Gender-Based Violence

The UN-Led Peace Process for Syria Has Failed. Women Must Be Part of the Next One.

March 8, 2021

COPENHAGEN — In her book, “The Second Sex,” Simone de Beauvoir argued that one is not born but rather becomes a woman. De Beauvoir emphasized that destiny is not a cosmic force but a human choice, a result of circumstances and culture. It follows that circumstances and social determinants dictate a woman’s role in …

Gender-Based Violence, Middle East, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, WORLDVIEWS

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TOPIC: WOMEN

What the World Learned About Women’s Talents in a Hellish Year

February 22, 2021

by Barbara Crossette

It was a tough and discouraging year, 2020, for women around the world as they prepare for the 12-day annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women. It begins at the United Nations — mostly virtually — on March 15. Last year, it was canceled, though a large UN forum commemorating the …

Gender-Based Violence, Women

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THIS WEEK @UN

US Recommits to the Human Rights Council; Atrocities in Mali; a New Candidate for the UN’s Top Job

February 12, 2021

by Ivana Ramirez

The US returns to the Human Rights Council; atrocities documented in the Mali conflict; a woman declares her candidacy for UN secretary-general. You are reading This Week @UN, a summary of the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from the UN spokesperson’s press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. In …

Gender-Based Violence, General Assembly, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, UN Peacekeeping

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UN Probe Details Atrocities in Mali and Civilian Deaths From French Airstrikes

February 8, 2021

by Clair MacDougall

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — A recent United Nations investigation has documented years of grave human-rights violations, including war crimes and other atrocities, in Mali that have gone unpunished as the UN peacekeeping mission there struggles to stabilize the troubled West African nation. A highly detailed, 336-page report on the abuses, obtained in full by …

Africa, Gender-Based Violence, Secretary-General, Security Council, UN Peacekeeping, US Foreign Relations

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TOPIC: WOMEN

US Aid Returns to UNFPA Amid Efforts to End Global Gag Rule Permanently

January 31, 2021

by Barbara Crossette

Fulfilling promises that he made in his 2020 election campaign, President Joe Biden restored United States contributions to the United Nations Population Fund on Jan. 28. Through another executive order, he also overturned crippling US aid restrictions worldwide that had been demanded by anti-abortion lobbies. The Mexico City policy restrictions — also known as …

Gender-Based Violence, Health and Population, Human Rights, US-UN Relations, Women

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THIS WEEK @UN

US Nominee Grilled on China; Guterres’s Top Goals for 2021; UN Tech Envoy Put on Leave

January 29, 2021

by Ivana Ramirez

Biden’s nominee for UN envoy faces the Senate; Guterres’s main focus in 2021; the UN’s brand-new tech envoy accused of harassment. You are reading This Week @UN, a summary of the most pressing issues facing the international organization. The information is gathered from the UN spokesperson’s press briefings, original PassBlue reporting and other sources. …

Gender-Based Violence, Health and Population, Human Rights, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, UN Agencies, US-UN Relations

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The New UN Tech Envoy Is Put on Leave, Pending an Investigation

January 27, 2021

by Laura E. Kirkpatrick

Fabrizio Hochschild Drummond has just been named as the United Nations first-ever technology envoy. Hochschild, a Chilean national who has been with the UN since 1988, has served the organization in numerous jobs in the field, starting in Sudan, and at headquarters in Geneva and New York City. Hochschild, 57, was most recently the …

Gender-Based Violence, General Assembly, Human Rights

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Feminists Grade the UN’s Guterres With a ‘B’ for 2020

January 27, 2021

by Barbara Crossette

The widely shared hopes in 2016 that a woman could finally be elected secretary-general of the United Nations at the end of Ban Ki-moon’s two terms were crushed when the big powers chose a man from a large field of candidates from across the world — seven women and six men. The General Assembly …

Gender-Based Violence, Secretary-General, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

For Women in Politics Globally, the Job Can Mean Abuse, Jail or Death

January 4, 2021

by Barbara Crossette

In the early afternoon of May 13, 2020, Joana Mamombe, a member of parliament in Zimbabwe, was seized by security officers after she participated in a pop-up protest, demanding aid for the poor during the Covid pandemic. She and two other rights advocates were accused of violating a lockdown, an act intended to demonstrate …

Gender-Based Violence, Human Rights, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Woman of the Year? You and Me and Every One of Us

December 31, 2020

by Laura E. Kirkpatrick

How bad was 2020? So awful that Match.com made a commercial in which a woman named 2020 falls in love with the Devil and they live happily ever after. As annoying as it is that 2020 is portrayed as a woman, the ad sums up the year pretty well. The year began promisingly, at …

Gender-Based Violence, Women

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WORLDVIEWS

A New Year’s Hope: Restoring the Progressive Role of the US at the UN

December 28, 2020

by Jessica Neuwirth

A wave of relief and hope is sweeping across the United Nations, and the world, desperately awaiting the inauguration of Joe Biden and the beginning of the restoration of normalcy. Hopefully, we will quickly see the rebuilding of our country’s leadership and much-needed progress in the UN, as well as in other international forums …

Gender-Based Violence, Human Rights, US-UN Relations, WORLDVIEWS

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‘He Is Who He Is’: 4 Experts Assess the Record of the UN’s António Guterres

December 14, 2020

by Barbara Crossette

Ever since the day in 1946 when the first secretary-general of the United Nations, Trygve Lie of Norway, took office, big powers have meddled in how the job is done. Most often, the United States has been the most intrusive. Lie resigned in 1953, before the end of his second, shortened term, with his …

Gender-Based Violence, Human Rights, Secretary-General, US-UN Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

Southeast Asia, Forging Ahead on Women, Peace and Security

December 8, 2020

by Noeleen Heyzer

SINGAPORE — With two Asean members, Vietnam and Indonesia, currently sitting in the United Nations Security Council, the region has advanced Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. This is the first global framework that addresses the changing nature of conflicts, the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war, the issues of …

Asia, Gender-Based Violence, Security Council, WORLDVIEWS

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Sidelining Africans, the US Imposes Its Own Choice for UN Envoy to Libya

November 16, 2020

by Maurizio Guerrero

Ignoring two proposals from Africa to fill the United Nations special envoy post for Libya, the United States demanded that the secretary-general, António Guterres, accept its own choice, several diplomats have told PassBlue. The maneuver could leave Africa with only a minimal voice in the mediation of a war in its own continent, spurred …

Africa, Gender-Based Violence, Libya, Secretary-General, Security Council, UN Special Envoys

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TOPIC: WOMEN

The UN General Assembly President Turns His Focus on Women, but Why?

November 10, 2020

by Barbara Crossette

When it comes to power and influence in the United Nations system, the president of the General Assembly has little control beyond a procedural role in managing an often-fractious body of member nations, now numbering 193, each with policies of its own. The Assembly is forbidden by Article 12 of the UN Charter, for …