Child Soldiers

• July 12, 2021

In times of extreme adversity, hope and light can come from unexpected places. In South Sudan — haunted by a war for independence, followed by a civil war and continued unrest in its short history — people can point to one major victory: a first-time women’s soccer league. Started just this year, it is …

Africa, Child Soldiers, Gender Violence, Poverty, Women

2 Comments

SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENCY

Estonia to Push the Security Council to Recommend UN’s Guterres to a Second Term

Stéphanie Fillion

• May 31, 2021

The small Baltic country of Estonia is ready to boost the prospects of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres winning a second term as the country holds its last Security Council presidency in June during its current elected term. “It will be very nice for us to do it,” Sven Jurgenson, Estonia’s ambassador to the …

Child Soldiers, Secretary-General, Security Council Presidency

Leave a Comment

COVID-19

Trump Disses the UN’s 75th Birthday

Stephen Schlesinger

• May 6, 2020

This fall, the United Nations will celebrate its 75th anniversary. This is a notable occasion. Most global security bodies have had short shelf lives. But the UN has shown an extraordinary durability — a tribute to how this body was conceived and fashioned during World War II by one of America’s great presidents, Franklin …

Child Soldiers, Covid-19, Secretary-General, Security Council, US-UN Relations

One Comment

COVID-19

The UN in New York Shuts Physically as Most Personnel Telecommute: Updates

Dulcie Leimbach and Stéphanie Fillion

• March 15, 2020

The coronavirus has officially hit the United Nations at its New York City headquarters. On Thursday, March 12, the first reported case was confirmed by a diplomat with the Philippines mission to the UN, who said that a Filipino colleague had tested positive for Covid-19 and had notified the “UN medical director’s office.” The …

Child Soldiers, Covid-19, Health and Population, Secretary-General, Security Council

Leave a Comment

SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENCY

Why Poland Could Master Mideast Issues in the UN Security Council

Stéphanie Fillion

• August 6, 2019

Even though many people think of August as vacation time, Joanna Wronecka, Poland’s ambassador to the United Nations, is not taking off anytime soon, as she is presiding over the Security Council for the month. As the Security Council is going to tackle issues affecting the Middle East and other parts of the world, …

Child Soldiers, Middle East, Security Council Presidency

One Comment

WORLDVIEWS

Dear UN Security Council: Remember to Protect the Children

Dragica Mikavica

• July 30, 2019

Every time the budget committee of the United Nations meets, as it did in June, child-protection advocates enter a familiar existential crisis: will the United States and China cut UN budgets specifically allocated to specialists on child protection in peacekeeping missions? I am often asked by people in the UN why a child-rights advocate …

Child Soldiers, US-UN Relations, WORLDVIEWS

Leave a Comment

The Vancouver Principles, New Steps to Help UN Peacekeepers Stop Child-Soldier Use

Julie Vanderperre

• November 13, 2017

The one sure announcement to emerge from the annual United Nations peacekeeping defense ministerial conference this week will be the adoption of the Vancouver Principles, a set of rules aimed primarily at preventing the recruitment and use of child soldiers. The conference, being held Nov. 14-15 in Vancouver, British Columbia, will feature more than …

Child Soldiers, UN Peacekeeping

Leave a Comment

TOPIC: WOMEN

UN Names Two Women to Highly Visible Envoy Posts

Kacie Candela

• April 30, 2017

Two women have been named to highly visible posts at the United Nations: Pramila Patten of Mauritius is the new special envoy on sexual violence in conflict and begins in mid-June; and Virginia Gamba, an Argentine, is special envoy on children in armed conflict, beginning May 1. The latter is arguably the more controversial job because …

Child Soldiers, Gender Violence, UN Special Envoys, Women

Leave a Comment

Checking on the Health of the International Criminal Court

Dulcie Leimbach

• December 8, 2016

THE HAGUE — At the glassy, eco-minded new building of the International Criminal Court here in the Netherlands’ capital, people who are being tried may still be called “detainees,” but make no mistake: they remain accused of such atrocities as murder, torture and child-soldier recruitment as well as gang-raping women and girls. It’s business …

Africa, Child Soldiers, Gender Violence, ICC, International Justice

Leave a Comment

Advocates for Besieged Children Say Collaboration Is Essential

Barbara Crossette

• May 1, 2016

Grim images from the small world of children are multiplying. Little bodies adrift in the Aegean and Mediterranean seas. Uncomprehending faces pressed against wire fences and barricades in Europe from the Balkans to the French port of Calais. At least 17 Syrian children and their pediatrician slaughtered by a bomb apparently targeting a hospital …

Africa, Asia, Child Soldiers, Middle East

Leave a Comment

Despite Peace Talks, Colombians Are Still Terrified of the FARC

Johanna Higgs

• August 31, 2015

MEDELLIN, Colombia — “There is conflict in every single country in the world,” a 16-year-old former combatant from the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or FARC, rebel group said at a rehabilitation center for demobilized child soldiers here in Colombia’s third-largest city. Yet when it was pointed out that there was no conflict in …

Child Soldiers, Human Rights, Latin America, Women

One Comment

Colombia Takes a First Step to Participate in UN Peacekeeping Operations

Dulcie Leimbach

• February 1, 2015

As Colombia’s long civil war appears to be headed toward a hard-sought peaceful settlement, the government may be ready to send soldiers from its huge, well-financed military to participate in peacekeeping missions of the United Nations. Colombian forces’ work in fighting terrorism was presented as a selling point by its defense ministry, but the military’s …

Caribbean, Child Soldiers, UN Peacekeeping

Leave a Comment

New Protocols and Policies Tackle Sexual Violence in War

Dulcie Leimbach

• June 19, 2014

As Sunni Muslim extremists first seized strategic cities in Iraq last week, and a United Nations spokesman for the human-rights high commissioner, Navi Pillay, said that rapes had been part of the mayhem, leaving four female victims dead from suicide, the first global conference to end such heinous crimes took place in London. There, …

Child Soldiers, Gender Violence, ICC, International Justice, Women

Leave a Comment

UN Peacekeepers Heading to the Central African Republic by the Fall

Dulcie Leimbach

• April 10, 2014

The United Nations Security Council has authorized yet another peacekeeping force for an African country, the Central African Republic, approving up to 12,000 military and police personnel who are not likely to arrive until mid-September. The goal of the force is broad, given the nation’s crippled affairs: restore law and order, protect civilians, provide …

Asia, Child Soldiers, Peace and Security, Security Council

Leave a Comment

Congolese Rebel Leader Faces Broad Charges of Sex Crimes

Dulcie Leimbach

• February 13, 2014

The first step to possibly try Bosco Ntaganda, a Congolese warlord born in Rwanda, for war crimes and crimes against humanity, began recently at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Ntaganda, who turned himself in to the court last year by going to the United States Embassy in Rwanda, allegedly committed the crimes …