Iraqi elections officers discussing with UNAMI representative. (Rick Bajornas/UN Photo)

As the Security Council is discussing the renewal of the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq this month, concerns remain regarding political consolidation and reconciliation efforts. Women’s rights remain at risk, and their voices are still not adequately heard in the political realm. The issue was debated in the panel discussion held in New York on 9 July 2012 by Hana Edwar, Founder and Secretary-General, Iraqi Al-Amal Association and Ms. Raz Rasool, Founder, Kurdistan Business Women Association.

Photo: CAP

Visitors at the Penang Hospital learn about good eating habits when they stroll through the healthy lifestyle exhibition organized by the Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) that ends on Friday 20. The event is aimed to raise awareness on the consumption of foods rich in sugar, fat, salt and chemicals that led to obesity among Malaysians. Some worrying trends: Malaysians are the eight highest sugar users in the world, they are getting used to keep awake till late and meat is fast becoming a staple food.

Protesters "embrace" a lake near the Conga project. (Photo: Punto de Vista y Propuesta)

The International Network for Economic, Social & Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net), transmitted on 11 July a communication to the Government of Peru to request urgent action to protect the human rights of people protesting the Conga gold mine in Peru after five people lost their lives in the week of July 3, on a wave of “disproportionate police repression”.

The Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) suggests that a discussion about the implications of the proposed UN Fifth World Conference on Women in 2015, and 20 years after the last one in Beijing, is urgently needed among feminists and women’s rights activists from all regions of the world.

There are diverse opinions about the organization, hosting and purpose of the proposed conference, which have not been broadly debated, wrote on AWID’s web site Susan Tolmay, in charge of Information at this institution.

Yao Graham. (Photo: Reflection Group)

African civil society organizations called on governments to shift from being mere regulators to become promoters of investments in the mining sector at a conference convened in Accra by the Third World Network-Africa (TWN-A). The meeting was aimed to improve and deepen their knowledge on the African Mining Vision (AMV), a strategic plan signed in 2009 by the heads of State.