Women as Changemakers

Reporting in Afghanistan: Listen, Ask Questions. You Are Not the Story, an Award-Winning Journalist Says

• May 30, 2022

Kathy Gannon never wanted to be a journalist. That changed when she was urged by a journalist brother to give the profession a try. She became a successful reporter and editor of local newspapers in Ontario and British Columbia. With that experience, she ventured into the Middle East, Central Asia and finally into colorful, …

Asia, Gender Violence, Journalists, Women as Changemakers

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WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

Meet Comfort Ero, the First Black Woman to Lead the International Crisis Group

Damilola Banjo

• April 3, 2022

Comfort Ero knew that her appointment as the president and chief executive of the International Crisis Group, a New York City-based think tank working to prevent wars, would be arduous. But taking up the role in December, two months before Russia invaded Ukraine, is not exactly what she envisaged. “It is a reminder of …

Africa, General Assembly, Peace and Security, Security Council, Women as Changemakers

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WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

Rebeca Grynspan: No Woman Will Be Marginalized at Unctad

Barbara Crossette

• March 8, 2022

Rebeca Grynspan, the first woman and first Latin American to lead the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, has a lot of work to do. The organization, founded in 1964 as a standing committee, now has 195 member nations. It meets quadrennially to tackle major economic concerns of developing countries while offering daily …

Women as Changemakers

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WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

Nigeria’s Champion of Maternal and Child Health

Damilola Banjo

• January 19, 2022

It was the death in childbirth of a dear friend that spurred Adepeju Jaiyeoba, then a young lawyer in Lagos, Nigeria, to take action. It was 2011, and 978 out of every 100,000 Nigerian women — 40,000 a year — were dying from complications during childbirth. Recalling her friend recently, Jaiyeoba said: “She was …

Africa, Women as Changemakers

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WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

Celia Umenza Risks Her Life to Defend the Rights of Indigenous People in Colombia

Maurizio Guerrero

• November 16, 2021

Celia Umenza, an Indigenous leader who has survived three attacks on her life while advocating for the self-determination of Indigenous, Afro-descendant and peasant communities in the northern Cauca region of Colombia, recently told the United Nations Security Council that its bears some responsibility for the rising violence against human-rights defenders in her country. Umenza, …

Latin America, Women as Changemakers

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WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

An American Feminist, Honored by France, Carries On a Tireless Global Fight for Women’s Rights

Barbara Crossette

• October 6, 2021

Jessica Neuwirth, a pivotal force in promoting and supporting the rights of women and girls worldwide, was appointed to the rank of chevalier in the French Legion of Honor by the French government in a ceremony in New York City on Oct. 5. The citation said: “This high distinction expresses the gratitude of the …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, Women as Changemakers

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WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

Women Will Achieve Equality, No Matter What: Natalia Kanem of UNFPA Explains

Barbara Crossette

• August 24, 2021

For Natalia Kanem, the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund since 2017, the last couple of years have been a wild ride. In 2020, women the world over were getting ready to celebrate important anniversaries: 25 years since an international conference in Beijing pledged global action on women’s rights, including their reproductive …

Health and Population, Secretary-General, UN Agencies, Women as Changemakers

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WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

This Japanese Astronaut Says ‘Space Diplomacy’ Can Save the Earth

Elizabeth Colton

• July 22, 2021

Naoko Yamazaki made space history not only as the second woman astronaut from Japan, but also by participating in the record-setting 2010 NASA space shuttle mission STS-131 to the International Space Station, or ISS. Launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., the mission marked the first time that four women were …

Women as Changemakers

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WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

‘Peace Inc.’ Has Failed. This Expert Proposes a New Way to Peacemaking

Clair MacDougall

• May 24, 2021

Séverine Autesserre, a former humanitarian-aid worker, award-winning researcher and professor of political science at Columbia University, has become one of the foremost thinkers on international peace-building in the last decade. Following “Peaceland,” a book critically exploring the parallel worlds of United Nations peacekeeping missions, and “The Trouble With the Congo,” which examines the failed peace efforts …