Gender-Based Violence

US Visa Rules Can Create Heartbreak for Women

February 4, 2018

Imagine an accomplished young woman — we can call her Amrita — who has a caring husband and maybe a child or two. He is a highly skilled professional in his field with a doctorate or even postdoctorate qualifications. She has the same level of achievement or possibly higher. He has been offered a …

Asia, Gender-Based Violence, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Blessed Are the Peace-Builders in Ukraine: Female Activists Repair a Broken Country

January 21, 2018

by Dulcie Leimbach

KYIV, Ukraine — There is no escaping that Ukraine is at war — although it is not totally apparent who the Ukrainian military and volunteer vigilantes are fighting in the east: Russian “separatists” or Russians themselves? No one can definitively say who is who or decide up from down, one of the living puzzles …

Gender-Based Violence, Health and Population, Human Rights, Women

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Stopping Sex Abuse in UN Peacekeeping: An Interview With Marie Deschamps of Canada

January 15, 2018

by Joanne Myers

Marie Deschamps is a former justice on the Supreme Court of Canada who led the groundbreaking 2015 United Nations report of an independent review on sexual exploitation and abuse by international peacekeeping forces in the Central African Republic. Deschamps agreed to talk in late December about how the report has been followed up — …

Africa, Gender-Based Violence, UN Peacekeeping

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TAKE A LOOK

Tackling Sexual Violence in Humanitarian NGOs

December 31, 2017

by Barbara Crossette

Nearly three years ago, Megan Nobert, a humanitarian worker in South Sudan, was drugged and raped by an employee of a United Nations agency, according to her account, made public six months later. That was when Nobert decided to form the advocacy group Report the Abuse to encourage others to tell their stories and …

Gender-Based Violence, Humanitarian Aid, Take a Look

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Sexual Harassment at the UN Is Alive and Persistent

December 22, 2017

by Laura E. Kirkpatrick

As its people of the year, Time magazine recently named the Silence Breakers — people who have spoken against sexual harassment and launched the hashtag #MeToo into an international phenomenon with more than seven million hits on social media. Just before the announcement, more than 230 women who work in national security for the …

Gender-Based Violence, Human Rights, Secretary-General, UN Diplomats, Women

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NIKKI HALEY WATCH

Will the Real Nikki Haley Please Stand Up?

December 14, 2017

by Irwin Arieff

Nikki Haley must have raised eyebrows at the White House with her bold off-the-cuff defense of the women complaining that Donald Trump sexually abused them before the election. “[A]ny woman who has felt violated or felt mistreated in any way, they have every right to speak up,” Haley said on the CBS talk show …

Gender-Based Violence, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Middle East, Nikki Haley Watch, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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In East Africa, Threats to LGBTQ Rights Intensify

December 12, 2017

by Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein

STONE TOWN, Tanzania — When a story circulated in August 2017 of male lions attempting to copulate with each other in Kenya’s Masai Mara national park, headlines and Twitter feeds went wild with speculation, ridicule and accusation. Despite Kenya being one of the more progressive countries in East Africa regarding LGBTQ awareness and rights, the …

Africa, Gender-Based Violence, Human Rights, LGBT

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TOPIC: WOMEN

From the Kingdom of Women, With Love

December 5, 2017

by Johanna Higgs

LIOUSHUI, China — Known as the Kingdom of Women, the Mosuo are a small ethnic minority group living in Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, predominantly around Lugu Lake. The Mosuo have become somewhat famous for their matriarchal society, where the family name and other legalities are passed to the next generation through the women, and …

Asia, Gender-Based Violence, Women

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WORLDVIEWS

The Problem of Peacekeeping Sex Abuse Is Not Going Away

December 4, 2017

by Adriana Erthal Abdenur

There is no denying that sexual exploitation and abuse has acquired greater urgency within the context of United Nations peace operations. Although the UN launched its zero tolerance policy in 2003, a recent report tallied some two thousand accusations between 2005 and 2017 in peacekeeping settings, which underscores how harmful ineffective policies and specific …

