Human Rights

UN to Rohingya: You Can’t Go Home Safely Any Time Soon

• July 15, 2018

Among refugee advocates there has been a growing concern that recent agreements among regional governments and the United Nations on a framework for mitigating the Rohingya crisis could prompt at least some of the million-plus people who have fled the deadly military pogrom in Myanmar to consider risking a return to try to rebuild …

Asia, Gender Violence, Human Rights, Refugees

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P5 MONITOR

The Congo: Tiptoeing Toward a New War?

Enrico Carisch

• July 9, 2018

If President Joseph Kabila’s continued violations of his country’s constitutional term limits were not enough of a warning, the first paragraph of the latest report by United Nations experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo sets the record straight, saying: “Armed actors continuously used the delay in the electoral process to promote acts …

Africa, Human Rights, P5 Monitor, Security Council

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NIKKI HALEY WATCH

No Winners in Washington’s Human-Rights Blame Game

Irwin Arieff

• July 3, 2018

It’s a poor workman who blames his tools, a popular French proverb cautions. But that’s just what Ambassador Nikki Haley has been doing in trying to justify Washington’s exit from the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council. Haley has looked long and hard in her scramble to identify the villains responsible for Washington’s exit. …

Human Rights, Nikki Haley Watch, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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NIKKI HALEY WATCH

The UN’s Report on Poverty in the US Is Rebuked by Nikki Haley

Maria Luisa Gambale

• June 28, 2018

When Philip Alston decided to focus a report on the United States, in his role as the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, the goal was to spur a larger discussion. However, in the past week there has been a slow-motion volley of criticisms instead, as Nikki Haley, the US …

Human Rights, Nikki Haley Watch, Poverty, US-UN Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

The UN Secretary-General’s Human-Rights Crisis Can Be Solved

Bertrand Ramcharan

• June 26, 2018

There is a crisis in the United Nations human-rights system. Secretary-General António Guterres can lead the way out of it. Indeed, the world continues to look to the UN secretary-general to stand up for the principles of the organization. One of the highest responsibilities of the incumbent is to help steer a course toward …

General Assembly, Human Rights, Secretary-General, WORLDVIEWS

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NIKKI HALEY WATCH

As Expected, the US Quits the UN Human Rights Council

Barbara Crossette

• June 19, 2018

In a long-expected decision, the United States announced it was withdrawing from the United Nations Human Rights Council, the world body’s primary organ for promoting and protecting the rights of people worldwide. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, delivered comments on June 19 in the …

Human Rights, Nikki Haley Watch, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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With Trump’s Human-Rights Policies, Religious ‘Values’ Take Priority

Barbara Crossette

• June 7, 2018

For almost three centuries, through street protests, court battles and a civil war, the United States has sporadically but steadily advanced and expanded human-rights protections and commitments in domestic and foreign policies. Now Donald Trump and the most conservative, ideologically driven officials on his team want to turn back this record in fundamental ways, …

Gender Violence, Health and Population, Human Rights, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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TOPIC: WOMEN

‘Don’t Try to Be a Superwoman’: An Interview With Michelle Bachelet

Dulcie Leimbach

• May 31, 2018

Michelle Bachelet ended her second term as president of Chile on March 11, 2018. Her first term, from 2006 to 2010, was marked by an ambitious social and economic agenda advancing women’s rights and better health care. Her cabinet of ministers, for example, was composed of an equal number of men and women, as …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, Latin America, Women

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NIKKI HALEY WATCH

In Year 2 of Trump Presidency, the US Is Still Eroding Both the UN and Women’s Rights

Barbara Crossette

• May 21, 2018

After a year of bombast and threats by Ambassador Nikki Haley and the ever-evolving Donald Trump administration, the tone appears to be turned down a few notches in the second year of the Trump presidency. But efforts to undermine the United Nations and what it stands for have not stopped, at least for now, …

Human Rights, Humanitarian Aid, Middle East, Nikki Haley Watch, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

Thank You, United Nations, for Helping Victims of Nazi Experiments

Bertrand Ramcharan

• May 17, 2018

As World War II ended and the horrors of the Holocaust unfolded before a stunned humanity, the victims, their families and people of good will sought to construct a new world order of justice grounded in recognition of inalienable human rights. Prof. Hersch Lauterpacht made the case for an International Bill of Rights, the …

Human Rights, International Justice

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WORLDVIEWS

Prisoners’ Human Rights: A Seriously Forgotten Problem in Britain?

Rhona Scullion

• May 1, 2018

NOTTINGHAM, England — Prisoner rights are not a popular topic either in the hallowed halls of the British Parliament or in the public domain in Britain. Aside from the standard “tough on crime” approach that most governments adopt as a go-to populist policy, there is little if any attention paid to people in our …

Human Rights, Poverty, WORLDVIEWS

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Thank You, UN, for Protecting Victims of Slavery and Other Cruel Practices

Bertrand Ramcharan

• April 19, 2018

While slavery and inhumane practices have still not been eradicated, the United Nations has done much to expose them and to help stamp them out. Its efforts continue. Early after its establishment, the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights carried out a study on slavery. Its findings were riveting, and it made several policy recommendations …

Africa, Asia, Gender Violence, Human Rights, Human Trafficking, International Justice

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South Africa’s Light on Human Rights Dims Again at the UN

Barbara Crossette

• April 17, 2018

When the monthlong winter session of the United Nations Human Rights Council opened at the end of February, expectations were high that progress would be made on reforms demanded by the United States and supported by many other nations, although not in as threatening terms as those of Nikki Haley, the Trump administration’s ambassador …

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

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NIKKI HALEY WATCH

Reform Eludes the Human Rights Council as Bolton Returns to the Scene

Barbara Crossette

• April 1, 2018

The 2018 winter session of the United Nations Human Rights Council was marked more by what didn’t happen than what did. There was still no official announcement in Geneva from the Trump administration about whether the United States would leave the Council or even seek re-election in 2019, when its current term expires. There was …

Human Rights, Nikki Haley Watch, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Women Descend on the UN, Riding on the Heels of #TimesUp

Dulcie Leimbach

• March 12, 2018

As women across the world battle systemic harassment and worse abuses for merely being female, the United Nations has opened its annual gathering of women in one of its biggest conferences of the year. This time, the 12-day meeting focuses on the status of rural women, but since it follows closely on the heels …