Women

• January 29, 2019

More than two decades have passed since the United Nations General Assembly approved the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which encourages countries to protect people who fight for human rights around the world. So why has the situation deteriorated, especially for women who defend human rights? Fears of terrorism and the rise of fundamentalism …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Young, Female and Diverse: Legislatures Begin to Change to Save Democracy

Barbara Crossette

• January 15, 2019

As many political analysts see democracy weakened by introverted, xenophobic parties and autocratic leaders, a glimmer of hope is offered by a new generation of candidates and voters. This year will test that optimism in a series of important elections around the world. Changes in the composition of national legislatures were already being recorded …

Governance, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

How Will Women Fare as Cities Grow Dramatically? The Data Are Missing

Laura E. Kirkpatrick

• January 13, 2019

Improving the lives of women is woven into each of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals, markers that all 193 member states aim to reach by 2030. Goal 5 is quite specific: nothing short of gender equality. Attaining this lofty goal means being able to put one’s hands on data that have been …

Cities, SDGs, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Another UN Harassment Case Quietly Disappears

Barbara Crossette

• January 6, 2019

Amid a busy December, when the United Nations was focusing on important conferences on climate change and migration and year-end holidays loomed, a case of harassment that never got the traction it arguably deserved ended in a traditional UN way: it disappeared. On Dec. 14, the chairman of the International Civil Service Commission, which …

Gender Violence, Secretary-General, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Heather Nauert, Trump’s Nominee for UN Envoy, Faces Heated Opposition

Dulcie Leimbach and Laura E. Kirkpatrick

• December 12, 2018

The nomination of Heather Nauert to succeed Nikki Haley as United States ambassador to the United Nations has quickly enraged some international women’s rights groups and a major Islamic advocacy organization based in the United States, portending a tense confirmation hearing in the US Senate for Nauert. The announcement of her nomination last week …

Human Rights, LGBT, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Lessons in Making a Difference for Girls in Burkina Faso

Irwin Arieff

• November 24, 2018

So many nonprofits seem to be after your money these days. Even if you are eager to give it away, you want to be convinced that a given group is the most deserving. But how can you tell when a charitable group is effective, making the best use of your donation without wasting it …

Africa, Education, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

‘We Do Not Ask. We Act’: A Syrian Women Activist Tells It Like It Is

Maria Luisa Gambale and Laura E. Kirkpatrick

• November 20, 2018

Mariam Jalabi, a co-founder of the Syrian Women’s Political Movement and the Syrian National Council’s representative to the United Nations, reflected on Syria’s future in a recent conversation with Jamille Bigio, senior fellow in the Council on Foreign Relations’ Women and Foreign Policy program. Jalabi’s work focuses on women’s inclusion in politics and decision-making, and …

Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Women’s Rights Predicted to Advance in New US Congress

Barbara Crossette

• November 13, 2018

The results of the recent United States elections raise hopes for women’s rights. At least 100 women, among them young liberals who defeated incumbent men, will hold nearly a quarter of the seats in the House of Representatives when a new Congress opens in early January. Two women are Muslim-American and two are Native …

Human Rights, US Foreign Relations, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

In Cambodia’s Single-Party Politics, Women Are Barely Seen

Johanna Higgs

• October 23, 2018

KAMPOT, Cambodia — Chan Kanha is the deputy mayor for the Cambodian People’s Party in this small port town, which sits along Cambodia’s southern coast and still retains much of its French colonial architecture. The Cambodian People’s Party, or CCP, is led by Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has run the country for the …

Asia, Gender Violence, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Abortion, Fertility and Women’s Rights: Where the UN & US Diverge

Barbara Crossette

• October 22, 2018

If it had not been for the disruption of Donald Trump’s appearances in the United Nations the last week of September, more attention might have been devoted to an international day of advocacy for safe abortion, on Sept. 28, arranged by more than 1,200 organizations. A woman’s right to choose has few more powerful …

Health and Population, US Foreign Relations, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Rape in Peru: Stopping a Deadly Epidemic

Dulcie Leimbach

• September 20, 2018

Forty years is a long time to trek uphill, but Victoria Villanueva, the tireless leader of a campaign to raise the status of girls and women in Peru, remains undaunted. Now 83, she has been doing exactly this since 1978, the year she helped found Manuela Ramos, an organization that lobbies to reduce sexual …

Gender Violence, Women

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TAKE A LOOK

Hungary Forbids Gender Studies, Enraging Academics

Barbara Crossette

• August 14, 2018

In the doldrums of a European summer, when many universities are mostly closed or short-staffed, the populist Hungarian government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban sent a directive to higher-education institutions on Aug. 9 forbidding the teaching of gender studies. Hungarian academicians, faculties outside the country as well as civil society organizations reacted quickly, calling …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Michelle Bachelet of Chile Nominated to Be Next UN Rights Commissioner

Barbara Crossette

• August 8, 2018

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has nominated Michelle Bachelet, a former president of Chile, to become the next UN high commissioner for human rights. The nomination has been sent to the General Assembly for approval. Bachelet, who is 66, was Guterres’s top choice all along in the selection process, which began informally in the …

Human Rights, Secretary-General, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Women’s Roles as UN Peacekeepers: A Status Report

Kacie Candela

• August 7, 2018

Women have historically been underrepresented across the United Nations system, but notably in peacekeeping, one of the most highly visible activities of the world body. And while the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations publishes monthly data on troop- and police-contributing countries, by missions and by gender, the numbers are not easily comprehensible. There are …

Peace and Security, UN Peacekeeping, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Backing Up Women With Facts and Figures

Sarah Friedmann

• July 16, 2018

In 2001, a pair of academics at Brigham Young University in Utah aimed to identify data linking the status of women to the security and behavior of countries. Seventeen years later, what began as a single article has evolved into a vital, comprehensive global database, offering insights into women’s lives in 176 countries. Meet the …