On 27 January 2016 the Republic of Marshall Islands elected its first female president; also the first woman ever to lead an independent Pacific nation. A former Minister for Education, Dr Hilda Heine was one of three women elected to the 33-member Nitijela (the Marshall Islands Parliament) in the November 2015 elections and entered parliament for her second term as a senator. She is the first, and currently only, Marshallese citizen to achieve a doctorate...

The Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, (UN Women), Michelle Bachelet will attend on behalf of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon , the 43rd Pacific Islands Forum Meeting, to be held in Rarotonga, Cook Islands from the 28th to the 30th of August 2012.

UN Women is hosting a series of consultations throughout the Pacific this week on the theme of eliminating and preventing violence against women and girls.