UNIFEM Executive Director, Noeleen Heyzer, today announced a 5-point Call for Action to make women central to every strategy in the fight against HIV/AIDS. "There is a direct correlation between women's low status, the violation of their human rights and HIV transmission," said Heyzer. "This is not simply a matter of social justice. Gender inequality is fatal."

Facilitating access to, and exploitation of, information and communication technologies (ICTs) for marginalized communities, especially women and youth: this is the main objective of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC)'s Acacia Initiative, which has launched a project to ensure massive representation of women in all aspects of the program, and to incorporate gender sensitivity into the design, implementation and evaluation of projects that are part of the Initiative.

Rwanda's speaker of parliament, Vincent Biruta, on Thursday urged the government to place gender-related issues at the "forefront" of all the country's developmental decisions, the Rwanda News Agency (RNA) said. Biruta who was addressing a conference of women parliamentarians from Tanzania, Burundi and South Africa, spelt out the need to have equal participation in development and decision-making in particular.

As reported in the April issue of the Korogocho Times, the Project launched a women's project on 21st May, 2001. A total of 8 women are now with the project and as result a new line of products have been introduced to best utilize the women's skills. These include beaded chains, bracelets, earrings with wildlife carvings from bones and wood, necklaces, tie and dye, and beaded belts.

Trafficked women find it particularly difficult to obtain redress as in many parts of the world they are treated as criminals rather than as victims. Trafficking involves the recruitment, transportation, purchase or sale of human beings, by violence, abduction force fraud, deception, coercion or debt for the purpose of exploitation.

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