Education

• September 12, 2020

Iran continues to enrich low-grade uranium; the United Nations finally sent peacekeepers to protect Dr. Denis Mukwege, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, after he received more death threats; and the major General Assembly session of world leaders, starting Sept. 22, features only 11 women so far, and the first one to speak is No. …

Africa, Climate and Environment, Education, General Assembly, Human Rights, This Week @UN, US-UN Relations

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COVID-19

The Pandemic’s Cruelty Visits the World’s Children

Barbara Crossette

• June 18, 2020

There are about two billion young children in the world today, ranging from infancy to 14 years old, and most of them live in developing nations in the global south. That is also where the Covid-19 pandemic is spreading the fastest. Three of the top 10 countries in numbers of rapidly rising cases, as of …

Covid-19, Development, Education, Secretary-General

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Unesco: Teach Children How to Understand Migrants’ Lives, Before It’s Too Late

Barbara Crossette

• July 1, 2019

As outrage and horror build around stories of refugee children, some still in diapers, seized from their parents and suffering neglect and abuse along the United States border with Mexico, Unesco, the United Nations organization with education in its mandate, is looking ahead. A new generation of children in countries receiving migrants needs to …

Education, Migration, Unesco, US-UN Relations

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Lessons in Making a Difference for Girls in Burkina Faso

Irwin Arieff

• November 24, 2018

So many nonprofits seem to be after your money these days. Even if you are eager to give it away, you want to be convinced that a given group is the most deserving. But how can you tell when a charitable group is effective, making the best use of your donation without wasting it …

Africa, Education, Women

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Getting Young Americans to Think Globally in the ‘America First’ Era

Barbara Crossette

• June 25, 2018

In the wake of a spate of school shootings in the United States this year, students of high school and college age are forming political campaigns for change as the country moves toward critical legislative elections in November. These young people are registering voters, although many of them are too young to vote themselves, …

Education, US Foreign Relations

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GEOPOLITICS

The Future of the French Language Resides in Francophone Africa

Joe Penney

• June 12, 2018

BOBIGNY, France — On March 20, French President Emmanuel Macron stood before a crowd at the prestigious Académie Française in central Paris. With his trademark confidence and fastidious affect, he made his case for French as a global, 21st-century language unburdened by the oppression associated with colonialism. “By making the language of the colonizers their own …

Africa, Education, Geopolitics

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NIKKI HALEY WATCH

These Female Students in Bangladesh Want the Power Seat at the UN

Herman T. Salton

• October 1, 2017

If you want to understand how Donald Trump’s America is being perceived by women in the global South, my students are a good place to start. I teach international relations at an all-female liberal arts college in Chittagong, Bangladesh, which follows a Western curriculum and is attended by 700 enthusiastic young women from 16 …

Asia, Education, Nikki Haley Watch

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WORLDVIEWS

How Can CUNY and the UN Revolutionize Education for All? By Working Together

Marianna Bonanome and Samar ElHitti

• July 4, 2017

An important meeting on global education with a dozen education ministers from across the world was held at the United Nations headquarters last week. As the meeting unfolded, we were sitting in our office a few miles away, across the East River in Brooklyn, at the New York City College of Technology, part of …

Education, Sustainable Development Goals, WORLDVIEWS

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Who’s on the Security Council? New York City Junior Ambassadors Tour the UN

Lori Silberman Brauner

• March 17, 2017

They have years to go before they could conceivably sit in the Security Council seat as the United States ambassador to the United Nations, participate in a high-level summit on refugees or cast a vote for their country in the General Assembly. But for a select group of New York City students, the ways …

Education, Security Council, UN Diplomats, UN-NY Relations

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Timbuktu’s Ancient Manuscripts Are Being Saved but Not Translated

Joe Penney

• February 7, 2017

TIMBUKTU — Down the road from the 700-year-old iconic Djinguereber mosque in this north-central Malian city lies the Al Qadi library, a private, family-owned collection holding hundreds of manuscripts from nearly a millennium ago. The manuscripts are priceless treasures of African history that experts say cover a range of topics, from minute religious law disputes …

Africa, Education, Unesco

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Educators on the UN Denounce Trump’s Crackdown on Refugees

Irwin Arieff

• January 28, 2017

More than 700 educators and students, meeting at United Nations headquarters in New York recently, called on the international community to protect refugees’ lives, encourage countries to take in “large numbers of refugees and migrants” and do more to ensure they get an education and are protected from sexual and gender-based violence. Acting as …

Education, Human Rights, Middle East, Migration, Refugees, Syria, US Foreign Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

Goodbye, Obama: A West African’s Loving Farewell

Essan Emile Ako

• January 9, 2017

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — The 2008 United States presidential election was an incredible time for me, here in West Africa. The election contributed to shaping my leadership skills and affected the course of my life. I used to take part in events at the US Embassy in Abidjan, our country’s commercial capital, as a …

Africa, Education, US Foreign Relations, WORLDVIEWS

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Young US Graduates Falter in Knowledge of World Affairs, a Survey Finds

Barbara Crossette

• October 7, 2016

In a crucial political year when candidates’ knowledge — or ignorance — of international affairs and foreign policy are topics among public debate in the United States, a new survey of what young Americans of college age, many of them first-time voters, really know about the world produced some sobering findings. The joint survey, commissioned …

Education

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John Kerry Celebrates Diversity (and His Niece) at UN School Graduation

Barbara Crossette

• June 4, 2016

For the class of 2016 at the United Nations International School in Manhattan, graduation on June 2 was a special event, held in the United Nations General Assembly Hall. The speaker was Secretary of State John Kerry, who seized the moment in a turbulent, narrowly focused political year in the United States to praise …

Education, US Foreign Relations

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Failing Public Schools Spur Global Boom in Private Education

Barbara Crossette

• May 16, 2016

While governments bask in data showing that the development goal of universal access to primary education has largely been achieved, attention is turning to what that really means in the classroom. Educators and human-rights advocates question whether acceptable standards are being met in many schools, as evidence mounts of the proliferation of private education …