Human Rights

As Protests Sweep the US, the UN Tweets Platitudes

June 3, 2020

Protesters swarm the roadway portion of the Brooklyn Bridge, heading from the City Hall area of lower Manhattan into Brooklyn. The crowd stopped incoming traffic, but there was no violence, May 30, 2020. JOHN PENNEY Amid curfews in New York City, constant marches and protests, sirens from the streets and helicopters whirring above, the …

Covid-19, General Assembly, Human Rights, Secretary-General, Security Council

António Guterres, Covid_19, Donald Trump, Fannie Munlin, George Floyd, Michelle Bachelet, UN General Assembly, UN Security Council, US protests, US-UN relations

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COVID-19

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

April 3, 2020

by Barbara Crossette

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 …

Covid-19, Gender-Based Violence, Health and Population, Human Rights

Beijing+25, Commission on the Status of Women, Covid_19, gender equality, gender inequality, Generation Equality Forum, UN Women, violence against women, women's rights

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New Tensions Sparking Between Trump and UN Rights Leader, Michelle Bachelet

March 9, 2020

by Barbara Crossette

Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, who has been personally attacked by United States Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, is not planning to resign from her position, according to her office. Her term does not end until 2022, but rumors have been circulating that she could decide to leave amid …

Human Rights, US-UN Relations

António Guterres, Donald Trump, Michelle Bachelet, Nikki Haley, Pompeo and Bachelet, Pompeo and BDS, Pompeo and ICC, UN database of companies operating in Israeli-occupied territories, UN high commissioner for human rights, UN Human Rights Council, US-UN relations

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WORLDVIEWS

How the US Enabled Aggressions by China and Russia at the UN

February 24, 2020

by Geoffrey Roberts

For the last decade, Western democracies and human-rights defenders have been locked in a tense struggle with authoritarian great powers at the United Nations. Since 2009, Russia and China have waged a highly successful campaign to dismantle the international human-rights system, particularly through the Human Rights Council. The two countries have made strides especially …

Human Rights, WORLDVIEWS

China human rights, Donald Trump, Russia human rights, Uighur, UN Human Rights Council, UN universal periodic review, US and human rights, US-UN relations

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Master of Science in Humanitarian Studies at Fordham University

TOPIC: WOMEN

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

February 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 …

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

Beijing+25 commemorations, Donald Trump, gender equality, gender inequality, Human Rights Watch, violence against women, Women's Danger Index, women's rights, women's rights in Brazil, women's rights in Egypt, women's rights in India, women's rights in Saudi Arabia

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GEOPOLITICS

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

December 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 …

Gender-Based Violence, Geopolitics, Human Rights, US Foreign Relations

Donald Trump, gender equality, gender inequality, Nikki Haley, Top 10 UN Stories, UN General Assembly, UN Security Council, US-UN relations, violence against women, women's rights

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WORLDVIEWS

It’s Time to Increase Parliaments’ Engagement With Human Rights

December 5, 2019

by Brian Chang and Murray Hunt

As protection of human rights seems to be sliding everywhere, the international human-rights system has responded by focusing on national implementation, to ensure that states’ international commitments are translated into meaningful changes felt by people on the ground. While often overlooked, parliaments can provide a critical link between global agreements and domestic progress on …

Human Rights, WORLDVIEWS

António Guterres, human rights, Inter-Parliamentary Union, UN General Assembly, UN high commissioner for human rights, UN Human Rights Council

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China Flexes Its Economic Might More Openly on Uighurs Issue

November 17, 2019

by Stéphanie Fillion

Twenty-three nations, including Britain, the United States, Germany, France and Japan, slammed China at the United Nations recently, citing its persecution of Uighurs and other minorities in Xinjiang province. “We call on the Chinese government to uphold its national laws and international obligations and commitments to respect human rights, including freedom of religion or …

Africa, Human Rights

China and Africa, China and UN, human rights, Human Rights Watch, Michelle Bachelet, Uighur and human rights, UN Human Rights Council

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TOPIC: WOMEN

A New UK Hotline for Victims of Sexual Harassment Is ‘Constantly Ringing’

October 21, 2019

by Rhona Scullion

A new hotline is offering free, confidential legal advice to women in England and Wales who are experiencing sexual harassment at work. Launched in August, it is the only hotline of its kind dedicated to addressing a problem affecting women from all walks of life. Already, the hotline has been inundated with calls from …

Health and Population, Human Rights, Women

Boris Johnson, gender equality, gender inequality, sexual discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual harassment in Britain, violence against women, women's rights

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Hillary Clinton on Trump’s Foreign Policy: It’s All About Waiting for His Next Tweet

