Congo's women survivors, standing in solidarity with Dr Mukwege and his staff at Panzi hospital, have become donors to their own cause and catalysts for deep social change.  Who is standing alongside them and the hospital patients to ensure that their transformative work continues? 

“Violence against women and girls is not in anyone's culture, tradition or religion. This is about power, inequality, a lack of political will and courage to work towards a better world," says Shareen Gokal. Will those with the political will to end violence against women and girls prevail in the final hours of the CSW? 

In the final days of the CSW meeting in New York, arguments over the language to be used in the Outcome Document are continuing, with some States refusing to acknowledge the existence of intimate partner violence in spite of widespread scientific evidence and testimony from victims of violence.  

The 57th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women opens today with member States - and thousands of women's rights advocates and organisations - set to debate how to end violence against women. Valeria Costa-Kostritsky reports from New York

Internationally, the reciprocal links between HIV and gender based violence are well documented. Yet in the UK NHS guidelines about violence against women do not contain any reference to HIV. Today marks the launch of a report by the Sophia Forum calling for a national investigation

Day-to-day, Chadian women are beaten, humiliated and crushed beneath the weight of traditions. However, women were not predestined to be their husbands’ punch-bags, says Kagbe Rachel. Chadian women must be treated with dignity and respect. 

The two years since austerity began have taken their toll on domestic violence provisions, in a fracturing that cuts across institutions, sectors and lives in the UK