'What interventions are needed to improve the legal position of women, especially in Muslim societies, so that women's rights exist not only on paper but are realised in practice? Drawing on interviews conducted in Egypt, Yemen and Jordan in early 2008 with affected individuals, activists and people involved in development projects, this report proposes three key areas of action: formal legal reforms, improving women's access to their rights, and working closely with traditional and religious au more...

Abstract: 'The failure to respond adequately to the human rights and public health needs of men who have sex with men and transgender people is reflected in epidemiological data. Almost universally, even in generalized HIV epidemics, men who have sex with men are more affected by HIV than the general population. Biologically, unprotected receptive anal sex poses a much higher risk than unprotected receptive vaginal sex, whether that anal sex is heterosexual or homosexual.
In addition, people wi more...

'The plight of women in Iraq today has gone largely ignored, both within Iraqi society and by the international community. For more than five years, headlines have been dominated by political and social turmoil, the chaos of conflict and widespread violence. This has overshadowed the abysmal state of the civilian population’s day-to-day lives, a result of that very turmoil and violence.

Behind the headlines, essential services have collapsed, families have been torn apart and women in parti more...

'This report gathers people’s observations of climate change in Malawi and what it means for their lives and livelihoods. They describe rising temperatures, longer drier seasons and more intense and concentrated rainfall. The report shows how climate change interacts with poverty and environmental pressures to create a spiral into vulnerability. Women in particular suffer, having to spend even more time growing food and gathering increasingly scarce water and wood. Furthermore, anything that w more...

A steep decline in the number of girls as compared to boys born in India highlights a deepening crisis in the country. Due to a strong cultural preference for sons and the easy availability of technology to determine the sex of a fetus, sex selective abortions have increased radically. Statistics show that in the last hundred years, 35 million females are missing from the population. The 2001 census showed that there are 927 girls for every 1000 boys in the 0-6 age group, nationally. In an effor more...

D3 Systems released “Different Faces of Shari’a: Women’s Aspirations in Saudi Arabia and South Asia”; the fourth in the Women in Muslim Countries (WIMC) white paper series sponsored by D3. The paper compares the attitudes and desires of women living in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh with those living in Saudi Arabia. Findings indicate that Saudi women desire better health care and education while South Asian women mainly seek financial security.

Conducted in twenty-two Muslim n more...

The Issue Brief analyses the importance of gender relations in the context of civil wars and gives an idea about possible steps for changing gender relations in post-conflict situations. The Issue Brief refers to new approaches and instruments for establishing and securing peace.

'Drawing on a workshop that was held at Harvard in July of 2006, this booklet presents an introductory guide for practitioners who are interested in tackling the challenge of measurement in the field of human rights.

It provides an outline of the workshop, and provides a collection of frameworks and case-examples aimed at breaking down the barriers that keep human rights organizations from developing impact metrics that the rest of the world can understand.'

'What exactly are the barriers to gender equality in Azerbaijan, and to what extent do traditional gender attitudes contribute to them? Survey data demonstrate that, while some gender attitudes in Azerbaijan tend to be passed from generation to generation, others are evolving with the gradually changing circumstances in families, communities, neighbourhoods, and society in general. Still, they confirm that women’s participation in economic, social, and political life is largely determined by t more...

The goals of this study are threefold: 1) To report the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) among currently married or cohabiting women in 10 developing countries; 2) To identify key characteristics in each country, including couple characteristics, associated with experiencing physical or sexual IPV; and 3) To describe the association between women's experience of IPV and selected reproductive, nutritional, and child health outcomes. This report analyzes data from 10 recent Demographi more...