Nusreta Sivac, one kick ass lady Here’s a not-so-fun fact: rape and crimes of sexual violence were not tried as international war crimes until 1995. In honor of International Women’s Day, The Associated Press published a story today on Nusreta Sivac, a Muslim Bosniak woman whose testimony and tireless work pushed the International Tribunal for War Crimes in Former Yugoslavia to prosecute rape as a war crime. Like many other ... Read More

A student at the University of North Carolina may be facing expulsion for speaking out publicly about her rape. Landen Gambill has refused to keep quiet about her school’s utterly insufficient response to the report of her rape, and she’s not alone. Melinda Manning, the school’s former dean of students, along with three current and one former student, filed a complaint against UNC with the U.S. Department of Education's ... Read More

India, in the midst of grappling with the aftermath of the December New Delhi gang rape, has been rocked by the news of yet another horrific sex crime. On February 16th, the bodies of three sisters aged 7, 9, 11, were found in a well in Maharashtra, a region south of New Delhi. According to an Associated Press report, the local police dismissed the deaths as accidental, and refused to investigate. After two days of police inaction, ... Read More

On February 15th, the Harvard College Women’s Center announced a new initiative, the “Beyond Gender Equality” Policy Task Force. According to a HCWC statement, the Task Force’s “principal task this semester is to produce a working paper that advises on the implementation of the recommendations from the Verma Committee,” offering “recommendations to India and other South Asian countries in the wake ... Read More

India introduced a new set of stricter laws regarding sexual assault and trafficking this weekend, responding to pressure from protestors and activists in light of the gang rape and eventual death of a 23-year-old student in New Delhi this winter.  While the new legislation is a step in the right direction, women’s groups are not pleased with the government’s efforts. Though the laws put into place yesterday do well to ... Read More