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University of Buckingham - MA United Nations Studies
University of Buckingham - MA United Nations Studies
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Human Rights

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 …

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TOPIC: WOMEN

‘Period Poverty’: Why No One Is Talking About Eco-Friendly Solutions

November 30, 2017 
by Rhona Scullion
The United Nations has recognized menstrual hygiene as a global public health and human-rights issue, yet across the world, “period poverty,” as some call it, is the reality for millions of women and girls. In India, for example, it is estimated that only 12 percent of the country’s 355 million menstruating women can afford …

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WORLDVIEWS

Modernizing the Role of Human Rights in the UN Security Council

November 28, 2017 
by Bertrand Ramcharan
The Security Council is the most authoritative organ of the United Nations, and supporters of the Council naturally expect it to exercise that authority when gross violations of human rights shock the conscience of humanity. During the Cold War, such actions were rarely done, except partly in relation to situations in southern Africa. Since …

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MA United Nations Studies
WORLDVIEWS

António Guterres, Please Reform the UN’s Human Rights Tools

November 20, 2017 
by Vincent Ploton
When recently asked what keeps him up at night, António Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, gave a straight answer: bureaucracy as well as “fragmented structures, byzantine procedures, endless red tape.” Such flaws also apply to UN human-rights mechanisms, and Guterres should ensure that his UN-wide reform agenda prioritizes strengthening such tools, which can be …

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WORLDVIEWS

Four Easy Steps to Reform the UN Human Rights Council

October 15, 2017 
by Bertrand G. Ramcharan
Problems encircling the United Nations Human Rights Council are verging toward a major crisis. The same crisis had engulfed its predecessor, the Commission on Human Rights, leading the secretary-general at the time, Kofi Annan, to call to replace it with the Council. But the same problems affecting the former Commission now affect its successor, …

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GEOPOLITICS

Janet Benshoof, Legal Activist, Seeks Help for Burma Through the Global Court

October 8, 2017 
by Barbara Crossette
Photo of Janet Benshoof, a lawyer-activist, leads the Global Justice Center in New York.
Burma has long been a unique country not only for its otherworldly landscape of pagodas and gold-topped stupas but also, paradoxically, as an isolated country where a nationalistic military has given itself extraordinary constitutional powers. Generals, who have warped the country’s Buddhist heritage over half a century, can now attack the Muslim-majority Rohingya people …

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MA United Nations Studies
NIKKI HALEY WATCH

US Ambassador’s Ultimatum to the UN: Agree With Us or We Go It Alone

September 16, 2017 
by Barbara Crossette
When Nikki Haley, now the United States ambassador to the United Nations, was questioned by senators at her confirmation hearing in January about how she would deal with Donald Trump’s dismissive view of internationalism, she said confidently, “I will show him that the UN matters.” She also said that she would show the world …

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WORLDVIEWS

Has Anyone Seen the UN Secretary-General’s Human Rights Agenda?

August 22, 2017 
by Bertrand G. Ramcharan
Secretary-General António Guterres has set about modernizing some sectors of the United Nations and made impassioned statements about the need to protect human rights. But beyond rhetoric, so far there has been no indication of his modernizing the human-rights sector. We have seen this before. Dag Hammarskjold, a previous secretary-general, undoubtedly believed in human …

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$5 Million Grant From Microsoft Will Help UN Track Human-Rights Abuses

July 20, 2017 
by Julie Vanderperre
As political instability, conflicts and migration proliferate across the world, technology has become a potential solution for identifying and predicting human-rights violations, which play a major role instigating upheavals. Smartphones enable instant updates and eyewitness accounts of events happening around the globe, and the use of cloud computing and big-data analysis allows large amounts …

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MA United Nations Studies
NIKKI HALEY WATCH

For the US, a Tale of Two Human-Rights Violations

July 14, 2017 
by Kacie Candela
Nikki Haley, the American ambassador to the United Nations, is positioning herself as a champion of human rights. But she appears to be highly selective about which countries or regimes she accuses of committing human-rights abuses. At the same time, she has been pushing hard for cuts to UN peacekeeping missions, which could hurt …

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NIKKI HALEY WATCH

A New Duet for Nikki Haley and Trump

July 10, 2017 
by Barbara Crossette
Nearly six months into her United Nations assignment, Ambassador Nikki Haley is aligning herself more decisively with President Donald Trump, defending some of his most controversial and unpopular moves. It is a critical diplomatic time for the White House and for Haley, who is viewed around the UN mostly as a politician with big …

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WORLDVIEWS

US Supreme Court Bars Discrimination Against Unwed Fathers, Rejecting Stereotypes

June 21, 2017 
by Antonia Kirkland
Unwed fathers and mothers may not be treated differently in determining whether their children born overseas can claim American citizenship, the United States Supreme Court has recently ruled. This means that all children born to an unmarried American parent, whether it is a father or a mother, must now be treated the same. The …

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MA United Nations Studies
TOPIC: WOMEN

Mass Tourism: Bad for Culture but Good for Women?

June 13, 2017 
by Ariel Sophia Bardi
FLORENCE, Italy — This month, Italy’s tourism season kicks into high gear. Florence, which receives more than 16 million tourists a year, is one of many cities to be marred by mass travel. In the famously picturesque Piazza della Signoria, groups plod through the cobblestoned square, shepherded by flag-waving guides. Vendors peddle selfie-sticks in …

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NIKKI HALEY WATCH

In Geneva, Nikki Haley Dodges Questions of US Future in UN Rights Council

June 6, 2017 
by Barbara Crossette
In a much-anticipated series of speeches in Geneva on June 6, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, would not say whether a decision had been made by the Trump administration about US membership in the UN Human Rights Council. But she warned that if the Council, widely criticized by conservative …

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WORLDVIEWS

Why the US Must Stay in the UN Human Rights Council

June 4, 2017 
by Christen L. Broecker
Nikki Haley, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, will address the Human Rights Council at the opening meeting of it 35th session, on June 6. She has said she intends to put the 47 members of the Council “on notice” about the need for reform. Some of Haley’s colleagues, including Secretary of State …

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