"A United Nations policy-making body has agreed upon a declaration urging an end to violence against women and girls despite concerns from conservative Muslim countries and the Vatican about references to women's sexual and reproductive rights," Al Jazeera reports (3/16). "Iran, Libya, Sudan and other Muslim nations ended threats to block the declaration and agreed to language stating that violence against women could not be justified by 'any custom, tradition or religious consideration,'" Agence France-Presse/France24 notes (3/17). "After two weeks of tough and often contentious negotiations, 131 countries joined consensus Friday night on a compromise 17-page document that Michelle Bachelet, the head of the U.N. women's agency, called historic because it sets global standards for action to prevent and end 'one of the gravest violations of human rights in the world, the violence that is committed against women and girls,'" the Associated Press/ABC News writes (Lederer, 3/16).