Human Rights

• 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 …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, Secretary-General, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Thank You, UN, for Protecting the Rights of Women

Bertrand Ramcharan

• February 28, 2018

There is still a long way to go to uphold the rights of women worldwide, and UN Women, a department of the Secretariat, is now carrying the torch in this struggle. It builds on the efforts of the UN human-rights program going back to the earliest days of the organization. For International Women’s Day, …

Human Rights, International Justice, Women

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UN Agencies Moving Into Blockchain to Help People in Crisis Settings

Kacie Candela

• February 27, 2018

Blockchain technology emerged alongside Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency powering digital payments through a peer-to-peer system, currency trading and even, in some cases, black-market transactions. Now, some United Nations agencies are using blockchain to provide basic identification to refugees and others in developing countries as well as for specific actions like helping refugees obtain food …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, Poverty, Refugees, UN Agencies

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TOPIC: INDIA

Changing the Minds of Youths to Stop India’s Extreme Bias Against Girls

Ariel Sophia Bardi

• February 26, 2018

HARYANA, India — In 2014, Breakthrough India, an independent human-rights organization, launched a program to tackle gender discrimination throughout 150 schools in Haryana, one of India’s most gender-biased states. A 2011 census showed that Haryana, a primarily agricultural state bordering Delhi in northern India, had the worst child-sex ratio in the country, with only …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, India, Poverty

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TOPIC: WOMEN

The ‘Incredible Courage’ of Asma Jahangir, Pakistan’s Human-Rights Advocate

Barbara Crossette

• February 17, 2018

Only a few days before Pakistan’s most famous human-rights advocate, Asma Jahangir, was felled by a heart attack on Feb. 11, she was speaking out in support of a group of ethnic Pashtuns who had marched across the country from their homes along the Afghanistan border to protest military brutality. A Pashtun boy had …

Asia, Human Rights, Women

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Thank You, UN, for Validating Indigenous People

Bertrand Ramcharan

• February 15, 2018

Indigenous people, several millions of them, live in more than 80 countries and have long suffered, and continue to suffer, from injustices. Until 1981, they had no global forum in which to appear to plead for justice and for respect of their inalienable rights. That year, the director of the United Nations Division of …

Human Rights, International Justice

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WORLDVIEWS

Why Turkey’s Model Work Permits for Refugees Don’t Actually Work

Tino Calabia

• February 5, 2018

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A major problem with Turkey for the millions of refugees there, it has a model work permit system for the newcomers, but it still bars them from the country’s labor market. Such problems can be overcome, experts contend, so that the refugees can work for decent wages in Turkey. Izza Leghtas, …

Human Rights, Poverty, Refugees, Syria, WORLDVIEWS

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WORLDVIEWS

Thank You, UN, for Defending Our Human Rights Against Gross Violations

Bertrand Ramcharan

• January 30, 2018

From 1970 to 2000, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the predecessor to today’s Human Rights Council, considered in closed meetings and acted on some 80 country situations where there were reliable allegations of gross violations of human rights. In parallel, the UN Decolonization Committee and the Special Committee Against Apartheid gathered information, …

Human Rights, WORLDVIEWS

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WORLDVIEWS

Thank You, United Nations, for Our Freedom

Bertrand Ramcharan

• January 23, 2018

During some of the darkest days of the Cold War, thousands of people gained their freedom, thanks to the United Nations, in a story that has never been told before. It is time that this story — and others to come originating from UN archives — be put on record. From the early days …

Human Rights, WORLDVIEWS

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TOPIC: WOMEN

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

Dulcie Leimbach

• January 21, 2018

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 Violence, Health and Population, Human Rights, Women

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WORLDVIEWS

Leave the UN’s Human-Rights Treaty System Alone

Bertrand Ramcharan

• January 7, 2018

The United Nations Charter requires each and every member state to discharge its obligations by faithfully carrying out norms of legally binding international human-rights law. These may be norms of international customary law, those contained in treaties or those flowing from general principles of international law. The human-rights provisions in the Charter were amplified …