Gender-Based Violence Archives

Across the Globe, Domestic Violence Rises as the Coronavirus Rages

April 6, 2020 by Barbara Crossette

For many women worldwide, the fear and suffering caused by the catastrophic viral pandemic is made even more unbearable and frightening by gender violence, as orders to “stay at home” heighten domestic tensions. Reports are accumulating from virtually every global region, according to independent advocacy groups and United Nations agencies. “Over the past weeks as … Read more Across the Globe, Domestic Violence Rises as the Coronavirus Rages

The Pandemic Forces UN Women to Shelve the Feminist Forums Until 2021

April 3, 2020April 3, 2020 by Barbara Crossette

UN Women’s executive director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ncguka

UN Women is postponing two long-planned international meetings designed to give civil society groups a leading role in advancing gender rights 25 years after a landmark 1995 Beijing conference on women. The two sessions of the Global Equality Forum that had been planned for Mexico City in May and Paris in July will be postponed until … Read more The Pandemic Forces UN Women to Shelve the Feminist Forums Until 2021

Gender Imbalances: Missing Girls and Vanishing Men

April 9, 2020March 31, 2020 by Joseph Chamie

Normally, the numbers of males and females in a human population are about the same across all such populations. However, pregnancy interventions by couples and unhealthy lifestyles among young men have produced gender imbalances, giving rise to “missing girls” in some populations and “disappearing men” in others. The coronavirus pandemic will have lasting impacts on … Read more Gender Imbalances: Missing Girls and Vanishing Men

Afghan Women on the US-Taliban Peace Deal: We Refuse to Shut Up

April 1, 2020March 25, 2020 by Samea Shanori and Fiona Shukri

Authors Samea Shanori and Fiona Shukri in Kabul

Afghan women’s inclusion in the current peace negotiations with the Taliban and the United States has become an international cause célèbre. But calls for participation of Afghan women without methodical, sustained and substantive engagement in a peace settlement has the potential to harm them, not help them. The international community should ensure that Afghan women are … Read more Afghan Women on the US-Taliban Peace Deal: We Refuse to Shut Up

Peace Begins at Home: Gloria Steinem’s Recipe for a Nonviolent World

March 7, 2020March 6, 2020 by Sonah Lee

Nearly 700 people, many of them young adults and students, flocked to the United Nations recently to attend an all-day gathering on “War No More.” Who were they eager to see and hear? The global feminist icon Gloria Steinem and Leymah Gbowee, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who led her fellow countrywomen to help end … Read more Peace Begins at Home: Gloria Steinem’s Recipe for a Nonviolent World

UN Chief Condemns Male Privilege as Many Nations Defy Such Bashing

March 4, 2020March 4, 2020 by Barbara Crossette

With International Women’s Day, March 8, on the horizon, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres blasted the intractable power of patriarchy, the cause of overwhelming gender injustice and an abuse of historical proportions, in his view. “Just as slavery and colonialism were a stain on previous centuries, women’s inequality should shame us all in the twenty-first,” … Read more UN Chief Condemns Male Privilege as Many Nations Defy Such Bashing

Battle Lines Are Drawn on Women’s Rights Before #CSW64 Even Begins

March 3, 2020February 27, 2020 by Dulcie Leimbach

From the start, the diplomats leading the negotiations on the new political declaration for the United Nations’ women’s rights conference in March wanted to keep it short and sweet. That meant five pages maximum, one diplomat told PassBlue before the discussions began, inevitably frustrating diplomats who had hoped to produce a generous endorsement of women’s … Read more Battle Lines Are Drawn on Women’s Rights Before #CSW64 Even Begins

Win or Lose, Trump’s Policies on Women’s Health Inflict Damage

February 27, 2020February 25, 2020 by Barbara Crossette

Whether or not Donald Trump will be re-elected president on Nov. 3, a tough debate is likely to begin soon in the United States Congress over the national budget for the unpredictable year ahead. Reproductive health issues rank high on the agenda for women’s rights advocates. Trump’s proposed budget would continue to restrict funds for … Read more Win or Lose, Trump’s Policies on Women’s Health Inflict Damage

Silencing the Media: Attacks Grow More Open, With Women as Particular Targets

February 23, 2020 by Barbara Crossette

When Reporters Without Borders recently tallied the murders of journalists across the globe in 2019, the organization found that the confirmed death toll, 49, was the lowest since 2003. That was the good news. The rest of the findings from this and other media groups are less reassuring. Journalists are being targeted virtually everywhere, not only … Read more Silencing the Media: Attacks Grow More Open, With Women as Particular Targets

Stolen Childhoods: The Girls of Ghana’s Lake Volta

February 12, 2020February 12, 2020 by Kayla Stewart

Eighteen-year-old Millicent lives at an orphanage in Kete Krachi, Ghana

KETE KRACHI, Ghana — To smoke a fish here, you need to first remove its skull. Then you insert a sharp knife into its stomach, slowly cutting a clean line across its belly to avoid flooding your hand with guts. Remove the intestines, bile and blood. Smother the fish in salt and place it above a … Read more Stolen Childhoods: The Girls of Ghana’s Lake Volta

