Middle East

Cloaked in Secrecy: How the Saudis’ $110 Million Gift to UN Counterterrorism Is Being Spent

November 21, 2016

The United Nations Counter-Terrorism Center was set up in 2011 with money from Saudi Arabia to combat terrorism worldwide. Some experts, however, now question the center’s ability to eliminate terrorist threats. There are also questions about whether the money that the Saudis donated, a whopping $110 million, is being spent effectively. The Saudi donation …

Middle East, Peace and Security, Security Council, Terrorism

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In Iraqi Kurdistan, It’s a Life of Harsh Contrasts for Women and Girls

July 9, 2016

by Johanna Higgs

ERBIL, Iraq — Despite the war crimes being committed against women and girls in northern Iraq since the extremist group ISIS invaded two years ago, rejection of entrenched violence and discrimination against females may be taking root among pockets of the autonomous Kurdish region here. Yet in many ways, life for women and girls …

Gender-Based Violence, Middle East, Terrorism, Women

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Advocates for Besieged Children Say Collaboration Is Essential

May 1, 2016

by Barbara Crossette

Grim images from the small world of children are multiplying. Little bodies adrift in the Aegean and Mediterranean seas. Uncomprehending faces pressed against wire fences and barricades in Europe from the Balkans to the French port of Calais. At least 17 Syrian children and their pediatrician slaughtered by a bomb apparently targeting a hospital …

Africa, Asia, Child Soldiers, Middle East

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Fleeing Violence, Syrian Women Try to Cope in Turkey and Lebanon

April 6, 2016

by Johanna Higgs and Liga Rudzite

GAZIANTEP, Turkey — Amima and Fatima Jebari are Syrian sisters who fled last year to the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep, near the Syrian border, after the Free Syrian Army entered their village in the north, they said, and violence ensued between the rebel group and the government forces of Bashar al-Assad in the …

Gender-Based Violence, Human Rights, Middle East, Refugees, Syria, Women

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There Is No Military Solution for Syria

March 20, 2016

by Barbara Crossette

Only close cooperation between the United States and Russia can end the “terrible tragedy” in Syria, says Lakhdar Brahimi, the highly respected international mediator in the Middle East for more than two decades. Brahimi, who led United Nations missions in Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iraq before becoming the special joint envoy of the Arab League …

Middle East, Syria

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Egypt’s Fertility Rate Turns Upward, but Why?

March 1, 2016

by Barbara Crossette

For more than a quarter-century, beginning in the late 1970s, the number of children born to a woman in Egypt had been declining, on average, to about 3.0, in line with declining fertility rate trends in much of North Africa. Then, in the last six or seven years, the rate in Egypt, the Arab …

Health and Population, Middle East, Women

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Syria’s Academics, Caught ‘Between a Hammer and a Hard Place’

February 7, 2016

by Barbara Crossette

He can’t risk the lives of family members by identifying himself by name, but he is willing to tell his story, a reflection of what has happened to intellectual life in what was once a center of higher education in the Middle East. He was a respected professor at Damascus University whose world fell …

Education, Middle East, Syria

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Syrian Women Are Ready to Participate in UN-Led Geneva Peace Talks

January 20, 2016

by Dulcie Leimbach

While new Syrian peace talks organized by the United Nations remain tentatively scheduled to begin on Jan. 25 in Switzerland, a substantial group of Syrian women is preparing to convene in Geneva starting that day to demand an equal place at the negotiations table. Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy for Syria, who …

Gender-Based Violence, Human Rights, Middle East, Syria

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As Syrian Peace Talks Take Shape, How Will Women Take Part?

December 26, 2015

by Dulcie Leimbach

When the United Nations Security Council recently approved timelines to begin peace talks and institute a national cease-fire in Syria, the language in the resolution gave no hint of the magnitude of such undertakings, nor did the congratulatory speeches afterward by diplomats delve into the details. That means the nitty-gritty work is left to …

Gender-Based Violence, Middle East, Peace and Security, Security Council, Syria, Women

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For Female Syrian Refugees Settling Into New Jersey, a Quiet Struggle

December 16, 2015

by Katherine M. Wolchko

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. — For some Syrian refugees, “home” is no longer the plains of war-torn Syria but the densely populated cities of northern New Jersey. Since January this year, 86 refugees have arrived in the state, according to recent data from the Refugee Processing Center, and they have been resettled primarily in Paterson, …

Middle East, Migration, Refugees, Women

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Report Accuses Russia of Attacks on Hospitals in Syria

November 24, 2015

by Barbara Crossette

At the end of July, Physicians for Human Rights, a group of health care professionals who have been documenting abuses in conflict areas for nearly three decades, went to Turkey to hear the stories of Syrian doctors who are seeing a once-advanced medical system in the Syrian city of Aleppo being systematically destroyed in …

Middle East, Terrorism

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At Vienna Talks on Syria’s Future, the UN Finds Several Roles to Play

November 15, 2015

by Dulcie Leimbach

The United Nations has wedged its way into playing a monitoring role in a possible cease-fire in Syria and a convening role in gathering the Syrian government and opposition parties to try to meet for formal talks by Jan. 1. The goal is to begin negotiating an end to the prolonged war there, which has …

Middle East, Peace and Security, Refugees, Security Council, Terrorism

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The UN’s Demands to Stop the Violence in Yemen Fall on Deaf Ears

October 26, 2015

by Tom Woodcock

While the regional coalition led by Saudi Arabia continues its aerial bombardment against the Houthi rebels in Yemen, and as ground troops — from Bahrain, Sudan and United Arab Emirates — join the Saudis in the fray, the pain dealt to civilians, especially children, has been rising ever since the war began in March. …

Human Rights, Humanitarian Aid, Middle East, Secretary-General, Security Council

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More Refugees Destined for Europe, Further Testing Its Ability to Respond

October 4, 2015

by Barbara Crossette

With an astounding 12 million people in Syria displaced from their homes in a population that numbered about 23 million before its civil war began in full fledge in 2012, the questions that inevitably arise are: Why isn’t the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees more actively involved on the ground in Europe, the …

Middle East, Migration, Refugees

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Europe Pushes Ahead for More Aid to Syrians and to Disrupt Human Smuggling

September 29, 2015

by Dulcie Leimbach

Seizing a chance to respond more coherently to the deadly situation in Syria, the European Union and Jordan are proposing a “resilience plan” to alleviate the humanitarian emergency while pushing for a political course to stop the Syrian government from killing what’s left of its people. The European Union is also moving ahead in …