Human Rights Watch

The Rough Road to Gender Equality; a Major Message on Hunger; No Saudis on the Human Rights Council

October 17, 2020

For once, two pieces of good news from the United Nations: The World Food Program receives the Nobel Peace Prize and the Security Council begins meeting physically again in its chamber. But some reality-checking: 25 years after the Beijing conference on women, the road to gender equality is still being dug. Greetings from This Week …

Africa, Health and Population, Human Rights, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, This Week @UN, US Foreign Relations

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China and Russia Win Human Rights Council Seats, but the Saudis Get Rejected

October 13, 2020

by Dulcie Leimbach

Nearly two and a half years after the United States withdrew from the Human Rights Council, China and Russia have just won elected seats in the body. Both countries suffer from human-rights abuses against their own populations. China and Russia join 13 others as Council members for three-year terms starting on Jan. 1, 2021, …

Human Rights, US-UN Relations

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As Explosive Weapons Kill More Civilians Abroad, US Companies Just Sell More of Them

July 15, 2020

by Allison Lecce

For the ninth year in a row, 90 percent of people killed by explosive weapons in urban areas were civilians. The use of these devices is proliferating in conflicts because they are becoming easier to come by — sometimes they are even homemade. The United States is the world’s largest overall exporter of arms …

Disarmament, Middle East, Security Council, Syria

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COVID-19

The Pandemic’s Cruelty Visits the World’s Children

June 18, 2020

by Barbara Crossette

There are about two billion young children in the world today, ranging from infancy to 14 years old, and most of them live in developing nations in the global south. That is also where the Covid-19 pandemic is spreading the fastest. Three of the top 10 countries in numbers of rapidly rising cases, as of …

Covid-19, Development, Education, Secretary-General

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Trump’s Dictator Buddies Across the World Are Not Friends of Women

February 4, 2020

by Barbara Crossette

In the gallery of authoritarian governments undercutting the rights of women and threatening democracy around the world, five nations stand out for a special reason. Donald Trump has made the leaders of Brazil, Egypt, India, Saudi Arabia and Turkey his friends and accomplices. In all of these countries, according to mounting evidence in numerous …

Gender-Based Violence, Human Rights, US-UN Relations, Women

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China Flexes Its Economic Might More Openly on Uighurs Issue

November 17, 2019

by Stéphanie Fillion

Twenty-three nations, including Britain, the United States, Germany, France and Japan, slammed China at the United Nations recently, citing its persecution of Uighurs and other minorities in Xinjiang province. “We call on the Chinese government to uphold its national laws and international obligations and commitments to respect human rights, including freedom of religion or …

Africa, Human Rights

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WORLDVIEWS

Men Can Experience Sexual Violence in War Too

May 3, 2019

by Z. Pinar Erdem

The United Nations Security Council recognized that men and boys are targets of sexual violence both in wartime and in post-conflict settings. Resolution 2467, approved on April 23, calls upon UN member countries to strengthen policies to provide help for victims. As a human-rights lawyer, during the last nine months, I have been documenting cases of conflict-related …

Gender-Based Violence, WORLDVIEWS

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NIKKI HALEY WATCH

The UN’s Report on Poverty in the US Is Rebuked by Nikki Haley

June 28, 2018

by Maria Luisa Gambale

When Philip Alston decided to focus a report on the United States, in his role as the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, the goal was to spur a larger discussion. However, in the past week there has been a slow-motion volley of criticisms instead, as Nikki Haley, the US …

Human Rights, Nikki Haley Watch, Poverty, US-UN Relations

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With Trump’s Human-Rights Policies, Religious ‘Values’ Take Priority

June 7, 2018

by Barbara Crossette

For almost three centuries, through street protests, court battles and a civil war, the United States has sporadically but steadily advanced and expanded human-rights protections and commitments in domestic and foreign policies. Now Donald Trump and the most conservative, ideologically driven officials on his team want to turn back this record in fundamental ways, …

Gender-Based Violence, Health and Population, Human Rights, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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NIKKI HALEY WATCH

Reform Eludes the Human Rights Council as Bolton Returns to the Scene

April 1, 2018

by Barbara Crossette

The 2018 winter session of the United Nations Human Rights Council was marked more by what didn’t happen than what did. There was still no official announcement in Geneva from the Trump administration about whether the United States would leave the Council or even seek re-election in 2019, when its current term expires. There was …

Human Rights, Nikki Haley Watch, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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TAKE A LOOK

Trump Team Wants to Slash Funds for Global Women’s Health by Half

February 18, 2018

by Barbara Crossette

There has yet to be a decision in United States Congress on what funds for global women’s health, if any, will survive in the current 2018 national budget, a decision that is nearly six months overdue. But Donald Trump and his vice president, Mike Pence, a hard-line social conservative who is playing a larger …

Health and Population, Humanitarian Aid, Poverty, Take a Look, US Foreign Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

Least-Developed Countries, a Status That Many Nations Can’t Leave Behind

January 1, 2018

by Bill Buchanan

Since 1971, the United Nations has recognized least-developed countries as those deemed highly disadvantaged in their development strides because of structural, historical and geographical reasons. The aim has been, and still is, to support these countries to graduate to higher levels of self-sufficiency and economic independence, not in the sense for a privileged minority …

Africa, Asia, Development, Poverty, WORLDVIEWS

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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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GEOPOLITICS

Did Equatorial Guinea Bribe Its Way to a UN Security Council Seat?

May 23, 2017

by Kacie Candela

Amid the predominantly Francophone region in West Africa is tiny Spanish-speaking Equatorial Guinea, a country blessed — or cursed — with vast oil reserves. For most of its independent life, the country has been ruled by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has the distinction of being the longest-serving nonroyal head of state in …

Africa, Geopolitics, Human Rights, Poverty, Security Council

One Comment

TOPIC: WOMEN

The US Tightens Rules on NGOs in Global Health, Hurting Poor Women

May 16, 2017

by Barbara Crossette

While trying to make the case that the United States remains committed to global health programs, the Trump administration has issued orders to nongovernmental organizations and others working in women’s health that could cripple some of their international operations by demanding contractual compliance with US anti-abortion policies. The new rules have been written under …

Humanitarian Aid, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations, Women

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Human Rights Watch

The Rough Road to Gender Equality; a Major Message on Hunger; No Saudis on the Human Rights Council

China and Russia Win Human Rights Council Seats, but the Saudis Get Rejected

As Explosive Weapons Kill More Civilians Abroad, US Companies Just Sell More of Them

The Pandemic’s Cruelty Visits the World’s Children

Trump’s Dictator Buddies Across the World Are Not Friends of Women

China Flexes Its Economic Might More Openly on Uighurs Issue

Men Can Experience Sexual Violence in War Too

The UN’s Report on Poverty in the US Is Rebuked by Nikki Haley

With Trump’s Human-Rights Policies, Religious ‘Values’ Take Priority

Reform Eludes the Human Rights Council as Bolton Returns to the Scene

Trump Team Wants to Slash Funds for Global Women’s Health by Half

Least-Developed Countries, a Status That Many Nations Can’t Leave Behind

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

Did Equatorial Guinea Bribe Its Way to a UN Security Council Seat?

The US Tightens Rules on NGOs in Global Health, Hurting Poor Women

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