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International Women's Rights Action Watch-Asia Pacific will conduct a Regional Training of Trainers for women's rights leaders in the Asia Pacific region who wish to promote equality and the human rights of women through engagement with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The training will be held in Wadduwa, Sri Lanka, from 10-16 December 2006.

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"It is time to empower women to truly develop Third World countries like the Philippines". This was the prevailing statement during the launch of the book Using Gender Research in Development: Food Security in Practice by International Food Policy Research Institute Senior Research Fellow Agnes Quisumbing at Miriam College last 29 August. The book launch was sponsored by the schools Women And Gender Institute. Using Gender Research in Development: Food Security in Practice can be downloaded for free at <http://www.ifpri.org>

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Critical Half, the bi-annual academic journal of Women for Women International, is currently seeking submissions for its Winter 2007 issue, which will focus on how men can be engaged to promote positive change in gender relations at the family, community, and national levels.

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Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, is appealing for support in the wake of threats from the Iranian government to close down the Kanoon Modafean Hogooge Bashar or the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), a facility she co-founded with the most prominent lawyers in Iran in 2002.

I kindly request that you broadcast this message by all means and gather spiritual support for our center, she appealed in a message broadcast over the internet on 18 August. According to Human Rights Watch, (HRW), on August 3, a statement from Irans Ministry of Interior (MI) claimed that DHRC was an illegal organisation since it had not obtained the proper permit.

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Gender parity in the southern African sub-region is accelerating as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) endorsed the process of drafting the SADC Gender Protocol (SGP). SADC member states commited to the task during its annual summit in Lesotho on August 17-18.

In recognition of the critical role the womenfolk play in the development of our region, you may also wish to know that the SADC Secretariat has initiated consultations with Member States in drafting the SGP, Right Honorable Pakalitha Mosisili, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Lesotho and Chairperson of SADC said at the post-summit media briefing. The proposed SGP follows an audit of the 1997 SADC Declaration on Gender and Development (SDGD). The audit was conducted by experts from the region and coordinated by the organization Gender Links (GL).

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2007 Feminist Dialogues preparations begin in earnest

Building common political agendas; identifying global strategies to address fundamentalisms, globalisation, and militarism towards democracies for diverse global women's movements; moving forward. These were the buzz words at the planning meeting for the Feminist Dialogues (FDs) held at Nairobi, Kenya from 5-9 August 2006.