United Nations Radio

Ellen Margarethe Løj

There's a saying that if you educate a woman, you educate a nation. For this reason, the UN country team in Liberia is working to keep girls in school as well as encouraging women in small-scale business ventures. Ellen Margarethe Løj who heads UNMIL, the UN peacekeeping mission Liberia, sees a lot of hope for the future when she visits the country's classrooms. She says the fact that the country is home to Africa's only female leader-President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf-is also a source of pride and inspiration.

UNIFEM Encourages Increased Participation of Women in the Political Process

women in politics

Women's political participation and their access to decision-making roles are key rights defined in several Articles in the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, and in the Millennium Development Goals. But in many parts of the world, in particular the Arab World, women lag far behind their male counterparts in governance and economic institutions. For example, in 2008, women in the Arab World occupied only 9% of positions in legislative bodies, compared to 20% in Europe and the Americas. UN Radio's Kate Adair attended the recent Commission on the Status of Women held at UN's headquarters in New York where women's political participation was discussed, and filed this report.

Jonathan Torgovnik with his photos of Rwanda

UN Hosts Photo Exhibit on Children Born From Rape During Rwanda Genocide

As part of the activities marking the observance of the 15th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide, an exhibition entitled Intended Consequences: Photographs and Interviews' was held at UN Headquarters in New York. It chronicled the stories of some of the 20,000 children born from rape committed during the 1994 genocide in which an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed in the span of 100 days. UN Radio's Asha Jomis talks to the exhibit's creator, Jonathan Torgovnik, in this feature which also includes the words of women who were systematically raped, sexually abused and intentionally infected with HIV/AIDS during the genocide.

Producer:  Dianne Penn
duration: 14'00"