Middle East

A UN Envoy Tries Something New in Syria

September 27, 2015

Four working groups formed to dissect and discuss the Syrian crisis in concrete terms are being set up by the United Nations in a plan conceived by Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy in Syria since July 2014. The working groups and their Syrian interlocutors will discuss safety and protection; political and legal topics; …

Middle East, Refugees

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The Situation for Women and Girls Around the World? Stark.

September 24, 2015

by Tendai Musakwa

As the United Nations prepares to formally accept the new Sustainable Development Goals at midday at a summit meeting on Friday, here is a close look at one of the main resources that helped inform the long debate on creating the goals — the UN Development Program’s Human Development Report for 2014. What do …

Governance, Health and Population, Latin America, Middle East, Poverty, Sustainable Development Goals, Women

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Desperate Escape: Why Syrian and Other Refugees Are Rushing to Europe

September 18, 2015

by Shazia Z. Rafi

As a relentless remake of the Middle East and North Africa has been taking place, mass displacements of populations have also been occurring. And more chaos is ahead, says the United States Defense Intelligence chief, Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, in his assessment that Iraq and Syria may have been permanently torn asunder by war …

Middle East, Migration, Refugees, UN Agencies

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Saudis Say They Will Send Aid to Civilians Suffering in Yemen Soon

August 24, 2015

by Dulcie Leimbach

Four months after Saudi Arabia pledged to donate $274 million to the United Nations to fully cover an emergency humanitarian appeal for Yemeni civilians desperately hungry for food, medicine and water, the money has not materialized, the UN has said. The country is under siege by a local rebel group, the Houthis, who are …

Humanitarian Aid, Middle East

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Saving Scholars Who Become Victimized in the Middle East

August 20, 2015

by Chris Chaky

Khalid al-Asaad, an internationally recognized Syrian scholar of antiquities, was beheaded by ISIS on Aug. 18 for refusing to disclose the location of archeological treasures apparently removed for safekeeping from Palmyra, one of the Middle East’s most important archeological landmarks and a Unesco World Heritage Site in Syria. This latest tragedy inflicted by ISIS highlights …

Education, Middle East, Unesco

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This Palestinian Policewoman Has Zero Tolerance for Domestic Violence

July 16, 2015

by PassBlue

RAMALLAH — As the head of the Palestinian Civil Police Family and Juvenile Protection Unit, Lieut. Col. Wafa Muammar is the highest-ranking female officer in the Palestinian police force and a role model for women trying to find their own space in what has been considered a man’s profession here. Among the first generation …

Gender-Based Violence, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Middle East, Women

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Tunisian Women Feel Their Rights Eroding

July 9, 2015

by Johanna Higgs

TUNIS — Tunisia has possessed the rare reputation of being progressive in gender equality in the Middle East-North African region. Yet with the rise of an Islamist political party in Tunisia after its relatively placid revolution in 2011, the question is, how have women fared in the post-Arab spring landscape? In Tunis, the cosmopolitan …

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

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Sacking of Iraq’s Cultural Heritage Takes Yet Another Turn

March 4, 2015

by Barbara Crossette

The shocking scenes of irreplaceable centuries-old treasures being smashed and toppled from their pedestals in a museum in Mosul — with the rabid acts of destruction proudly videotaped by fighters who call themselves the Islamic State — has provoked global outrage. But for Iraqis, who have seen decades of losses over centuries of intermittent …

Asia, Middle East, Unesco

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The Noose Tightens on Money Flows to Jihadists in Iraq and Syria

February 12, 2015

by Dulcie Leimbach

The Russian-sponsored resolution to fight more precisely the financing of the Islamic jihadists who control swaths of Iraq and Syria passed unanimously in the United Nations Security Council recently, expressing the entire council’s dread, at least for now, of the two main protagonists terrorizing the region — Islamic State (ISIS) and Al Nusra Front. …

Gender-Based Violence, Human Trafficking, Middle East, Security Council

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Yazidi Women in Iraq Describe ‘Unspeakable Brutality’ Under IS Rule

January 4, 2015

by Barbara Crossette

The news from Syria and Iraq is most often dominated by besieged cities and airstrikes on the strongholds of the Muslim extremists of the Islamic State. What those fighters are doing to women they abduct is often hidden by the terrorizing captivity under which they are held. The daily horror of torture, rape and …

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

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Palestinians Move Fast to Join the ICC as Bid for Full Statehood Fails at the UN

December 31, 2014

by Dulcie Leimbach

The Palestinians’ failed proposal to formally establish a state and end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories by late 2017 through a vote in the United Nations Security Council on Dec. 30 continued to reflect the immense influence of the United States on the Palestinians’ ability to assert themselves through the world body. The …

ICC, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Middle East, Security Council, US Foreign Relations

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With Mali in Political Turmoil, High FGM Rates Persist

November 20, 2014

by Dulcie Leimbach

BAMAKO, Mali — In the primarily Francophone and Anglophone region of West Africa, Mali is said to have one of the highest rates of female genital mutilation, with about 91 percent of girls and women having undergone the circumcision — a rate that has not only stayed stubbornly high but may also be inching …

Africa, Gender-Based Violence, Health and Population, Human Rights, Middle East, Women

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The Lure of Violent Extremism for Women: A Terrorism Specialist Explains

November 9, 2014

by Shiwani Neupane

Liat Shetret is the director of the New York office for the Global Center on Cooperative Security, a nonprofit group that helps governments and other organizations develop responses to international security issues. Shetret’s work — currently in Africa — focuses on community engagement in terrorism prevention, countering violent extremism, the use of Internet for …

Middle East, Peace and Security, Women

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Islamists Systematically Destroying World Heritage Sites in Syria and Iraq

October 29, 2014

by Barbara Crossette

Beyond the horrific executions, the deadly assaults on Christian and Yazidi communities and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people fleeing towns to avoid their terror, fighters of the Islamic State movement sweeping through Syria and Iraq are deliberately demolishing or damaging ancient historical sites in some of the world’s oldest towns and …

Middle East, UN Agencies

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Will All of Syria’s Arsenal of Chemical Weapons Be Destroyed?

October 24, 2014

by Alexander Brotman

After an extraordinary effort from the United Nations, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and about a half dozen countries, including the United States and Russia, 96 percent of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal has been destroyed, acting on a UN Security Council mandate. The remaining 4 percent of the arsenal consists of …