“I hope this International Year will be a catalyst for learning about the potential of quinoa for food and nutrition security, for reducing poverty – especially among the world’s small farmers – and for environmentally sustainable agriculture,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at the launch at UN Headquarters.

Calling it “extraordinary” and a “cultural anchor” in the Andes, Mr. Ban noted that quinoa contains all the essential amino acids, trace elements and vitamins, but no gluten.

The small crop is widely adaptable, thriving in temperatures ranging from -8 degrees Celsius to 38 degrees Celsius, at sea level or 4,000 meters above, and is not impacted by low moisture.

This versatility makes quinoa a viable food option for areas with arid farming conditions and high malnutrition rates. FAO estimates that 1 billion people were affected by malnutrition in 2010, nearly all living in the developing world.

Reducing world hunger by half is one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the globally-agreed anti-poverty targets with a deadline of 2015.

“Many nations in South America are making strong progress toward meeting the Millennium Development Goal,” Mr. Ban said, including by increasing food production, reducing poverty and increasing access to nutritious food like quinoa.

Bolivia and Peru account for more than half of the annual 70,000 tons of quinoa produced, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). While its cultivation is expanding to include Kenya, India, North America and Europe, most of the crop is farmed through traditional means in the Andean altiplano.

In 2011 the General Assembly adopted a resolution honouring quinoa with its own year. In doing so, the 193-member body sought to recognize the Andean indigenous people “who have managed to preserve quinoa in its natural state as food for present and future generations, through ancestral practices of living in harmony with nature.” The theme for this year is “a future sown thousands of years ago.”

Bolivian President Evo Morales Ayma, a former farmer himself, told the launch that the world today “discovered the real value of quinoa,” which stands in sharp contrast to the colonial disrespect for the food and traditional ways of indigenous lives.

He also noted that since gaining popularity, quinoa’s price rose on the world market and it is becoming a more attractive crop for large companies which are keen to change the traditional methods by which it is cultivated and cropped.

Mr. Morales has been named Special Ambassador to FAO for the International Year of Quinoa, along with the First Lady of Peru, Heredia Humala, who advocates for better nutrition for mothers and children.

“That is why the Government of Bolivia is supplying quinoa as part of a nutritional supplement programme to pregnant and nursing women, and Peru is incorporating quinoa in school breakfasts,” Mr. Ban noted, commending the efforts of Mr. Morales and Ms. Humala.

Mr. Ban added that quinoa holds the promise of improved income for small-scale farmers, a key plan of his Zero Hunger Challenge which aims to provide adequate nutrition to every person. Its five objectives are to make sure that everyone in the world has access to enough nutritious food all year long; to end childhood stunting; to build sustainable food systems; to double the productivity and income of smallholder farmers, especially women; and to prevent food from being lost or wasted.

Also speaking at the launch, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said combating hunger requires leadership from countries and strong support from the international community.

In the case of India, the attitude of the police towards rape was put under scrutiny when two undercover Tehelka’s reporters posed as research scholars to interview 30 police officers in the Delhi–National Capital Region. Tehelka reported that senior cops of a dozen police stations across Gurgaon, Noida, Ghaziabad, and Faridabad were caught on camera blaming everything from revealing clothes to having boyfriends as the main reasons for rape. Further more, some of them believed that if a woman has consensual sex with one man, then she can’t complain if his friends  join in.

Therefore, as for India, any investigations following a case of rape can be expected to be driven by prejudice, a lack of accuracy and respect, and a low rate of conviction of the perpetrators.

The situation is not different in other countries. A 2012 report by Human Rights Watch on the “Imprisonment of Women and Girls for ‘Moral Crimes’ in Afghanistan” describes similar injustices perpetrated against female victims of rape or sexual assault. The report states that prejudices of those entrusted with enforcing the law help male perpetrators of sexual violence to get away with it. The report reveals that “when women decide to leave because of abusive relationships and unhappiness,” male family members control them by making false accusations and the “ authorities [are] too willing to accept their allegations at face value.”

The report analysed three dozen cases and in most cases the judges allowed their own discretion to prevail: in the case of Tahmina J., 18, instead of pursuing her allegations of rape, the court’s decision warned that women should know that it is not safe for them to go out at night. As a result, she was convicted of zina, a broad meaning that indicates any haram (prohibited) act, and sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison.

The problem touches every continent. For example, violence against Native American women in the United States is perpetrated at an astronomical level. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs described the plight of Native American women as a human rights crisis. Amnesty International reported that Native American women are 2.5 times more likely to be stalked and their murder rate is 10 times the national average. Most disconcerting is that Native women report that the perpetrators of more than 85 percent of sexual assaults are non-Native men, as stated by the U.S. Department of Justice.

In Colombia at least two women are raped every hour, according to the Instituto Nacional de Medicine Legal y Ciencias Dorenses (National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Colombia). In 2011, a number of groups, including Oxfam and the Casa de la Mujer, a non-profit Bogota-based aid organization, teamed up to produce a report called the “First Survey on the Prevalence of Sexual Violence Against Women in the Context of the Colombian Armed Conflict 2001-2009.” The study showed that from 2001 to 2009, in the 407 municipalities that have an active presence of armed forces, 18 percent of women reported a form of abuse, from rape to forced prostitution. “This means that during the nine years in which the study was carried out, 489,687 women were victims of sexual violence. This is an average of 54,410 women per year, 149 per day, or 6 women per hour,” the report states.

It might come as a surprise that similar cases of prejudice can be found also in Europe, like in the case of the 15-year-old rape victim in Rochdale, England, who had appealed for help through her parents to the social services. She told reporters that the “Social services told my Mum and Dad that I was a prostitute and it was a lifestyle choice and that because I was only six months off turning 16, they weren’t going to do anything.”

This event happened after the Council of Europe via the Committee of Ministers issued the European Assembly Recommendation 1887 (2009) on ‘Rape of women, including marital rape,’ which drawn the attention of member states’ governments for its implementation.

The situation is not necessarily better in Greece, where beside the normal routine of the Greek society where a heavy patriarchy rules, the Sharia law is applied to the Muslim women of Thrace. With the application of Sharia law by the Mufti, which is often ratified by Greek courts despite the conflicting Greek constitutional provisions and international obligations of Greece, an effective gray area is created on matters of sexual violence and rape.

Finally, Roma women not only confront multiple kinds of discrimination as women in Greece, but also as members of the Roma minority in Greece, a community with its own discriminatory patriarchy traditions and practices. Racism, patriarchy and economical disadvantages contribute to underplay any matters of sexual assault, and rape.

A panorama beyond all words horrible. There is nothing else a woman might add here.