Representatives from governmental institutions, the international community and civil society came together on 20-23 April in Cartagena, Colombia, to discuss the different aspects of armed violence in Central America.

Thirty-five Moroccan journalists, men and women, participated in two training sessions on women’s participation in politics as part of the UN-INSTRAW/CAWTAR project "Strengthening women’s leadership and participation in politics and decision-making in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia."

More than 50 members of multilateral organizations, NGOs and governmental institutions attended the dialogue on “Women and Migration:  a view from the Caribbean,” at UN-INSTRAW headquarters on 22 April.  Speakers at the event highlighted the important role played by Caribbean women in the present migration processes.

The UN-INSTRAW Executive Board held its Sixth session in New York on 23 April to consider a report on the implementation of the Institute’s work and a proposal for institutional strengthening.

The new UN-INSTRAW virtual community aims to bring together academic experts, practitioners and other stakeholders from all over the world to discuss the issues of migration, remittances and development from a gender perspective, share information and learn from each other. The Gender and Migration Virtual Community was launched on 20 April 2009.

The National Council for Research on Women will hold its Annual Conference on 10-12 June 2009. The conference is entitled “Igniting Change: Activating Alliances for Social Justice.”

The Laboratory of Cultural Policies and Gender of Ecuador has launched its first blog. This space seeks to contribute to the strengthening and promotion of cultural policies with a gender perspective in Ecuador.

In Colombia, indigenous groups continue to be targets in the 45-year conflict. Testimonies from displaced Embera women tell of physical abuse and rape.

The International Press Service (IPS) is launching a new weekly newsletter called Gender Wire. “Only 22 percent of the voices we hear and read in the news stories belong to women…,” writes IPS in a press release announcing the launch of Gender Wire.

A fund to support and encourage women’s participation in the municipal elections in Morocco on 12 June 2009 will be created and managed by the Ministry of the Interior.

The president of Tunisia, Zine Abidine Ben Ali, called for his party (RCD) to include 30 percent women on their electoral lists for the legislative elections to be held at the same time as the presidential elections later this year.

A working paper from the International Policy Center for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) on the role of gender inequalities in explaining income growth, poverty and inequality highlights the relevance of gender equality, especially an increase in women’s access to the labour market, in bringing about a reduction in poverty and inequality.

Israeli Defence Forces has condemned t-shirts worn by Israeli soldiers depicting scenes of violence against Palestinians. Among the scenes on the t-shirts, ordered by troops to mark the end of basic training and other military courses, are a pregnant Arabic women in the cross-hairs of a snipers sight with the legend “1 shot 2 kills.”

A recent study reveals that the pay gap between men and women worldwide may be much higher than what has been published by official government figures. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) released a report on the situation of the global gender pay gap on the occasion of International Women’s Day, March 8th 2009.

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