Paris - Some women endured the threat of court charges and some governments made conciliatory gestures on Thursday as International Women's Day was marked around the world.
A court in Turkey charged 92 women over a Women's Day demonstration on Monday when they shouted slogans in favour of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Thirty-one of the protesters were remanded in Cizre, in the Sirnak province, pending trial while the rest were released, an official said.
Amid mounting calls for greater efforts to ease abuse and discrimination against women, some governments sought to ease criticism of their actions.
'A home is a dangerous place for most women' Algerian President Abdelziza Bouteflika slashed the sentences of all female prisoners in the country by 12 months, an official announced.
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Iran released 22 women's rights activists who had been detained after a protest last Saturday, one of their lawyers told AFP. Three activists remained in custody, though.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon highlighted how fighting physical abuse of women figures high on his agenda.
"Violence against women and girls makes its hideous imprint on every continent, country and culture," Ban said in a speech at the UN headquarters. "It is a threat to all women, and should be unacceptable to all humankind."
In Democratic Republic of Congo, thousands of women filled a stadium in Goma, the capital of the eastern Nord-Kivu province, demanding an end to sexual violence.
"What is terrible is the impunity. Sometimes rapists are arrested, but they are often released or receive light sentences," said Claudine Tsongo of a women lawyer's organisation in Goma, pointing out that there were about 10 000 rapes in the province each year.
South Africa launched a new national plan aimed at combating one of the world's highest rates of domestic violence.
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