Cedaw

At the UN’s Global Summit on Women’s Rights, the US Looks Chaotic

March 7, 2019

More than 10,000 people will soon converge on the United Nations for its annual Commission on the Status of Women conference, providing a unique forum to gauge progress and to press for the rights of women and marginalized populations around the world. Founded at a forward-thinking moment in 1946, the commission’s yearly meetings offer …

Gender-Based Violence, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations, Women

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NIKKI HALEY WATCH

Nikki Haley Is Better Known in the UK Than Her British Counterpart. How Come?

October 9, 2017

by Rhona Scullion

DUNDEE, Scotland — While most British people have a generally positive view of the United Nations, public awareness of who their diplomats are and how they carry out their work in New York is minimal to nonexistent. Yet the United States ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, has had no trouble attracting headlines in …

Nikki Haley Watch, Nuclear Disarmament, Security Council, US Foreign Relations

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GEOPOLITICS

Janet Benshoof, Legal Activist, Seeks Help for Burma Through the Global Court

October 8, 2017

by Barbara Crossette

Burma has long been a unique country not only for its otherworldly landscape of pagodas and gold-topped stupas but also, paradoxically, as an isolated country where a nationalistic military has given itself extraordinary constitutional powers. Generals, who have warped the country’s Buddhist heritage over half a century, can now attack the Muslim-majority Rohingya people …

Asia, Geopolitics, Human Rights, International Justice

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TOPIC: INDIA

In Lush Manipur, Women Work for Peace as Militarization Marches On

September 5, 2017

by Binalakshmi Nepram

Manipur, a state of exceptional beauty in a little-known corner of northeastern India, was an independent region until 1949 when, in a controversial move, it was merged into the Indian union. Situated in an emerald green valley surrounded by nine blue mist-covered mountain ranges, the state has been seriously affected since 1949 by many …

Asia, Disarmament, India

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WORLDVIEWS

Three Ways to Help Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls

May 3, 2017

by Stephanie Asher

Everyone has a fundamental right to live free of violence. Yet violence against women and girls is a health epidemic and a leading cause of injury and disability for women across the globe. In many regions, it kills as many women and girls from ages 15 to 44 as cancer and surpasses injury from …

Gender-Based Violence, Health and Population, Human Rights, WORLDVIEWS

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US Policy Denies Emergency Abortion Globally for War Rape Victims

July 30, 2015

by Barbara Crossette

In 1973, Jesse Helms, a newly elected United States senator and an ideologue contemptuous of the United Nations, dismissive of international treaties and completely devoid of compassion for the world’s poor, put his name on an amendment to the landmark 1961 United States Foreign Assistance Act banning any use of US funds to support …

Gender-Based Violence, Women

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WORLDVIEWS

Applying a Global Treaty on Gender Equality to American Cities

April 10, 2015

by Karen Mulhauser

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Every year at the United Nations, the Commission on the Status of Women brings together an impressive array of global leaders to publicly state their support for gender equality. This year’s meeting, occurring in March, was no different, with 8,000 attendees reiterating their support to ending gender inequality and discrimination around …

WORLDVIEWS

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The Many Global Currents Undermining Gender Equality

March 29, 2015

by Florencia Giordano

How much does the economic environment of a country generate inequalities for women? A new report on wage gaps says that disparities are only partly explained by differences in experience, education and/or occupation, proving there is much more work to be done before the world offers both genders equal pay for equal work. The …

Gender-Based Violence, Migration, Women

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Mexico Rising: Advances in Women’s Health and Rights

February 6, 2014

by Barbara Crossette

When the latest list of 20 top donors to UN Women appeared last year, there was only one country outside the richer nations of the world among them: Mexico. The Mexican commitment to the women’s agency reflects the strides that the country has made in promoting women’s rights in recent years, powered by …

Human Rights, Latin America, Women

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WORLDVIEWS

War Crimes Against Women and Girls Must Be Prosecuted

November 4, 2013

by Navi Pillay

There is now overwhelming evidence that conflicts exacerbate pre-existing gender discrimination and put women and girls at heightened risk of sexual, physical and psychological violence. One appalling example of this evidence is the report recently to the Human Rights Council by the International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, which highlights the threat and …

Gender-Based Violence, WORLDVIEWS

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WORLDVIEWS

The US, an Outlier in Ratifying the Children’s Rights Treaty

March 26, 2013

by Anthony C. Gooch

It is urgent that the United States ratify the international Convention on the Rights of the Child. This treaty, which recognizes that childhood is entitled to special care and assistance, is based on the principle that the family is the basic group of society, and it states that every child should be brought up …

US-UN Relations, WORLDVIEWS

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The Recipe for a Better World? Ending Violence Against Women and Girls

March 7, 2013

by Dulcie Leimbach

Thousands of women worldwide flock to the Commission on the Status of Women’s conference at the United Nations every March, and this year is no exception, for good reason: the theme is eliminating and preventing all violence against women and girls. Violence is a phenomenon that all females can relate to day after day, …

Development, Gender-Based Violence, Human Rights, Women

GOINGS-ON

US Envoy for Global Women’s Issues Leaves for Georgetown

February 22, 2013

by PassBlue

Melanne Verveer, most recently the United States ambassador at large for global women’s issues, is the new executive director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, which officially opened Feb. 21. Verveer had been appointed to the government post, the first of its kind for the country, by President Obama when it …

GOINGS-ON, Women

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WORLDVIEWS

Why the International Women’s Rights Treaty Matters

December 3, 2012

by Anthony C. Gooch

The time has come for the United States to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, commonly known as Cedaw, particularly after women voters asserted themselves so effectively in recent US elections. The convention obliges signatories to “ensure the full development and advancement of women” and expressly extends …