Trump’s Dictator Buddies Across the World Are Not Friends of Women

February 9, 2020February 4, 2020 by Barbara Crossette

In the gallery of authoritarian governments undercutting the rights of women and threatening democracy around the world, five nations stand out for a special reason. Donald Trump has made the leaders of Brazil, Egypt, India, Saudi Arabia and Turkey his friends and accomplices. In all of these countries, according to mounting evidence in numerous studies, … Read more Trump’s Dictator Buddies Across the World Are Not Friends of Women

Feminists Rev Up for Beijing+25 Reviews as the US Resists

February 22, 2020January 26, 2020 by Laura E. Kirkpatrick

This year will be an urgent moment for the United Nations and its 193 member countries to renew their commitment ensuring women’s equality in all walks of life. Twenty-five years have passed since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action was ratified at the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995. That document was designed … Read more Feminists Rev Up for Beijing+25 Reviews as the US Resists

The US Raises Its UN Profile, but Not Its Support

January 26, 2020January 25, 2020 by Barbara Crossette

The naming of Jonathan Moore, a senior United States Foreign Service officer, to the position of Acting Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, signals that in the United Nations’ 75th year, the Trump administration is getting serious. The move doesn’t mean that the US is increasing support for the organization, of course, or for … Read more The US Raises Its UN Profile, but Not Its Support

Myanmar’s Silence on Rape Against Rohingya Is Cruel and Dangerous

January 21, 2020 by Akila Radhakrishnan

Last month, the world was struck by an unusual image — that of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi — standing in court to defend and deny genocide. What was striking was not only what she and Myanmar’s legal team said but also what wasn’t said: the total failure of Myanmar to … Read more Myanmar’s Silence on Rape Against Rohingya Is Cruel and Dangerous

The UN Unveils 6 Themes in a Big Year Pushing for Women’s Rights

January 21, 2020January 20, 2020 by Stéphanie Fillion

As the countdown to this year’s main events celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women has begun, UN Women has announced six themes to anchor the two Generation Equality forums to be held in May and in July. While many women’s groups applaud the broad themes, some have serious qualms about one topic … Read more The UN Unveils 6 Themes in a Big Year Pushing for Women’s Rights

The Top 10 PassBlue Stories of 2019: From Strongmen to Sexual Harassment

January 11, 2020December 31, 2019 by Dulcie Leimbach

Once again, 2019 marked incredible upheaval and change across the world, just as 2018 did so universally, signaled by the continued rise in nationalism and revolts by women against repression and violence in their daily lives. Reporting on how United Nations member states — all 193 of them — acted in 2019 was a challenge … Read more The Top 10 PassBlue Stories of 2019: From Strongmen to Sexual Harassment

‘Sextortion’: The Worst Form of Corruption Across the Globe

December 14, 2019December 13, 2019 by Frank Vogl

WASHINGTON, D.C. — For more than a year, a BBC television team went undercover at the University of Lagos and the University of Ghana, where young female students are routinely extorted by professors. They are vulnerable because they either seek to gain admission to the universities or to secure good grades to allow them to … Read more ‘Sextortion’: The Worst Form of Corruption Across the Globe

Trump’s Misogyny Stands Out During the Impeachment Hearings

November 24, 2019 by Laura E. Kirkpatrick

Although the first hearings by the Intelligence Committee in the House of Representatives in the Trump impeachment inquiry may be over, one remarkable aspect stands out: the heroic way the female foreign service officers and policy specialists who testified braved raw personal tweets by the president and the White House, often in real time. As … Read more Trump’s Misogyny Stands Out During the Impeachment Hearings

Russia in Africa and Frank Talk on Feminist Foreign Policies: Our Latest Podcast Episode

November 20, 2019 by Stéphanie Fillion and Kacie Candela

African summits may be in vogue worldwide, and Russia’s recent summit in Sochi in late October was no exception. A PassBlue correspondent, Joe Penney, traveled to the Black Sea resort to report on President Vladimir Putin’s pitch to African leaders, as he promoted a second African independence, this time a financial one, with offers of … Read more Russia in Africa and Frank Talk on Feminist Foreign Policies: Our Latest Podcast Episode

UN Women Declares Its Neutrality in the Sex Trade Debate

November 11, 2019 by Barbara Crossette

The surprising controversy over women in the sex trade — tangled in issues of legality, terminology and competing feminist visions — has produced an unequivocal statement from the executive director of UN Women that the agency is not taking sides in this debate. The acrimonious dispute has erupted just as the United Nations is preparing … Read more UN Women Declares Its Neutrality in the Sex Trade Debate