Women

• 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

Leave a Comment

TOPIC: WOMEN

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

Leave a Comment

TOPIC: WOMEN

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

Leave a Comment

TOPIC: WOMEN

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

Leave a Comment

TOPIC: WOMEN

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, US-UN Relations, Women

Leave a Comment

TOPIC: WOMEN

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

One Comment

TOPIC: WOMEN

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

Leave a Comment

TOPIC: WOMEN

Feminists Rev Up for Beijing+25 Reviews as the US Resists

Laura E. Kirkpatrick

• January 26, 2020

This year will be an urgent moment for the United Nations and its 193 member countries to renew their commitment ensuring women’s equality in all walks of life. Twenty-five years have passed since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action was ratified at the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995. That document was …

Gender Violence, US-UN Relations, Women

One Comment

TOPIC: WOMEN

Fannie Munlin, the Face of the African-American Community at the UN

Dulcie Leimbach

• January 23, 2020

Fannie Munlin has led a long life of helping others, making her a natural fit to chair the NGO Executive Committee, the liaison for the 1,600 civil society organizations affiliated with the United Nations Department of Global Communications. She is also “the face of the African-American community at the UN,” as she said, as …

Women

Leave a Comment

TOPIC: WOMEN

The UN Unveils 6 Themes in a Big Year Pushing for Women’s Rights

Stéphanie Fillion

• January 20, 2020

As the countdown to this year’s main events celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women has begun, UN Women has announced six themes to anchor the two Generation Equality forums to be held in May and in July. While many women’s groups applaud the broad themes, some have serious qualms about one …

Gender Violence, Women

Leave a Comment

TOPIC: WOMEN

In Haiti, a Result of Peacekeepers Who Abuse Their Power: ‘Petits Minustahs’

Susan A. Bartels

• January 16, 2020

In Haiti, a young woman I’ll call Marie became involved with a United Nations peacekeeper from Brazil when she was 14 years old. She became pregnant. He was sent back to Brazil; she was ostracized by her family. In 2017, when our research team met with Marie, she said that she and her son, …

UN Peacekeeping, Women

One Comment

TOPIC: WOMEN

Despite Years of Pledges and Plans, Gender Gaps Persist on a Global Scale

Barbara Crossette

• January 14, 2020

In health care, political participation, economic advancement, personal safety and justice, women across the world may be advancing on some fronts in various places. At the start of a new decade, however, the realities on a global scale are far from meeting promises made in past years. On March 9, when delegations from United …

Health and Population, Take a Look, Women

Leave a Comment

TOPIC: WOMEN

Rosemary DiCarlo, the Top-Ranking American at the UN, Describes Her Work Crisscrossing the World

Joanne Myers

• December 11, 2019

On a busy day of a busy week and year, Rosemary DiCarlo, the United Nations under secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, spoke frankly in an interview about her role as the first woman to be appointed to this position and as the highest-ranking American now serving the UN. DiCarlo discussed the challenges and …

US-UN Relations, Women

Leave a Comment

TOPIC: WOMEN

Mixing Politics and Religion, the US Stalls UN Work on Women’s Rights

Barbara Crossette

• November 26, 2019

It did not take long after the 74th General Assembly session opened this fall for the Trump team to signal that its strategy in key United Nations meetings would be to act as uncooperative and obstructive as possible, especially on human-rights agendas. The 2019-2020 UN year — September to September — is likely to be …

Health and Population, Women

Leave a Comment

TOPIC: WOMEN

Trump’s Misogyny Stands Out During the Impeachment Hearings

Laura E. Kirkpatrick

• November 24, 2019

Although the first hearings by the Intelligence Committee in the House of Representatives in the Trump impeachment inquiry may be over, one remarkable aspect stands out: the heroic way the female foreign service officers and policy specialists who testified braved raw personal tweets by the president and the White House, often in real time. …