Gender-Based Violence

The Case of Harassing a UN Diplomat Via 1,000s of Text Messages

May 14, 2019

While Koki Muli Grignon was working as the facilitator during the most intense week of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York, a prominent annual women’s rights conference at the United Nations, she received an odd email. It was the middle of nearly round-the-clock negotiations on the conference final summary document. …

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

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Wazhma Frogh Wants Women in the Afghan Peace Talks Now

May 13, 2019

by Maria Luisa Gambale

Wazhma Frogh is a lifetime campaigner for Afghan women and girls. She co-founded the Women and Peace Studies Organization in Afghanistan in 2011 and is a member of the Afghan Women’s Network. In 2009, the United States State Department granted her the International Women of Courage Award. Frogh recently spoke with PassBlue through a …

Asia, Gender-Based Violence, US Foreign Relations, Women

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WORLDVIEWS

Men Can Experience Sexual Violence in War Too

May 3, 2019

by Z. Pinar Erdem

The United Nations Security Council recognized that men and boys are targets of sexual violence both in wartime and in post-conflict settings. Resolution 2467, approved on April 23, calls upon UN member countries to strengthen policies to provide help for victims. As a human-rights lawyer, during the last nine months, I have been documenting cases of conflict-related …

Gender-Based Violence, WORLDVIEWS

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With Scandals Rife Across the UN, Are Managers at Fault?

April 24, 2019

by Barbara Crossette

A sea of new or lingering allegations of harassment and corruption in numerous agencies and programs in the United Nations system appears to be washing over a sprawling organization battered by scandal. Poor or careless management and oversight, from top to bottom, is partly to blame, but so is persistent, overt politicization of high-level …

Gender-Based Violence, Special Report, UN Agencies

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TOPIC: WOMEN

At the UN, the US Darkens Women’s Right to Abortion

April 23, 2019

by Dulcie Leimbach

After four weeks of tumultuous negotiations over a resolution that reinforced decades of international efforts to combat sexual violence in conflict and to introduce more legal reassurances and services for victims, the 15-member United Nations Security Council approved a text whose wording had been rigorously fought over between the United States and many of …

Gender-Based Violence, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations, Women

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WORLDVIEWS

Will the US Stand With Victims of Rape in War?

April 20, 2019

by Noor Sheikh

The annual debate on sexual violence in conflict is about to take place in the United Nations Security Council. As the UN special envoy on sexual violence in conflict, Pramila Patten, has said, this event — on Tuesday, April 23 — presents a critical opportunity to assess progress in the last 10 years, since …

Gender-Based Violence, Health and Population, US-UN Relations, WORLDVIEWS

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WORLDVIEWS

Is It Only Mothers, Not All Women, Who Need Social Safety Nets?

April 3, 2019

by Prakirti Nangia

Social policy in developing countries provides crucial assistance to women, but evidence shows that it is increasingly being limited to women who are mothers. India is a vivid case in point. Associating women with children and families is hardly new in society. What is surprising, however, is how much recent social policy has embraced and …

Gender-Based Violence, Poverty, WORLDVIEWS

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Violence Is a Choice: The Peace Philosophy of Filmmaker Abigail Disney

March 25, 2019

by Maria Luisa Gambale

Abigail Disney is an American filmmaker and philanthropist who founded Fork Films and Peace Is Loud, an advocacy group. She also founded — with her husband, Pierre Hauser — the Daphne Foundation. Since her 2009 film “Pray the Devil Back to Hell,” which documented women’s peace activism that brought to power Liberia’s first female …

Gender-Based Violence, Peace and Security, Women

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TAKE A LOOK

Indians Ask Why 21 Million Women Are Not on Voter Rolls

March 20, 2019

by Barbara Crossette

Every national election in India is numerically mind-boggling, and this year is no exception. More than 800 million registered voters are expected to participate in an election spanning 39 days from April 11 to May 19. In this huge exercise in democracy, simultaneously organized at national and state levels, the government’s election commission has …

Asia, Gender-Based Violence, Take a Look

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WORLDVIEWS

US Abortion Restrictions Violate Women’s Human Rights

March 14, 2019

by Serra Sippel and Akila Radhakrishnan

Every year, 25 million women across the world are forced to obtain unsafe abortions. The United States, through its foreign policy, is deeply complicit in the violation of these women’s right to life and equality under international law. International human-rights frameworks guard against these violations and hold the US and other countries accountable. The International …

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

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TOPIC: WOMEN

At the UN’s Global Summit on Women’s Rights, the US Looks Chaotic

March 7, 2019

by Laura E. Kirkpatrick

More than 10,000 people will soon converge on the United Nations for its annual Commission on the Status of Women conference, providing a unique forum to gauge progress and to press for the rights of women and marginalized populations around the world. Founded at a forward-thinking moment in 1946, the commission’s yearly meetings offer …

Gender-Based Violence, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations, Women

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SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENCY

Security Council Presidency: Two Old Friends, France and Germany, Now Share an Office

March 4, 2019

by Stéphanie Fillion

As a united front in the fight to preserve the European Union, France and Germany are about to gain a global audience. During March and April, their top United Nations ambassadors, François Delattre and Christoph Heusgen, will take turns — in alphabetical order — presiding over the Security Council, marking the first time for twin …

Climate and Environment, Gender-Based Violence, Security Council Presidency

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TOPIC: WOMEN

A Journey Into Terror and Truth: My Travels Alone in Afghanistan

February 13, 2019

by Johanna Higgs

ISHKASHIM, Afghanistan — I entered the country from the northeast, from Tajikistan, where I had been traveling for a month, researching the lives of women, as I have been doing across the world for years. From the small town of Khorog in Tajikistan, I hired a taxi to drive me to the border crossing. …

Gender-Based Violence, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Authorities Find More Ways to Silence Women Human-Rights Experts

January 29, 2019

by Kacie Candela

More than two decades have passed since the United Nations General Assembly approved the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which encourages countries to protect people who fight for human rights around the world. So why has the situation deteriorated, especially for women who defend human rights? Fears of terrorism and the rise of fundamentalism …

Gender-Based Violence, Human Rights, Women

One Comment

TOPIC: WOMEN

Another UN Harassment Case Quietly Disappears

January 6, 2019

by Barbara Crossette

Amid a busy December, when the United Nations was focusing on important conferences on climate change and migration and year-end holidays loomed, a case of harassment that never got the traction it arguably deserved ended in a traditional UN way: it disappeared. On Dec. 14, the chairman of the International Civil Service Commission, which …

Gender-Based Violence, Secretary-General, Women

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Gender-Based Violence

The Case of Harassing a UN Diplomat Via 1,000s of Text Messages

Wazhma Frogh Wants Women in the Afghan Peace Talks Now

Men Can Experience Sexual Violence in War Too

With Scandals Rife Across the UN, Are Managers at Fault?

At the UN, the US Darkens Women’s Right to Abortion

Will the US Stand With Victims of Rape in War?

Is It Only Mothers, Not All Women, Who Need Social Safety Nets?

Violence Is a Choice: The Peace Philosophy of Filmmaker Abigail Disney

Indians Ask Why 21 Million Women Are Not on Voter Rolls

US Abortion Restrictions Violate Women’s Human Rights

At the UN’s Global Summit on Women’s Rights, the US Looks Chaotic

Security Council Presidency: Two Old Friends, France and Germany, Now Share an Office

A Journey Into Terror and Truth: My Travels Alone in Afghanistan

Authorities Find More Ways to Silence Women Human-Rights Experts

Another UN Harassment Case Quietly Disappears

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