Africa, Gender-Based Violence, Security Council, UN Peacekeeping, WORLDVIEWS

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TOPIC: WOMEN

#MeToo Must Include All Women: A Chat With UN Women’s Director

November 24, 2017

by Kacie Candela

November 25 marks the annual International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which encompasses 16 days of activism through Dec. 10, with this year’s theme being “leave no one behind.” The annual commemoration couldn’t be better timed this year, coinciding with the #MeToo movement reverberating across the United States — and far …

Gender-Based Violence, Women

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Come to Armenia: Russia Backs a UN Project to Develop Rural Tourism

November 21, 2017

by Dulcie Leimbach

BJNI, Armenia — The riverside village of Bjni possesses all the ingredients to blossom into a tourist haven for visitors new to this landlocked country in the South Caucasus and for Armenians themselves. What visitors don’t see right away in Bjni, where a $3 million Russian-financed United Nations tourism project is in the works, …

Development, Gender-Based Violence

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GEOPOLITICS

Why Do Jihadists Exit Violent Extremism? The Field of Study Grows

November 17, 2017

by Dulcie Leimbach

The study of violent extremism and what attracts people to become jihadists has been expanding rapidly in social sciences, but what is little known is why people avoid or leave a violent movement. It is a field that is slowly growing among academics, think tanks and United Nations officials, enabling them to form policies …

Gender-Based Violence, Geopolitics, Middle East

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GEOPOLITICS

Judging the UN in Haiti: ‘We Let the Haitians Down’

November 9, 2017

by Susan Manuel

The population it serves can misunderstand a United Nations peacekeeping mandate. In the host country, with people’s lives, infrastructure and administrative systems often rendered dysfunctional by conflict, the population expects peacekeepers to restore order, build roads and other essentials, provide work, render justice and make life like it was before if not better. They …

Caribbean, Gender-Based Violence, Geopolitics, Secretary-General, UN Peacekeeping

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TOPIC: WOMEN

A New Index Rates the Well-Being of Women in 153 Nations and US Ranks 22d

October 31, 2017

by Kacie Candela

A new women, peace and security index was unveiled at the United Nations recently. At its core, the WPS index, as it is known, provides evidence for what advocates have been saying all along: that the active and equal participation of women in all aspects of society is critical for peace and security, especially …

Gender-Based Violence, Secretary-General, US Foreign Relations, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Afghan Women Write New Narratives About Themselves, With Courage

October 24, 2017

by Elizabeth Walsh

Throughout the world, Afghan women are often portrayed as victims by the media and other institutions, needing foreign rescue or summoning deep pity for their oppression. Women’s literacy rate is less than half that of men’s in the country, and it remains one of the worst places in the world for a girl to …

Asia, Gender-Based Violence, Journalists, Women

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Gender-Based Violence

US Visa Rules Can Create Heartbreak for Women

Blessed Are the Peace-Builders in Ukraine: Female Activists Repair a Broken Country

Stopping Sex Abuse in UN Peacekeeping: An Interview With Marie Deschamps of Canada

Tackling Sexual Violence in Humanitarian NGOs

Sexual Harassment at the UN Is Alive and Persistent

Will the Real Nikki Haley Please Stand Up?

In East Africa, Threats to LGBTQ Rights Intensify

From the Kingdom of Women, With Love

The Problem of Peacekeeping Sex Abuse Is Not Going Away

#MeToo Must Include All Women: A Chat With UN Women’s Director

Come to Armenia: Russia Backs a UN Project to Develop Rural Tourism

Why Do Jihadists Exit Violent Extremism? The Field of Study Grows

Judging the UN in Haiti: ‘We Let the Haitians Down’

A New Index Rates the Well-Being of Women in 153 Nations and US Ranks 22d

Afghan Women Write New Narratives About Themselves, With Courage

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