-The Times of India   An unmarried Hindu woman is entitled to equal share in ancestral or coparcenery property along with other male members under the amended Hindu Succession Act, the Supreme Court has held. Coparcenary refers to equal inheritance which was restricted only to male members of the Hindu Undivided Family but after succesive amendements several states have chosen to extend the benefit to unmarried female members too. A bench of justices...

Migrant workers and minorities are among groups that continue to face discrimination in the labour market as a result of the global economic crisis, despite positive advances in anti-discrimination laws, the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) said in a report unveiled today. “Economically adverse times are a breeding ground for discrimination at work and in society more broadly. We see this with the rise of populist solutions,” said ILO Director-General...

Participants at a United Nations summit today outlined a 10-year plan to support the world’s most vulnerable countries overcome poverty, calling on the private sector to play a greater role in the fight, urging wealthy nations to step up their aid commitments and demanding the elimination of many trade barriers. The Istanbul Programme of Action to spur development and economic growth was made public at the end of the Fourth UN...

Doubts are emerging over whether cash transfers, designed to strengthen local markets, also empower women and change gender roles in emergencies. "Gender relations are quite complex and you cannot assume US$50 is going to change that," Sarah Bailey, research officer at the Humanitarian Policy Group, told IRIN. "You cannot assume targeting women necessarily leads to their empowerment or promotes gender equality." According to a joint report by Oxfam Great Britain and Concern...

Senior United Nations officials today stressed the need to promote the participation of women in decision-making, noting that democracy and gender equality are interlinked and mutually reinforcing. “While women’s political participation improves democracy, the reverse is also true: democracy is an incubator for gender equality,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his remarks at a roundtable held at UN Headquarters on gender equality and democracy. “It provides public space for discussion of human...