Human Rights

• December 5, 2019

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

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China Flexes Its Economic Might More Openly on Uighurs Issue

Stéphanie Fillion

• November 17, 2019

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

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TOPIC: WOMEN

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

Rhona Scullion

• October 21, 2019

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

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

Dulcie Leimbach

• October 16, 2019

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, US Foreign Relations

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

Stéphanie Fillion

• October 2, 2019

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

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

Joanne Myers

• August 13, 2019

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

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

Barbara Crossette

• July 14, 2019

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

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WORLDVIEWS

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

Hayley Willingale

• July 8, 2019

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 Violence, Human Rights, Security Council, WORLDVIEWS

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

Dulcie Leimbach

• July 7, 2019

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 Violence, Human Rights

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Trump’s Pick for UN Diplomat in Geneva Vows to Oppose Reproductive Rights and Put America First

Stéphanie Fillion

• June 26, 2019

“I am pro-life, I believe that all human life is sacred, and that human life begins at conception,” Andrew Bremberg told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently. Asked if rape victims should have access to abortion, he replied, “I don’t believe that abortion is a moral solution to any problem.” Nominated by …

Human Rights, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

Widows Lose Much More Than a Spouse: They Lose Their Dignity

Eleanor Nwadinobi and Meera Khanna

• June 17, 2019

For many women around the world, the death of a spouse is magnified by many losses — of their social status, marital home, land, property, social security, dignity and, sometimes, their children. But men, on the other hand, lose none of their human rights while usually gaining support in starting a new chapter in …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, Poverty, WORLDVIEWS

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Pompeo Retreats on Universal Human Rights as US Looks More Inward

Barbara Crossette

• June 4, 2019

In an audacious move that could be the capstone of the Trump administration’s campaign to reverse decades of American support for human rights globally, the State Department is creating a separate new commission to advise Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on redefining United States policies, aligned with “natural law and natural rights.” For many …

Africa, Asia, Gender Violence, Human Rights, US Foreign Relations

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TOPIC: WOMEN

An Assault on Trump’s Global Women’s Health Policy Begins

Barbara Crossette

• May 28, 2019

With a fierce national budget battle looming in the United States Congress, Democrats on a key committee have formally proposed legislation overturning Trump policies that deny millions of women and girls in developing countries access to vital reproductive health care, including family planning. The legislative bill that emerged on May 16 from the House …

Health and Population, Human Rights, Women

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WORLDVIEWS

The Gains of LGBTQ Rights in Some Mideast-North African Nations May Be a Game-Changer

Suraj Girijashanker

• May 27, 2019

Progress in recognizing the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people at the United Nations in New York and in Geneva may seem detached from the realities faced by LGBTQ people in the Middle East and North Africa, or Mena, region. Activists there, however, are navigating the UN human-rights system as …

Africa, Human Rights, Middle East, WORLDVIEWS

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TOPIC: WOMEN

The Case of Harassing a UN Diplomat Via 1,000s of Text Messages

Sonah Lee-Lassiter

• 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. …