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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

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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 …

SDGs, Women

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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

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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

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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

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

• 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

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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

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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. …

Gender Violence, Women

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At the Nairobi Summit, Spotlighting the Reproductive Rights of Women and Girls

Mantoe Phakathi

• November 13, 2019

NAIROBI, Kenya — More than 6,000 delegates in the population development sector are gathering in the Kenyan capital here this week to renew the promise made to girls and women 25 years ago in Cairo. In firm voices, young girls from African countries called on delegates to ensure that young people have access to …

Africa, Health and Population, SDGs, Women

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UN Women Declares Its Neutrality in the Sex Trade Debate

Barbara Crossette

• November 11, 2019

The surprising controversy over women in the sex trade — tangled in issues of legality, terminology and competing feminist visions — has produced an unequivocal statement from the executive director of UN Women that the agency is not taking sides in this debate. The acrimonious dispute has erupted just as the United Nations is …

Gender Violence, Human Trafficking, Women

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Margot Wallstrom’s Feminist Foreign Policy for Sweden Catches On Globally, She Says

Barbara Crossette

• November 4, 2019

Margot Wallstrom, as Sweden’s newly appointed foreign minister, announced in 2014 that her priority would be the creation of the world’s first feminist foreign policy. The concept left some in her diplomatic corps “gasping for air,” she said. Now, having recently completed a hectic five years in office despite numerous global crises, she is …

Gender Violence, Human Trafficking, US Foreign Relations, Women

2 Comments

A New UK Hotline for Victims of Sexual Harassment Is ‘Constantly Ringing’

• October 21, 2019

A new hotline is offering free, confidential legal advice to women in England and Wales who are experiencing sexual harassment at work. Launched in August, it is the only hotline of its kind dedicated to addressing a problem affecting women from all walks of life. Already, the hotline has been inundated with calls from …

Health and Population, Human Rights, Women

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UN Women Is Criticized for Appearing to Take Sides on Decriminalizing ‘Sex Work’

Barbara Crossette

• October 17, 2019

A group of civil society organizations is warning that a growing global movement to decriminalize and rebrand prostitution as “sex work” could lead to more, not less, violence against the world’s most vulnerable women and girls. The critics are petitioning UN Women, which is leading a review of the results of the 1995 Fourth …

Human Trafficking, Women

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US Money for Global Women’s Health Is Jeopardized Again

Barbara Crossette

• October 8, 2019

For the third year, the Trump administration and its Republican allies in the United States Congress are refusing to abandon their harsh restrictions on aid to health programs for women around the world. Instead, all amendments calling for a repeal of what is known as the “global gag rule” have been eliminated in the …

Health and Population, Women

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Women Sighted at #UNGA. Plus: Iran’s Warnings to the US and Russians Denied Visas

Laura E. Kirkpatrick

• September 25, 2019

How women’s issues could be more prominent at the United Nations General Assembly’s annual opening session remains an enigma. The topics of women’s rights and gender equality pop up in speeches by world leaders, including those by women, but their remarks just don’t stand out — especially this year. “As the UN rightly tries …

General Assembly, Women

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