Just last month the UN reported over 500 mass rapes in eastern Congo over a two month period. Women were the primary victims of violence perpetrated by armed combatants and even some Congolese soldiers. According to UN envoy Margot Wallstrom, rape has become the weapon of choice in eastern Congo.

This latest round of sexual violence hit the major media networks, but how many have gone unnoticed? Rape has become so common – practically reaching the status of an endemic in the DRC – that often it fails to trigger a response. In the long and protracted conflict in the DRC, women constitute a high portion of the victims' statistics. It's a horrifying illustration of the fact that women are most deeply affected by war.

In today's armed conflicts, women and girls face the worst perils: death, rape, sexual abuse, kidnapping, enslavement and displacement. Gender crimes and sexual violence play a prominent role in many conflicts as a method of torture, a form of humiliation, and a way to spread terror and fear. Women are often shamed and ostracized, and communities are destroyed. Almost inevitably, conflicts target people at the margins of society, especially women, and they are likely to bear the brunt of the fallout in the post-conflict period.

Authorities in Kyrgyzstan have reported that more than half, approximately 57,500, of the individuals who left Kyrgyzstan for Uzbekistan have returned home. Reports from inside Kyrgyzstan indicate that 75,000 Kyrgyz citizens fled to Uzbekistan but international aid groups are saying that over 100,000 Kyrgyz citizens actually left the country. In addition to people leaving the country, many more people, approximately 300,000 people, are internally displaced.

Why are they returning home? Has the violence subsided? The answer is not really. Even though Large-scale unrest has ceased in the country's south, tension still remains high, security forces are carrying out raids and human rights organizations are accusing the police of looting. Officials are reporting that as many as 2,000 people may have been killed during the fighting that took place earlier this month.

In spite of the present tension, the interim leader, Roza Otunbayeva, still wants to continue with the plan of having a constitutional referendum on Sunday. Some say that this is not a good idea because there is a high risk of causing new unrest, but Otunbayeva insists that holding the constitutional referendum is essential for ensuring stability back in Kyrgyzstan.

Until a week or so ago, most Americans probably couldn't locate the nation of Kyrgyzstan on a map. However, ethnic violence has now broken out in the country in dramatic fashion, following a coup in early April, and the small Central Asian republic is now dominating the news.

What exactly is behind the recent upheaval? Violence, concentrated primarily in the nation's second-largest city, Osh, has been directed against ethnic Uzbeks, who make up a minority of Kyrgyzstan's population but have a strong presence in the southern region where Osh is located.  As of Monday, the Kyrgyz government claims that at least 124 people have been killed, with more than 1,600 wounded; however, the numbers may well be higher.  At least 150,000 ethnic Uzbeks from Kyrgyzstan have fled across the border to neighboring Uzbekistan, leading to the potential for a humanitarian crisis.

The Kyrgyz government, which appears to have little or no control over the situation in the southern part of the country, has appealed to neighboring Russia to send peacekeeping troops to help quell the violence.  However, at this time the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a regional organization composed of former Soviet states and led by Russia, had not yet reached a decision on sending troops to Kyrgyzstan.

Sunday marked the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, commemorating victims who have suffered the effects of the deadly weapons. Antipersonnel landmines have been dubbed indiscriminate killers, as they injure and kill more civilians than soldiers. In the wake of armed conflict, women and children often come across these hidden killers - in fields or on the way to school - and are maimed or killed.

The 1997 Mine Ban Treaty prohibits all use, production and trade of antipersonnel mines, provides timelines for destroying stockpiles, and recommends assistance programs for mine victims. Although 156 other countries have signed and ratified the Mine Ban Treaty, the U.S. has not. All U.S. military allies are party to the treaty, and Cuba is the only other country in this hemisphere that hasn't signed the treaty. Given that the U.S. was the first country to call for the elimination of landmines in the 1990s, the U.S. ought to sign the treaty to solidify its commitment to arms control.

In 2009, 67 national organizations asked President Obama to undertake a review of U.S. landmine policy. The State Department announced the beginning of the review in December 2009, and there is hope that it will end with a decision to accede to the Mine Ban Treaty.