medica mondiale fears serious changes for the worse, including obstructions to the pursuit of perpetrators through the courts.

Monika Hauser, founder and Executive Member of the Board of medica mondiale, will be awarded the North-South Prize from the Council of Europe for 2012. The jury decided to award the prize to Monika Hauser in recognition of her contribution to providing assistance to women in crisis-torn countries, and in particular for women who experienced sexualised violence.

The manual “Training for Women’s Empowerment” is a practical manual, informed by the idea of participation, for the training of volunteer helpers and professional counsellors, for example working in the psychosocial, legal or health sectors. It aims at enhancing the skills and the awareness of these women to work for the empowerment of women and girls who have undergone sexualised and other forms of gender-based violence. The Download of the manual is for free.

Rape as a weapon of war and other forms of sexualised violence occur all over the world, every day. Since 1993 the women's rights organisation medica mondiale has been working towards an end to violence against women and girls and promoting their equal participation in all processes shaping society – in the Balkans, Afghanistan, Liberia and many other countries.

"Violence against women is a threat to peace and security – in Afghanistan and in the world as whole." With this remark, Dr Monika Hauser, founder of the women's rights organisation medica mondiale, opened the international conference "Hope for peace and fear for women's rights in Afghanistan". This conference took place in Bad Godesberg from November 30 to December 1 and was organised jointly by medica mondiale and the Evangelische Akademie im Rheinland (Protestant Academy). Around 80 guests attended to discuss the opportunities for a just peace in Afghanistan with Afghan women's rights advocates and German Afghanistan experts. Most Afghan women and girls still live in a climate of violence and their voices are not being heard at a political level.

In 2008, Monika Hauser was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize'. Now the Right Livelihood Award Foundation released a video about Monika Hauser and medica mondiale to show her engagement and the achievements of the organization she established.

medica mondiale actively participates in the international Campaign "Stop Rape & Gender Violence in Conflict". Founded in Mai 2012 by the Nobel Women‘s Initiative, the campaign unifies women Nobel Peace Prize Laureates with feminist engaged organizations and groups within a strong alliance. The goal is to increase jointly the pressure on German and international politics, in order to finally tackle sexualized violence in war in a serious way.

The founder of medica mondiale, Monika Hauser, has been awarded this year’s State Prize by the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, honouring her outstanding humanitarian work in war regions and other crisis areas. The announcement was made by Minister President Hannelore Kraft on Thursday, October 25.