Pregnancies Don’t Wait for Emergencies to End

When disaster strikes, the initial humanitarian response tends to focus on basic commodities like food and shelter. But as the crisis or conflict drags on, other critical needs often go unmet – such as prenatal care for pregnant women, and emergency contraception for victims of sexual assault.

Time to Drag Sextortion into the Light

In their 2010 book "Half the Sky", Pulitzer Prize-winners Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn write about a disturbing but not uncommon problem in Southern Africa - male teachers who trade good grades for sex with students.

ARGENTINA: Proposal to Go after Clients of Sex Trafficking Victims

An Argentine government proposal to crack down on clients benefiting from the trafficking of persons for the purposes of sexual exploitation has unleashed a heated debate between feminist organisations that support the idea and sex workers who are opposed to it.

Patriarchy and Fundamentalism Two Sides of the Same Coin

While "fundamentalism" has become something of a buzzword in the past few years, particularly in the West in connection with Islam, it in fact exists in every region and religion, and has a set of common characteristics, say activists who have studied the question for years.

U.S.: Women’s Health in Crosshairs of Republican Congress

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are seeking to eliminate the federal family planning programme and cut funding from Planned Parenthood, one of the country's leading providers of reproductive health care to low-income women.

Rape in the Ranks, the U.S. Army’s Dirty Secret

In his commencement address to cadets at West Point Military Academy last year, U.S. President Barack Obama proclaimed, "In the 21st century our women in uniform play an indispensable role in our national defence. Time and again they have proven themselves to be role models, not only for our daughters but also for our sons."

ARGENTINA: Progress in the Fight for Gender Identity

"In my family, they always saw me as a girl, but at school they called me by my boy's name, which is why I dropped out," Paula Sosa, a transvestite who recently managed to change her name on her identity document, told IPS.

U.N. Intensifies Campaign Against Female Genital Mutilation

The United Nations is intensifying its global campaign to eliminate one of the most widely-condemned religious and cultural rituals in the world today, mostly in Africa and Asia: female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C).

U.S.: Super Bowl Draws Fans, and Human Traffickers

This weekend, thousands of people will temporarily migrate to Arlington, Texas, to attend U.S. football's Holy Grail - Super Bowl XLV. They expect to watch the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers, and to enjoy a performance by the Black Eyed Peas during half-time.

Q&A: Meeting a World of Seven Billion with Optimism

Before the end of 2011 there will be more humans on earth than in all of the planet's 4.5-billion-year history. As the world steels itself to support its seven billion-strong population, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, the new executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), greets the impending challenges with gusto.

MALAYSIA: Muslim Gay Faces Govt Wrath

Muslim engineer Azman Ismail has sparked a huge storm of criticism, invited official censure and even death threats by going on YouTube.com and confessing that he is a gay.

HAITI: Women Wonder if They’ll Ever Feel Safe Again

Up a rubble-strewn street, turn right past a crumbled house, and 60 men and women are in the yard and parlor of the offices of the Commission of Women Victim-to-Victim (Komisyon Fanm Viktim pou Viktim, KOFAVIV) association.

PHILIPPINES: Catholics Risk Excommunication Over Reproductive Rights

Support for reproductive health legislation, popularly known as the RH Bill here, has snowballed on social websites and among peer networks, yet passage and funding of the bill remain uncertain. Catholic bishops have long used the threat of excommunication in the raging debates over use of modern contraceptive methods - such as pills, IUDs and condoms - in the Southeast-Asian nation of over 92 million, 85 percent of whom are Catholic.

ZIMBABWE: In the Eye of the HIV/Aids Storm

Teenage commercial sex workers are finding themselves at the centre of the HIV/AIDS storm amid concerns of widespread lack of condom use and a spike in the number of infections among this demographic, despite the country’s continuing HIV/AIDS campaigns, which health authorities say has seen a drop in prevalence in the past few years.

Women Fight Assault Over Internet

Millions use Facebook to keep in touch with their friends, post photos of reunions and parties and share links to interesting articles and videos. But for 24-year old Maria (not her real name), the popular social networking site became a source of public shame when a former boyfriend posted nude photos and videos of her in an account he had created under her name.

COSTA RICA: Infertile Controversy over Right to Form a Family

Costa Rica is one of the few countries in the world where in vitro fertilisation (IVF) is illegal. And the Vatican wants it to stay that way: Pope Benedict XVI himself recently urged the government not to pass a law that would make it legal.

Q&A: “Child Marriage Is a Form of Violence Against Women”

At the start of this month, the U.S. Senate unanimously adopted the 'International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act'. Women's rights groups are now urging the Congress's lower chamber to pass it before adjourning at the end of the year.

CHILE: Flood of Criticism for “Retrograde” AIDS Campaign

"It’s much more fun to die of old age than to die of AIDS. And if you die with your lifelong partner, so much the better. Avoid AIDS: be faithful" is one of the controversial TV spots in this year’s edition of the annual anti-AIDS campaign by Chile’s Health Ministry.

CUBA: Foreign Ministry Explains Controversial “Sexual Orientation” Vote to Activists

Gay rights advocates in Cuba received an unprecedented response from Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, in a meeting held at the ministry itself, after they complained about this country’s support in the United Nations for an amendment seen as a step backwards from the government’s position against discrimination based on sexual orientation.

CUBA: “Sexual Orientation” Vote in UN Panel Kicks Up Controversy

An unusually strong controversy has broken out in Cuba over a vote by the delegation from this Caribbean nation in favour of an amendment that left out the specific mention of sexual orientation in a United Nations General Assembly resolution on extrajudicial, arbitrary or summary executions.

Slowly Winning Fight Against FGM in Northern Senegal

The harm done by female genital mutilation is still enormous in Podor, a city in the north of Senegal, say officials at the local hospital. While the practice is declining slightly, some religious leaders in the region still support it.