The UN Women’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based violence (GBV) initiative is taking place against the backdrop of an unprecedented global outcry.

At least one in three women globally will experience gender-based violence at some point in their lifetimes.

Bev Jullien from Mother’s Union, which is backing the campaign, told Premier why violence against women and girls is tolerated in so many societies around the world.

She said: “It’s an issue that respects neither country, nor culture, nor class and with 4 million members in 83 countries worldwide, it’s a challenge which our members face on a daily basis.”

This year’s campaign will focus on combating the stigma surrounding GBV and shifting the blame for the abuse from victim to perpetrator.

In the run-up to the launch, the Archbishop of Canterbury urged Christians to “stand up and speak out” for women and girls who are victims of violence.

He said: “One of the most important things that churches and communities of faith can do is to stand up and speak out for justice and dignity for all.”

“Gender-based violence has blighted societies from the earliest times, and continues to be one of the greatest injustices in the world today.

“No society is immune to it, and all too often, women and girls, against whom acts of violence or abuse have been committed, are unable to speak out because of stigma placed on them.”

Jullien told Premier the extent of violence…

Ashers Bakery in Northern Ireland will challenge a ruling that said it was discriminatory to turn down the cake order.

The McArthur family said they rejected the order placed by LGBT activist Gareth Lee in 2014 because the slogan was sinful according to their religious conviction.

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The hearing will take place in Northern Ireland, which makes it the second time the Supreme Court will have proceedings outside of its headquarters in Westminster. The first time was earlier this year in Edinburgh.

The appeal will start on 30th April and will be followed by other cases, such as a case on whether a policy on allowances for widowed parents breaches human rights law.

The hearings at the Royal Courts of Justice will be open to the public and streamed live.

Q: Where will the wedding take place?

A: It has not yet been announced. St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle is a good bet. It is smaller than Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral, but still grand enough for a high-profile royal wedding.

Q: Who will foot the bill?

A: For the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding, the costs including the church service, music, flowers, decorations, reception and honeymoon were split between the Queen, the Prince of Wales and Kate Middleton’s millionaire parents.

But the taxpayer picked up the bill for security at the event, including the 5,000 police officers, and the clear-up operation on the streets afterwards, with reports suggesting the total cost to the taxpayer came to between £10 million and £20 million.

Q: Will the wedding day be a public holiday?

It will be up to the Government to decide whether to give Britons the day off.

An extra one-off bank holiday was added for William and Kate’s nuptials but William is a future king, whereas Harry is now only fifth in line to the throne.

Q: When will the wedding be and what day of the week?

Royals usually have a short engagement so a spring wedding is likely. Royal weddings are traditionally during the week rather than at the weekend. William and Kate wed on a Friday and the Queen on a Thursday.

Q: What uniform will Prince Harry wear?

A: It is likely to relate to his most senior military appointment. Harry was an Army Captain in the Household Cavalry’s Blue and…

St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle

St George’s is the most likely option for Harry and his new fiancee.

The 15th century gothic church set in the Lower Ward of Windsor Castle is a popular choice for royal weddings. Charles and Camilla had their televised blessing there in 2005 after their civil ceremony.

It would offer Harry and Ms Markle a slightly more intimate, lower key venue, but one that is still appropriately royal.

It usually holds around 800 guests, whereas Westminster Abbey – where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge wed – can accommodate 2,000.

The church – a place of worship for the Sovereign and the Royal Family – is often at the heart of royal events.

With the Queen now 91 and the Duke of Edinburgh 96, the choice would be especially…

The pontiff’s trip has been designed to encourage their tiny Catholic communities and reach out to some of Asia’s most peripheral and poor.

But the “will he or won’t he?” issue has dominated debate before the trip, which began on Monday and ends with a youth rally in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka on 2nd December.

Upon arrival in Yangon, the pope was greeted by local Catholic officials and his motorcade passed thousands of Myanmar’s Catholics, who lined the roads, wearing traditional attire and playing music.

In Myanmar, Francis will meet separately with the country’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, its powerful military chief and Buddhist monks.

He will greet a delegation of Rohingya Muslims and meet with Bangladesh’s political and religious leadership in Dhaka.

Myanmar’s local Catholic Church has publicly urged Francis to avoid using the term “Rohingya”, which is shunned by many locally because the ethnic group is not a recognised minority in the country.

Rohingya in recent months have been subject to what the United Nations says is a campaign of “textbook ethnic cleansing” by the military in poverty-wracked Rakhine state.

Francis, though, has already prayed for “our Rohingya brothers and sisters,” and any decision to avoid the term could be viewed as a capitulation to Myanmar’s military and a stain on his legacy of standing up for the most oppressed and marginalised of society, no matter how…