Global Network of Women Peacebuilders

• April 13, 2021

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 Marcos of the Philippines in 1972, when she was in fourth grade. Born in …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, Peace and Security, Women

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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

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Blessed Are the Peace-Builders in Ukraine: Female Activists Repair a Broken Country

Dulcie Leimbach

• January 21, 2018

KYIV, Ukraine — There is no escaping that Ukraine is at war — although it is not totally apparent who the Ukrainian military and volunteer vigilantes are fighting in the east: Russian “separatists” or Russians themselves? No one can definitively say who is who or decide up from down, one of the living puzzles …

Gender Violence, Health and Population, Human Rights, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

US Immigration Ban Stirs Controversy at the Annual UN Women’s Forum

Laura E. Kirkpatrick

• March 13, 2017

Despite fears that efforts by President Trump to bar visitors to the United States from a number of Muslim majority would limit attendance at this year’s annual United Nations conference on women in New York, UN officials have kept saying there will be record participation. On the first day, however, people were more worried …

Gender Violence, Terrorism, UN Agencies, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations, Women

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TOPIC: WOMEN

What, Exactly, Is a Feminist Foreign Policy? A New Website Explores the Subject

Dulcie Leimbach

• November 4, 2016

Two young women in London are taking on what they call the elitist nature of foreign policy and turning it toward a more feminist approach that could play out in many different pathways, said Marissa Conway, a founder of a new blog, Feminist Foreign Policy, in a phone call recently. “We want to provide …

Gender Violence, Peace and Security, Women

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WORLDVIEWS

As the UN Celebrates Empowerment of Women, a New Survey Shows Major Frustrations

Danielle Goldberg and Mavic Cabrera-Balleza

• October 14, 2015

Fifteen years ago, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on women, peace and security, a landmark international law that demands women’s participation in decision-making on international peace and security. Though seldom recognized, the fundamental roots of this resolution, known as 1325, came from women’s actual experiences in armed conflict and their …

WORLDVIEWS

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Rape as a Weapon of War? It’s Still in Business

Dulcie Leimbach

• July 8, 2013

The newest United Nations Security Council resolution that continues to build a stronger framework to prevent and end sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations sends a strong signal that such offenses will be punished as war crimes under international law. The resolution, agreed by a unanimous vote after difficult negotiations, passed on June …

ICC, International Justice, Peace and Security, Security Council, Women

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WORLDVIEWS

Congolese Women Grow More Demanding of Local Governments

Mavic Cabrera-Balleza

• June 7, 2013

A global women’s organization with wide experience in peace-building recently brought together scores of prominent women from six African nations to take well-defined steps for dealing with the root causes of the persistent sexual violence occurring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Declaring that peace in eastern Congo could bring peace to the entire Great Lakes area …

Gender Violence, WORLDVIEWS

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

Dulcie Leimbach

• March 7, 2013

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 Violence, Human Rights, Women

A Place for Women at the Table

Mirva Lempiainen

• November 28, 2012

A dozen years have passed since the United Nations Security Council made history by adopting a resolution that addressed women’s rights during conflicts and required their participation in preventing wars and in peace talks. Until Resolution 1325was approved, post-conflict reconstruction had been mostly the realm of those possessing the Y chromosome in the …

Peace and Security, Security Council, Women

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In the Mideast, Women’s Hopes Give Way to Harsh Realities

Barbara Crossette

• November 1, 2012

Overshadowed by daily reports from a horrific war in Syria, lingering violence in Libya and sporadic protests in Egypt and other regional nations, a struggle to salvage and advance the rights of women caught up in the revolutions of the Arab Spring is reaching a crucial stage. Women who joined men in the streets, …

Middle East, Women

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A Sierra Leonean Named to Sexual Violence in Conflict Post

Mavic Cabrera-Balleza

• July 30, 2012

Zainab Hawa Bangura, the minister of health and sanitation in Sierra Leone, a country that not long ago rose from a brutal civil war, will take over in September as the United Nations special representative on sexual violence in conflict. Bangura, 52, who replaces Margot Wallstrom, 57, of Sweden, has also been the country’s …