It remains to be seen exactly what the Durban Platform will mean in the long run, but with frustration mounting at the slow progress of negotiations despite growing evidence of adverse climate impacts, attention is turning towards alternative scenarios where the risk of litigation looms large. Whether as a  liability claim (analogous to tobacco or asbestos  litigation against business),  or as an argument in a case about... Read more

What you make of 2011 depends on your vantage point. The year's events look completely different depending on whether you are sitting at the bottom or the top, in the old north or the old south. From the bottom, this was a year of protest and revolution, toppling tyrants and throwing up new governments in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and (probably) Yemen. So far, thankfully, fears about the negative impact of such revolutions on women's... Read more

The latest edition of the Gender & Development journal (G&D), is a special issue focusing on citizenship. It includes articles from all regions of the world, providing development and humanitarian workers with an array of case studies and points of view on gender and citizenship. One of the lovely things about my job as editor of G&D is the opportunity to learn about a hot topic from encounters with feminist activists... Read more

In the early hours of Sunday morning, governments meeting at the UN climate change conference in Durban, South Africa, set a path towards a new legally binding agreement for all countries to cut emissions. But the deal did little to meet the needs of poor people already fighting climate change, and risked blurring important distinctions between the responsibilities of developed and developing countries. In a significant political... Read more

I've been privileged to be in the Arab region during the uprisings and revolutions in what has been called the Arab Spring. I've mingled with hundreds of thousands protesting for their rights, conquering decades of fear, when for most such expression never went further than the dinner table; witnessed grown men crying in street cafes on the day they saw the downfall of their dictator; women finding themselves shaking their fists in public... Read more

The UNAIDS report, How to get to zero: Faster. Better. Smarter,  released ahead of World AIDS Day 2011, includes good news for actors in the HIV and AIDS response. More people than ever before can now access treatment - 6.6 million people of the estimated 14.4 million affected in low- to middle-income countries are now receiving antiretroviral drugs or ARVs. And increased access to ARVs is reported to have translated into fewer AIDS-related ... Read more