Refugees

• May 11, 2017

In mid-2016, the United Nations refugee agency and Ugandan officials made a horrific discovery. Cholera was being introduced in a migrant settlement by refugees from South Sudan who were fleeing the extreme violence in their imploding country. In barely six weeks, beginning last July, 80,000 South Sudanese had arrived in Uganda when the outbreak …

Health and Population, Migration, Myanmar, Refugees, Take a Look, US-UN Relations

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BOOKS

Surviving a Sea That Stole Almost Everything: One Refugee’s Story

Elizabeth Walsh

• March 4, 2017

“I represent just one voice among the millions who risk their lives every day in order to live a life of dignity,” writes Doaa Al Zamel, a young Syrian woman who survived a horrific journey across the Mediterranean. “Every family in my country has lost so much that they have had to rebuild their …

BOOKS, Refugees

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WORLDVIEWS

The UN Should Just Say No to Returning Refugees to Danger

Bill Frelick

• February 27, 2017

Pressure is building on Afghan and Somali refugees to go home, even if they no longer have homes to return to. It is not surprising that this pressure is coming from governments that have been hosting huge numbers of refugees and want to end what seems to them like a never-ending burden. What is …

Human Rights, Migration, Refugees, WORLDVIEWS

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How’s He Doing? António Guterres’s First Month as UN Secretary-General

Dulcie Leimbach

• February 5, 2017

Thirty-two days in office as United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres spoke extensively to the media for the first time at UN headquarters, on Feb. 1. Indicative of the chaos gripping many parts of the world as a result of new White House actions, Guterres might be forgiven for waiting a month to address the …

Migration, Peace and Security, Refugees, Secretary-General, UN Peacekeeping, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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GEOPOLITICS

Feelings Hurt, Yemeni-Americans in New York City Protest the Trump Immigration Ban

Dulcie Leimbach

• February 2, 2017

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Thousands of Yemeni-Americans in New York City turned out to peacefully — if not passionately — protest the White House ban on immigrants entering the United States from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Yemen. The protesters waved American and Yemeni flags, shouting slogans like “United we stand against the Muslim ban.” Held …

Geopolitics, Libya, Middle East, Migration, Refugees, Syria, US Foreign Relations

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GEOPOLITICS

Take a Look: Global Refugee Law and US Areas Affected Most by Trump Ban

Barbara Crossette

• January 31, 2017

The public furor and enormous protests by many thousands of Americans nationwide have led experts to try to explain where the decisions made by Donald Trump fall short of legality in both national and international law. From Hollywood to the world of sports to the corridors of the United States Congress, people are saying …

Cities, Geopolitics, Human Rights, Middle East, Migration, Refugees, Syria, US Foreign Relations

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Educators on the UN Denounce Trump’s Crackdown on Refugees

Irwin Arieff

• January 28, 2017

More than 700 educators and students, meeting at United Nations headquarters in New York recently, called on the international community to protect refugees’ lives, encourage countries to take in “large numbers of refugees and migrants” and do more to ensure they get an education and are protected from sexual and gender-based violence. Acting as …

Education, Human Rights, Middle East, Migration, Refugees, Syria, US Foreign Relations

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Trump’s ‘Gag Rule’ Contradicts UN Policy Helping Women in Distress

Barbara Crossette

• January 24, 2017

Just days after a global outpouring of support for a movement demanding protection for the rights of women and other advances promoted by civil society, Donald Trump has fully turned back the clock. On Jan. 23, with a stroke of his presidential pen, he banned all official American aid to any global organization that …

Gender Violence, Health and Population, Human Rights, Poverty, Refugees, US-UN Relations, Women

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A Poverty-Easing Plan to Help Displaced People and Their Host Countries

Tino Calabia

• December 9, 2016

WASHINGTON, D.C. — One year ago, almost 1 percent of the world’s population, about 65 million people, had been forcibly displaced from their homes. That is a population size that would constitute a nation larger than Britain or would be the world’s 21st-largest country. But instead of creating their own country, the majority of the …

Development, Humanitarian Aid, Middle East, Migration, Refugees, World Bank

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What World Leaders Said — and Left Out — at the UN Refugee-Migrant Meeting

Dr. Catherine Mullaly and Lori Silberman Brauner

• September 19, 2016

At the inaugural United Nations Summit for Refugees and Migrants in New York City on Sept. 19, dozens upon dozens of speakers said their piece on the contentious subject of migratory flows concerning the world. But few offered specific ways to solve the global problem of people who are moving in desperate, sometimes deadly …

Migration, Refugees

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What to Expect at the UN’s First Migration and Refugee Summit Meeting

Dulcie Leimbach

• September 17, 2016

How do you solve the refugee and migrant crisis? At the United Nations, which has by default inherited the pressing problem of the biggest movement of people from their homes since the end of World War II, you hold meetings, conferences, panel discussions, produce “outcome documents,” give speeches, promise to do more and weep, …

Migration, Refugees

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Peter Sutherland, UN Migration Envoy, Says: Do Not Shirk the Refugee Crisis

Joanne Myers

• September 14, 2016

As the special envoy to the United Nations secretary-general on international migration since 2006, Peter Sutherland, an Irishman, has minced few words on the topic of people leaving their homes in search of better lives. In his role at the UN, he advises the secretary-general on issues related to international migration and development and promotes …

General Assembly, Human Rights, Migration, Refugees, UN Special Envoys

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A New Year at the UN: Getting Serious About Global Disorder?

Barbara Crossette

• September 12, 2016

Government leaders from around the world are gathering in New York for the opening on Tuesday of the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly, an event haunted by momentous crises demanding undivided attention and action from all member countries. Responses in both the General Assembly (whose powers are limited) and the Security Council …

General Assembly, Migration, Refugees, UN-NY Relations, US-UN Relations

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Religious Intolerance Surges Worldwide, US Studies Confirm

Barbara Crossette

• August 15, 2016

Burmese Buddhists attack Muslims and Christians. Indian Hindu zealots kill Muslims and Christians and trash their places of worship. In the Central African Republic, Muslims are driven from the country by Christians. The Middle East and parts of North Africa are aflame with sectarian violence, and religious minorities are the most vulnerable to persecution, …

Human Rights, Refugees

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You Have the Right to Leave Your Country: Backdrop to UN Summit on Migration

Joseph Chamie

• August 10, 2016

You have a right to leave your country, but you don’t have a right to enter another country. That asymmetry of human rights is a basic axiom of the global international migration system. Nearly 70 years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in Article 13, recognized everyone’s right to leave and to return …