Natalie Samarasinghe
Natalie Samarasinghe is the global director of advocacy for the Open Society Foundations. Previously, she was the executive director of the United Nations Association-UK, the first woman to have this role, and a co-founder of the 1 for 7 Billion campaign. She has degrees in human rights and modern history from Oxford University and the London School of Economics.
- Opinion by Natalie Samarasinghe
- • May 15, 2023
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Nearly a quarter of women and girls cannot escape unwanted sex. Eleven percent are unable to make decisions on contraception. The recent report from the United Nations Population Fund is the latest source of grim statistics on women’s rights….
- Categories: Gender Violence, Human Rights, OPINIONS
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- Opinion by Natalie Samarasinghe and Giovanna Kuele
- • May 1, 2023
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It is a cliché, but true, to say the United Nations is needed more — and under more duress — than ever. Overstretched and constrained, it has struggled to keep up with the scale and challenges facing humanity, from…
- Categories: Development, General Assembly, OPINIONS, Peace and Security, Security Council
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- Opinion by Natalie Samarasinghe
- • February 22, 2023
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Inaction on climate. The grossly unequal response to Covid-19. Bailing out banks instead of helping the least-developed countries. The different and disproportionate approaches to conflicts in Africa and the Middle East. The failure to prevent atrocities in Palestine, Myanmar,…
- Categories: General Assembly, OPINIONS, Secretary-General, Security Council, Ukraine-Russia War
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- Opinion by Natalie Samarasinghe
- • October 27, 2022
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“The United Nations is dead,” said the Catholic Herald in 1947, two years after the UN was founded. Reports of its demise are perennial, but they seem to have reached a crescendo this year, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine…
- Categories: Africa, General Assembly, OPINIONS, Secretary-General, Security Council
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- Opinion by Natalie Samarasinghe
- • May 18, 2017
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LONDON — Since Donald Trump took office as president of the United States, numerous satirical videos have emerged, apparently from European states vying to be “second” to America’s “first.” The German spoof cites the country’s experience of walls. Luxembourg’s…
- Categories: OPINIONS, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations
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- Opinion by Natalie Samarasinghe
- • July 26, 2016
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Twitter proved more effective than papal smoke signals in getting out the results of the first straw poll of candidates aspiring to be the ninth secretary-general of the United Nations. This is one reason that although some confidentiality is…
- Categories: OPINIONS
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