October 16, 2019

by Dulcie Leimbach

Hillary Clinton glided onto a stage in Manhattan with the luxury of now being a cool-eyed outsider who can sharply question foreign policy decisions being made by the Trump administration on such controversial places as China, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. Clinton was the keynote speaker at the Carnegie Corporation of New York’s daylong …

Asia, Human Rights, Syria, US Foreign Relations

Afghanistan, Carnegie Corporation of New York, China, Donald Trump, gender equality, gender inequality, Hillary Clinton, peace building, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, US foreign policy, US-UN relations, William Burns, women's rights, Yemen

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The UN Can Do Much More to Resolve Khashoggi’s Murder, Says Agnès Callamard

October 2, 2019

by Stéphanie Fillion

Exactly a year after Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi-born, American-based journalist, was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Agnès Callamard, remains categorical: UN Secretary-General António Guterres can and should do more about the murder, and so should member states. “I am asking the …

Human Rights, Journalists, Middle East, Security Council

Agnes Callamard, António Guterres, freedom of speech, Hatice Cengiz, Jamal Khashoggi, UN Human Rights Council, UN Security Council, UN special rapporteur

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Free Speech: Where Is It Headed in the Digital Age?

August 13, 2019

by Joanne Myers

David Kaye, a leading voice on human rights in the digital age, is also a United Nations special rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, a post he has held since August 2014. The author of a recent book, “Speech Police: The Global Struggle to Govern the Internet,” he spoke with me …

Human Rights, UN Special Envoys

David Kaye, free speech, Internet and free speech, United Nations special rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression

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Pompeo’s Religion Is Carrying More Sway in US Foreign Policy

July 14, 2019

by Barbara Crossette

When Secretary of State Mike Pompeo convenes the second of his ministerial-level, multifaith conferences on religious freedom around the world on July 16 to 18, global threats to Christianity are likely to figure prominently, if recent comments by American officials are any guide. Pompeo is a guiding light. An Evangelical Christian, he says he sees a …

Human Rights, LGBT, US Foreign Relations

human rights, LGBTQ rights, Mary Ann Glendon, Mike Pompeo, Pete Buttigieg, Pompeo and Christianity, Sam Brownback, US Commission on International Religious Freedom, US Commission on Unalienable Rights, US-UN relations, women's rights

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WORLDVIEWS

Women’s Rights Defenders Are Tired of Being Told to ‘Push Back’ Against the Opposition

July 8, 2019

by Hayley Willingale

As a human-rights defender and women’s rights campaigner, I continue to be struck not by the many challenges now facing women’s rights organizations but by the constant calls for women to “push back against the pushback.” This call for women to push back against the many forces oppressing women’s rights organizations was repeated in …

Africa, Gender-Based Violence, Human Rights, Security Council, WORLDVIEWS

António Guterres, Cameroon and the UN Security Council, Commission on the Status of Women, gender equality, gender inequality, Paul Biya, Reach Out and Cameroon, UN Security Council, violence against women, women's rights, women's rights defenders

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Human-Rights Lawyers React to a UN Official’s Definition of Rape

July 7, 2019

by Dulcie Leimbach

A group of several hundred international human-rights lawyers reacted to a first-person opinion piece published by the United Nations expert on torture that “had a problematic definition of rape,” according to the lawyers’ open letter, published on July 1, expressing their legal views. The exchange between the human-rights experts and proponents and the UN …

Gender-Based Violence, Human Rights

António Guterres, Atlas Women, gender equality, gender inequality, Julian Assange, Michelle Bachelet, Nils Melzer, rape, UN Human Rights Council, UN special rapporteur on torture, violence against women, women's rights

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Human Rights

As Protests Sweep the US, the UN Tweets Platitudes

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

New Tensions Sparking Between Trump and UN Rights Leader, Michelle Bachelet

How the US Enabled Aggressions by China and Russia at the UN

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

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

It’s Time to Increase Parliaments’ Engagement With Human Rights

China Flexes Its Economic Might More Openly on Uighurs Issue

A New UK Hotline for Victims of Sexual Harassment Is ‘Constantly Ringing’

Hillary Clinton on Trump’s Foreign Policy: It’s All About Waiting for His Next Tweet

The UN Can Do Much More to Resolve Khashoggi’s Murder, Says Agnès Callamard

Free Speech: Where Is It Headed in the Digital Age?

Pompeo’s Religion Is Carrying More Sway in US Foreign Policy

Women’s Rights Defenders Are Tired of Being Told to ‘Push Back’ Against the Opposition

Human-Rights Lawyers React to a UN Official’s Definition of Rape

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