Middle East

Syrian Women’s Groups Push for Equal Role at Geneva II Talks

December 5, 2013

Recognizing that women in the Middle East and North Africa must play an active role in their countries’ political processes, especially amid the regional backdrop of upheavals and conflicts, the Netherlands government is providing money for a new program, Women on the Frontline, to help women-run initiatives organize themselves better to assert their rights …

Middle East, Women

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The Woman Who Opened Syria for UN Inspectors

October 16, 2013

by Barbara Crossette

Angela Kane has covered a lot of territory for the United Nations, but one of her toughest jobs in a career spanning more than three decades may be negotiating with Syria to begin the still-uncertain process of destroying the chemical weapons that President Bashar al-Assad only recently denied he had. “It wasn’t easy,” Kane …

Disarmament, Middle East, Women

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The International Criminal Court Fends Off ‘Ferocious’ Attack, Prosecutor Says

September 28, 2013

by Alice Speri

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor – Fatou Bensouda – was busy in New York this week, rallying support for the court on the sidelines of the 68th United Nations General Assembly annual debate. The Gambia native, who succeeded Luis Moreno-Ocampo, an Argentine, to head the prosecutor’s office, talked exclusively to PassBlue about her …

Africa, Human Rights, ICC, International Justice, Middle East, Security Council

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Ban Confirms Chemical Weapons Were Leashed on Syrians, Based on UN Report

September 16, 2013

by Dulcie Leimbach

The much-awaited report by the United Nations investigative mission on the use of chemical weapons in Syria on Aug. 21 in Ghouta has been handed over to the secretary-general by Ake Sellstrom, the head of the mission; it has not been released to the public yet by the UN but France put it online. …

Disarmament, Middle East, Secretary-General, Security Council

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Samantha Power, US Envoy to the UN, Shames Russia for Impasse

September 6, 2013

by PassBlue

Samantha Power, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, pointed a finger straight at Russia for crippling the Security Council in doing its job to secure peace in Syria as the White House continues its intense political campaign to use force against the government of Syria. It is trying to rally support to …

Middle East, Peace and Security, Security Council

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The UN Awaits Results of Chemical Weapons Analysis From Syria

September 3, 2013

by Dulcie Leimbach

In the daily unfolding drama behind the recent investigation by a United Nations team on the use of chemical weapons in Syria, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced today that all biomedical and environmental samples gathered by the inspectors “at sites of possible chemical weapons use in Syria” will arrive at designated laboratories in …

Disarmament, Middle East, Secretary-General, Security Council

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Vibrant Networking Keeps the Door Open for Arab Women

August 26, 2013

by Barbara Crossette

Throughout the media coverage in recent months of the tumultuous events in Egypt, little attention has been paid to Egyptian women, who may have the most to gain or to lose in any new political order that emerges in the country. Social media and dedicated Web sites are filling the gap for many women …

Human Rights, Middle East, Women

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A Letter to Pope Francis, From a Jesuit Priest Who Has Vanished in Syria

August 15, 2013

by PassBlue

The Rev. Paolo Dall’Oglio, a Jesuit priest from Italy who worked in Syria for decades but was exiled by the government in June 2012 for his activism with the opposition rebels, has recently been reported missing in the country. He had been trying to broker negotiations between warring factions in northern Syria, the Kurds …

Middle East, Peace and Security

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Mohamed ElBaradei, Egyptian Nobelist, Named Deputy President

July 4, 2013

by Barbara Crossette

After a week of political jockeying involving Egypt’s interim president, Adly Mahmud Mansour, the country’s military and a radical Islamist party that refused to accept Mohamed ElBaradei as prime minister, the former head of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency was finally appointed deputy president for foreign affairs on July 9. In a …

Africa, Middle East

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Children Trapped in Syria Suffering From the War

May 8, 2013

by Lorraine Boissoneault

As the Syrian government increasingly resorts to using heavy armaments and long-distance aircraft — and possibly chemical weapons — to attack the opposition movement and other enemies, the risk of children being killed or maimed in the fighting has risen sharply, says the United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for …

Human Rights, Middle East, Refugees, Security Council

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It’s Official: Osama bin Laden Delisted From UN Sanctions

March 11, 2013

by PassBlue

Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda who was killed by United States Navy Seal forces on May 2, 2011, in Pakistan, was at last officially removed from the international sanctions list by the United Nations last month. What took so long? At the UN, the answer is almost always in the procedures. The …

Middle East, Peace and Security, Security Council

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Domestic Workers: Long Hours, Backbreaking Jobs and Few Rights

February 28, 2013

by Tala Dowlatshahi

Two years ago, commemorating International Domestic Workers Day on June 16, governments, labor unions and employers’ associations voted overwhelmingly to create global labor standards to help promote the rights of the 50 to 100 million domestic workers worldwide. The United Nations International Labor Organization, or ILO, adopted such a convention, No. 189, in …

Asia, Human Rights, Middle East, Women

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A Brave New Role for Thoraya Obaid, Former UNFPA Chief

January 22, 2013

by Barbara Crossette

The New Year began with a big step for Saudi women when King Abdullah appointed 30 of them to the kingdom’s traditionally all-male Shura Council, an advisory body that serves as a pale imitation of a legislature in the kingdom, which has no parliament. One of the new advisers is Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, the …

Middle East, Women

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BOOKS

Iran’s ‘Grand Bargain’ With the West

January 1, 2013

by Irwin Arieff

Iran’s nuclear crisis has been dragging on for a decade, so it sure would be great if someone in the know finally laid out the definitive plan for resolving the dispute and ending Tehran’s international isolation. In “The Iranian Nuclear Crisis: A Memoir,” a veteran Iranian diplomat, Seyed Hossein Mousavian, modestly puts himself forward …

BOOKS, Disarmament, Middle East

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UN and US Congress Act to Curtail Female Cutting Globally

December 23, 2012

by Barbara Crossette

Only four days before Christmas, when many minds were fixated on the year-end holidays, two important steps were taken almost unnoticed to combat female genital mutilation globally, raising hopes that millions of girls might be spared the excruciatingly painful and harmful yet persistent practice. In what Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called “historic” UN action, the …

Africa, General Assembly, Health and Population, Human Rights, Middle East, Women

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Middle East

Syrian Women’s Groups Push for Equal Role at Geneva II Talks

The Woman Who Opened Syria for UN Inspectors

The International Criminal Court Fends Off ‘Ferocious’ Attack, Prosecutor Says

Ban Confirms Chemical Weapons Were Leashed on Syrians, Based on UN Report

Samantha Power, US Envoy to the UN, Shames Russia for Impasse

The UN Awaits Results of Chemical Weapons Analysis From Syria

Vibrant Networking Keeps the Door Open for Arab Women

A Letter to Pope Francis, From a Jesuit Priest Who Has Vanished in Syria

Mohamed ElBaradei, Egyptian Nobelist, Named Deputy President

Children Trapped in Syria Suffering From the War

It’s Official: Osama bin Laden Delisted From UN Sanctions

Domestic Workers: Long Hours, Backbreaking Jobs and Few Rights

A Brave New Role for Thoraya Obaid, Former UNFPA Chief

Iran’s ‘Grand Bargain’ With the West

UN and US Congress Act to Curtail Female Cutting Globally

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