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Women

Women’s Rights Are Human Rights: How Equality Became a US Foreign Policy Priority

Rebecca Turkington and Melanne Verveer

• October 14, 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Twenty-five years ago this month, tens of thousands of women (and some men) gathered in Beijing for the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. It was a profound moment in the history of women’s rights, convening 5,000 official delegates from nearly every country in the world and more than 30,000 …

Development, Gender Violence, Human Trafficking, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations, Women

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Five Months Before UN Security Council Resolution 1325, the Seminar That Set the Scene

Barbara Crossette

• October 8, 2020

In a year of anniversaries at the United Nations, one stands out of special interest to women in peacekeeping and humanitarian work in conflict zones and other arenas of crisis where civilian rights are trampled on and families and societies severely disrupted. On October 31, 2000, the Security Council passed a breakthrough resolution 1325 …

UN Peacekeeping, Women

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25 Years After the Beijing Accord, Women Across the Globe Ask: Where Is the Equality?

Barbara Crossette

• October 2, 2020

The 25th anniversary of the landmark global action plan that was adopted to expand the equality and rights of women and girls was jinxed from the start. The celebratory event, long scheduled for March, was hastily postponed as the Covid-19 virus spread. When the commemoration finally took place on Oct. 1, it was virtual, with …

Gender Violence, General Assembly, Women

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Leadership of UN Missions: Halting Progress on the Road to Gender Parity

Foteini Papagioti and Paul von Chamier

• September 30, 2020

It has been a banner year for the long-overdue push to appoint women to the notoriously male-dominated leadership ranks of United Nations peacekeeping and political missions. Five out of six mission-leadership jobs in the first half of 2020 went to women. That includes all-female leadership teams not only in Cyprus but also in Iraq, …

Secretary-General, UN Careers, Women

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The UNFPA Is Thriving as It Praises an American Who Kept US Interest Alive

Barbara Crossette

• September 29, 2020

In the rubble of what’s left of American commitments to international organizations, one survivor is doing well. The United Nations Population Fund, or UNFPA, the perennial target of Republican politicians and presidents since the 1980s, is thriving. Arthur Erken, director of communications and strategic partnerships at the Population Fund, said in an interview with …

Health and Population, Human Rights, Women

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How Long Do You Have to Wait to Hear a Woman at the UNGA? 53 Speakers, to Be Exact

Stéphanie Fillion

• September 10, 2020

The first woman scheduled to speak at this year’s opening session of the United Nations General Assembly is 53rd on the list of about 119 heads of state — President Zuzana Caputova of Slovakia — delivering her remarks on Sept. 23. The day before, the first of the big gathering, will not feature any …

General Assembly, US-UN Relations, Women

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Not All Human Rights Council Specialists Are Perfect: The Latest Controversy

Barbara Crossette

• August 19, 2020

To keep tabs on the lives and rights of people across the world, the United Nations Human Rights Council has the help of 44 independent monitors supposedly chosen for their expertise on a range of themes, from harsh government abuses to often-overlooked individual special needs. A dozen others are assigned specific countries to watch. …

Gender Violence, Human Trafficking, Women

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Is the US Ready for a Feminist Foreign Policy? Absolutely, Advocates Say

Barbara Crossette

• May 26, 2020

The world of diplomacy has toyed with the concept of feminist foreign policies for years, raising some support and not a few snickers from dissenters. A new campaign led by women with strong professional qualifications and global experience in more than 50 organizations plans to change that mind-set in the United States. On May …

Security Council, US Foreign Relations, Women

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Afghan Women on the US-Taliban Peace Deal: We Refuse to Shut Up

Samea Shanori and Fiona Shukri

• March 25, 2020

Afghan women’s inclusion in the current peace negotiations with the Taliban and the United States has become an international cause célèbre. But calls for participation of Afghan women without methodical, sustained and substantive engagement in a peace settlement has the potential to harm them, not help them. The international community should ensure that Afghan women …

Gender Violence, Women

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Beijing+25 Moves to the Next Stage: Vast Uncertainty

Barbara Crossette

• March 16, 2020

This year was intended to be a celebratory time for women: the 25th anniversary of the momentous Beijing conference on women’s rights and how to advance them. It isn’t working out that way, however, as a global health crisis and disagreements among advocates for women rewrite the script. The 2020 session of the Commission …

Human Trafficking, Women

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Peace Begins at Home: Gloria Steinem’s Recipe for a Nonviolent World

Sonah Lee-Lassiter

• March 6, 2020

Nearly 700 people, many of them young adults and students, flocked to the United Nations recently to attend an all-day gathering on “War No More.” Who were they eager to see and hear? The global feminist icon Gloria Steinem and Leymah Gbowee, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who led her fellow countrywomen to help …

Gender Violence, Women

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UN Chief Condemns Male Privilege as Many Nations Defy Such Bashing

Barbara Crossette

• March 4, 2020

With International Women’s Day, March 8, on the horizon, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres blasted the intractable power of patriarchy, the cause of overwhelming gender injustice and an abuse of historical proportions, in his view. “Just as slavery and colonialism were a stain on previous centuries, women’s inequality should shame us all in the …

Gender Violence, Secretary-General, Women

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Battle Lines Are Drawn on Women’s Rights Before #CSW64 Even Begins

Dulcie Leimbach

• February 27, 2020

From the start, the diplomats leading the negotiations on the new political declaration for the United Nations’ women’s rights conference in March wanted to keep it short and sweet. That meant five pages maximum, one diplomat told PassBlue before the discussions began, inevitably frustrating diplomats who had hoped to produce a generous endorsement of …

Gender Violence, SDGs, US-UN Relations, Women

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Win or Lose, Trump’s Policies on Women’s Health Inflict Damage

Barbara Crossette

• February 25, 2020

Whether or not Donald Trump will be re-elected president on Nov. 3, a tough debate is likely to begin soon in the United States Congress over the national budget for the unpredictable year ahead. Reproductive health issues rank high on the agenda for women’s rights advocates. Trump’s proposed budget would continue to restrict funds …

Gender Violence, Women

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Trump’s Dictator Buddies Across the World Are Not Friends of Women

Barbara Crossette

• February 4, 2020

In the gallery of authoritarian governments undercutting the rights of women and threatening democracy around the world, five nations stand out for a special reason. Donald Trump has made the leaders of Brazil, Egypt, India, Saudi Arabia and Turkey his friends and accomplices. In all of these countries, according to mounting evidence in numerous …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, US-UN Relations, Women

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