By Niko Kyriakou

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 18, 2005 (IPS) – Advocates of men’s inclusion in gender equality programmes say that even though changing male attitudes is half the battle, women’s groups, U.N. agencies and governments have been slow to integrate men into their work.
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By Niko Kyriakou

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 15, 2005 (IPS) – In Syria and Haiti, a husband can kill his wife for committing adultery and get off scot-free. In Nigeria, men can beat their wives with impunity, so long as native law or custom permits it and they don’t cause “grievous hurt”. In Israel, women cannot divorce without their husband’s consent, and in Guatemala and Lebanon, men can legally kidnap women, provided they marry them afterwards.
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By Niko Kyriakou

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 11 (IPS) – The 49th session of the Commission on the Status of Women’ (CSW) drew to a close Friday with a reaffirmation by the 80 ministers, 1,800 government delegates, seven first ladies and 2,600 non-governmental representatives from around the world who attended that ”women’s rights are human rights”.
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By Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 2 (IPS) – As the George W. Bush administration tries to influence other nations to endorse its antagonistic views on abortion, feminist scholars and activists from the Arab and Muslim world warn that the U.S. move could cause irreparable damage to their years-long struggle for equality.
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