Human Rights

• 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 Violence, Human Rights, US-UN Relations, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Celebrating Women’s History Month, Trump-Pompeo Style

Barbara Crossette

• April 2, 2019

Here’s how the United States government marked the 2019 monthlong celebration of the world’s women in March: Donald Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo got off to an early start on March 13 by releasing the State Department’s annual global human-rights report, scrubbed of all references to reproductive health and rights. Hewing to the …

Human Rights, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

In the Drive for Gender Equality, the Law Is Not Always on Women’s Side

Jeroen Spangenberg

• April 1, 2019

So how are women doing these days, during the global push for gender equality? Not all that great in work and legal protections, according to a new World Bank report, even in some prosperous countries — including the United States. The US ranked 65th on the report’s scorecard, below Malawi, Kenya and the Bahamas. …

Human Rights, Women

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WORLDVIEWS

US Abortion Restrictions Violate Women’s Human Rights

Serra Sippel and Akila Radhakrishnan

• March 14, 2019

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

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Authorities Find More Ways to Silence Women Human-Rights Experts

Kacie Candela

• January 29, 2019

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 Violence, Human Rights, Women

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How Many Immigrant Children Is the US Detaining? Nobody Knows

Barbara Crossette

• January 22, 2019

Sloppy or nonexistent identification systems at the United States-Mexican border, no organized tracking of children snatched from their parents — some often too young to say who they are — and the withholding of important information by Trump officials, frequently defying a federal court order and a presidential decree six months ago, have come …

Human Rights, Migration, Refugees

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GEOPOLITICS

As Nicaragua Slides Deeper Into Dictatorship, Other Nations Grow Alarmed

Barbara Crossette

• December 26, 2018

In a rebuke to President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua on Dec. 21, governments of 14 democratic nations in Europe, the United States, Chile and Australia condemned the closing, banning or expulsion of civil-society organizations working on rights and governance issues in Nicaragua. The censure came as violence is again being used against Ortega’s critics. …

Geopolitics, Human Rights, Latin America

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Heather Nauert, Trump’s Nominee for UN Envoy, Faces Heated Opposition

Dulcie Leimbach and Laura E. Kirkpatrick

• December 12, 2018

The nomination of Heather Nauert to succeed Nikki Haley as United States ambassador to the United Nations has quickly enraged some international women’s rights groups and a major Islamic advocacy organization based in the United States, portending a tense confirmation hearing in the US Senate for Nauert. The announcement of her nomination last week …

Human Rights, LGBT, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Women’s Rights Predicted to Advance in New US Congress

Barbara Crossette

• November 13, 2018

The results of the recent United States elections raise hopes for women’s rights. At least 100 women, among them young liberals who defeated incumbent men, will hold nearly a quarter of the seats in the House of Representatives when a new Congress opens in early January. Two women are Muslim-American and two are Native …

Human Rights, US Foreign Relations, Women

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Charting Human Rights in a Dramatic New Way

Thalia Kehoe Rowden

• October 30, 2018

What if we lived in a world where countries competed to see which ones treated their citizens best — in a race to the top, Olympian style? Now there’s a way to get started. A project called the Human Rights Measurement Initiative has launched metrics and tools to track the performance of more than 140 …

Human Rights

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WORLDVIEWS

It’s All Clean Slates for the Next Human Rights Council Vote

Peter Splinter

• October 8, 2018

GENEVA — The annual ritual of holding elections for vacant seats on the United Nations Human Rights Council for a three-year term is set for Oct. 12. All five regional groups have clean slates: the number of candidates is equal to the number of open seats. Notwithstanding talk about the need to improve the …

Human Rights, WORLDVIEWS

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WORLDVIEWS

The US vs. Unrwa: Who Really Loses?

Mona Ali Khalil

• September 6, 2018

It is entirely the United States’ prerogative to cut off its voluntary contributions to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or Unrwa. In her statements about why the Trump administration has decided to do so, however, Ambassador Nikki Haley misses the mark on who should be grateful …

Human Rights, Middle East, US Foreign Relations, WORLDVIEWS

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GEOPOLITICS

Atrocity Crimes Are Being Committed by All Warring Parties in Yemen: UN Experts

Dulcie Leimbach

• August 29, 2018

The numerous parties to the war in Yemen, which began in 2015, have perpetrated and continue to commit violations of international law by indiscriminately murdering civilians, blocking humanitarian-aid deliveries, arbitrarily detaining people and possibly torturing those imprisoned, recruiting child soldiers and raping women and men, according to a new report by a United Nations …

Geopolitics, Human Rights, Secretary-General, Security Council

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WORLDVIEWS

The Devastating Decline of Human-Rights Justice Across the World

Bertrand Ramcharan

• August 20, 2018

The soul of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights is being destroyed with the disappearance of human-rights justice in the world. Everyone should be concerned if not frightened. The appointment of Michelle Bachelet of Chile as UN high commissioner for human rights, who has personally experienced injustice, offers hope that her voice will …

Human Rights, International Justice, WORLDVIEWS

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TOPIC: INDIA

The Heart of Ethnic Cleansing Has Moved to India

Barbara Crossette

• August 15, 2018

Harsh Mander had barely arrived in the remote northeastern Indian state of Assam when he was drawn into a humanitarian horror story years in the making. It was about to get exponentially worse. “The people of Assam are sitting atop a smoldering volcano, one that threatens to erupt into catastrophic suffering and injustice,” he …