In Afghanistan, after years of conflict, hardship and human rights violations, hope has returned to women and girls

Kofi Annan

One of the main events will be the gathering in Kabul of 800 women from all over the country.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said that after years of conflict, hardship and human rights violations, hope had returned to women and girls in Afghanistan who were again exercising their rights to education, work and an active role in society.

Queen Noor of Jordan and Sima Wali, a delegate to the UN peace talks on Afghanistan, are also on the list of speakers at the commemoration at UN headquarters.

Other events around the world include:

• Demonstrations in Bangladesh, including a man-only march in the capital, Dhaka, are held to protest against acid attacks on women.
• Philippine President Gloria Arroyo says Abu Sayyaf Muslim guerrillas in the south routinely rape and physically abuse their women hostages.
• Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf vows to end discrimination and violence against women and strive to help them attain greater political and economic rights.
• Cyprus announces plans to recruit Greek Cypriot women as volunteers in its army of male conscripts.
• In the UK, a 25-year-old Tibetan nun is to be made an honorary British citizen.
• Russian mothers, wives and daughters are feted with flowers, chocolate and television tributes in what is one of the country's biggest holidays.

According to UN figures, only about 3% of girls received some form of primary education during the Taleban's rule.

Afghanistan still has the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world.

Afghan women have also suffered domestic and other types of violence for the past 25 years, not just under the Taleban, says the UN.

Human rights

As military action in Afghanistan focused world attention on the Taleban's repression of women, the repression of women in nearby countries such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan remains largely unscrutinised, said Amnesty International on Friday.

"Violence against women is one of the most pervasive yet hidden forms of human rights abuse throughout the world," Amnesty International's Secretary General Irene Khan said.

The repression of women in Pakistan remains "unscrutinised"

Amnesty also cited the case of Turkey, where around 200 girls are killed in the name of honour every year, and the US, where it says there are continuing reports of mental, physical and sexual abuse as well as medical neglect in women's prisons.

The UN Children's Fund, Unicef, also said on average, one woman dies in pregnancy or childbirth every minute of the day - about 515,000 women a year - mainly in developing countries.

"It is unacceptable that in the year 2002 so many women die in the basic act of giving life," Unicef director Carol Bellamy said.

"There has been no significant decline in maternal mortality since the early 1990s, and that is a tragedy," Ms Bellamy said.

Amnesty's Irene Khan said the greatest challenge human rights activists faced was "the fleeting, tokenistic interest that governments take in women's human rights".