Many women in Iran had placed their hopes with reformist candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi. Today, they are among the thousands of people demonstrating in the streets of Iran.

Preliminary results from the European elections held on 6 June reveal that women will not be equally represented in the new European Parliament. While the exact distribution will not be known until the inaugural session in July, it appears at this time that women will make up around 35 percent of the Members of European Parliament (MEPs).

The US Attorney General ordered increased security for several individuals and facilities in the wake of the slaying of Dr. George Tiller, one of the few doctors who perform late-term abortions in the United States. Tiller was shot on May 31 – a killing that has lead to a heated debate on abortion in the country.

More than two thousand women met at the first Continental Summit of Indigenous Women held in Puno, Peru on 27 to 31 May 2009, in order to find alternatives to injustice, discrimination, violence against women and “machismo”. Among the resolutions from the Summit was the formulation of a continental agenda in defense of the collective rights and human rights of indigenous women.

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, and the International Centre for Reproductive Health will hold a training course for qualified gender-based violence professionals from various backgrounds in the coordination of multi-sectoral prevention of and response to gender-based violence in humanitarian settings.

On the 29 May, the UN Secretary-General commemorated the International Day of Peacekeepers, stressing the unique role played by women in peace keeping missions.

Medium and low income households in Latin America are threatened by the world financial crisis as a result of the decrease in the amount of remittances sent to the continent. The situation is particularly serious in countries where the income from remittances represents an important proportion of the gross national product (GNP).

The Dominican media only disseminates news on conflict and violence in connection to the relationship between the migrant Haitian population and Dominicans, according to researcher Tahira Vargas, writing  in the Dominican newspaper “Hoy”. Vargas highlights that it is necessary to put an end to the discriminatory media campaign in order to curb aggressiveness.

Asian migrant women in the Arab region often live in unsafe conditions and become targets of sexual exploitation and violence. They are also highly vulnerable to factors that lead to HIV infection, according to a study conducted by UNDP and the Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Human and civil rights organizations have denounced the mistreatment of women migrants in jails in Arizona. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) is currently under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department over alleged abuses of a section of immigration law that allows the federal government to deputize local police to enforce immigration law.

The Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces is launching a new Gender and Security Sector Reform Training Resource Package. The package is designed to provide a range of exercises, discussion topics and examples from the ground for stakeholders to adapt and integrate into their Security Sector Reform (SSR) training.

Lithuania welcomes its first woman president, Dalia Grybauskaite, former European Union budget commissioner, with 68.17 percent of the popular vote.