Online Program Enrolling Now - Seton Hall - United Nations Institute for Training and Research
Online Program Enrolling Now - Seton Hall - United Nations Institute for Training and Research

BLUE SMOKE: A monthly column, from PassBlue and UNA–UK, spotlighting senior appointments at the UN

Commission on the Status of Women

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Just because it was International Women’s Day on March 8, we focus on women all week! Why not? You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is culled from UN press briefings, …

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Although nobody knows exactly what a feminist foreign policy should look like, numerous countries continue to adopt the banner ever since it originated in Sweden, in 2014, when Margot Wallstrom, the foreign minister at the time, announced the pioneering concept. …

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Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari opposes the general perception that Islam represses women while ignoring various negative indices regarding women in his own country. “Islam was the first religion to give rights to women,” he declared in a session …

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Nordic countries may be gender progressive globally, but they quickly admit they have not figured out how to combat the wide-ranging, rampant instances of gender-based violence online. They roundly acknowledge that the problem stems from what happens in the “real …

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As I reflect on my final year chairing the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, which organizes the forum parallel to the annual United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, I wonder, How did I get here? This …

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Ambassador Kimihiro Ishikane of Japan says his country’s new defense strategy of increasing its military might reflects the need to change the security architecture based on the current environment in East Asia. Yet Ishikane, who spoke to PassBlue on Jan. …

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Early and often during his 2016 run for the presidency, Donald Trump vowed to pull Washington out of the Iran nuclear agreement the moment he arrived at the White House. The pact, brokered the year before by Barack Obama, working …

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This week, opinion seemed divided on the decision to expel Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is gathered from UN …

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This week, we focus on the issues of intensifying violence in the Mideast raised separately by UN special envoys in the Security Council. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is …

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The United States wants Iran kicked off the United Nations body mandated since 1946 to empower women and promote gender equality. Through a request to hold a vote in the UN’s Economic and Social Council on Dec. 14, the 54 …

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This week, the focus is on the humanitarian disasters from wars and violence around the world. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting …

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This week, we place the lens on the United Nations itself as the atrocities committed by Russia in Ukraine surge into the fourth week of war.  You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. …

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It was all over in one crucial week. Barring an unforeseen hitch, António Guterres is the clear winner of a second, five-year term as secretary-general of the United Nations, beginning on Jan.1, 2022. This was not a surprise: he had …

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In 2010, Maria Victoria (Mavic) Cabrera-Balleza founded an organization to help and advocate for the rights of women and girls globally, but it was her childhood experiences that first politicized her. Martial law was declared by the dictator President Ferdinand …

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United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken dials the UN; Mexico’s dual-personality approach to women’s rights; a deadly French airstrike on a wedding in Mali; two new applicants for secretary-general. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing …

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UNGA78: A quiz from PassBlue
Online Program Enrolling Now - Seton Hall - United Nations Institute for Training and Research

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