic personnel in Barcelona, the capital of the northeastern region of Catalonia.

CUBA: Elizabeth and Monica’s Wedding

The veils, gloves, roses and dresses are white. Monica and Elizabeth hold hands and exchange rings on this afternoon in Cuba overflowing with symbolism, tears, laughter and hugs from people who have supported them over the last two years.

Q&A: "Sex Work Is Work"

Katrina Pacey is a lawyer with the Pivot Legal Society in Vancouver. Pivot is engaged in social justice work through legal reform in the inner city of Vancouver. Pacey is currently taking a case to the British Columbia Supreme Court, and eventually, the Supreme Court of Canada, arguing that the country's prostitution laws violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Q&A: Righting Past Wrongs – Defending the Right to Sexual Diversity in Cuba

Cuban sexologist Mariela Castro shocked the world, and a good number of people in Cuba, this year when she announced a proposed legal reform in this socialist Caribbean island nation which would include the full recognition of the rights of gays, lesbians, transsexuals, transvestites and transgender persons.

HEALTH: Europe &#39Forgetting&#39 AIDS

AIDS has become a "forgotten disease" in the European Union, according to the man in charge of the bloc's public health policies.

LATIN AMERICA: The Hand that Rocks the Cradle… Forfeits Equal Pay

To avoid reproducing gender inequality, governments should implement integrated policies that recognise, for instance, the unpaid work done by women, according to an ECLAC report on the fulfilment of the third Millennium Development Goal (MDG).

HEALTH: South Joins Hands to Reach Child MDGs

The U.N. children's agency UNICEF says that increased cooperation among developing countries is benefiting the lives of poor children around the world, particularly in the critical first months of life.

POPULATION: Awards Highlight Media Impact

A U.S. Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, a television news reporter from the Philippines and a radio show host from Cameroon were among the 12 recipients of the Population Institute's 28th Annual Global Media Awards for Excellence in Population Reporting Wednesday.

RIGHTS: Fight Against Homophobia Moves to World Stage

On Aug. 9, as South Africans celebrated National Women's Day, which marks the 51st anniversary of women's resistance to the apartheid-era pass system restricting free movement, three lesbians were brutally murdered in two separate incidents.

WORLD AIDS DAY-INDIA: Sexing Up Safe Sex to Limit HIV Spread

Sex workers in this eastern metropolis are being encouraged to put pleasure back into their services as one way of limiting the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

WORLD AIDS DAY-CUBA: Volunteers on the Front Line of Prevention

While scientists devote their best efforts to developing an AIDS vaccine, prevention continues to be the most effective way of containing the pandemic which has already caused the deaths of 2.1 million people this year, and new infections in another 2.5 million people.

RIGHTS-COTE D&#39IVOIRE: Fighting FGM From Mosque and Pulpit

In certain parts of Africa, female genital mutilation (FGM) has been linked to religion, with Muslim communities mistakenly believing that the practice is a religious requirement. But in Côte d'Ivoire, religion is also being put at the service of fighting FGM.

NICARAGUA: At-Risk Pregnancy Means Death or Prison

Nearly 90 women have died in Nicaragua as a direct or indirect result of the repeal, one year ago, of the legislation permitting abortion in cases of risk to the mother’s health, according to women’s and human rights groups.

SOUTH ASIA: Youth Demand Sex Education in Schools

Sahinaz Khatun, who is preparing for her school finals in a village in West Bengal state, has for the last two years kept condoms (and birth control pills) at her home and thinks nothing of discussing subjects like menstruation hygiene and masturbation with other adolescents.

RIGHTS-ASIA: &#39Fundamentalism Plays Out on Women&#39s Bodies&#39

They twisted it, turned it and tore it apart, but the term ‘religious fundamentalism’ defied definition. But they were certain that it worked against women’s rights.

SOCIETY-BALKANS: Facing &#39Extinction&#39, Nations Seek Babies

A young woman lost her job in a small town in Serbia after she gave birth to a baby boy and was to be absent from work for a year. That sacking shook up a nation.