IPU

• May 17, 2021

BERLIN — In the seating snub heard round the world, the first woman president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was not offered a chair in April while meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and European Council President Charles Michel. Instead, she had to sit on a sofa nearby while the men talked at …

Governance, Women

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THIS WEEK @UN

The Covid-19 Anniversary; Seeking a Woman Secretary-General; a Sad Women’s Day

Ivana Ramirez

• March 13, 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic anniversary; digitally recruiting women to run for the United Nations’ top job; International Women’s Day, a bit of a downer. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from the UN spokesperson’s press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. We encourage you …

Cities, Gender Violence, Migration, Myanmar, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, US-UN Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

Beijing, 25 Years Later: Are Women Better Off?

Ellen Chesler

• September 4, 2020

Twenty-five years ago, the United Nations hosted the largest gathering of women (and more than a few good men) in its 50-year history. Some 17,000 participants — among them, official government delegates, representatives of accredited nongovernmental organizations, international civil servants and members of the press — registered for the Fourth World Conference on Women …

Human Rights, WORLDVIEWS

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TAKE A LOOK

Broken Progress for Women in Politics; More Trafficking of Men; Diverse New York

Barbara Crossette

• March 28, 2017

New numbers from the Inter-Parliamentary Union and UN Women show that progress of women in politics has stalled in parliaments and at executive levels of government or advanced marginally. The data form the basis of an elaborate Women in Politics 2017 map launched during the recent session at UN headquarters of the Commission on …

Africa, Asia, Gender Violence, Human Trafficking, Take a Look

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Women’s Rights Must Be Backed by Legal Rights, a New Coalition Insists

Barbara Crossette

• February 28, 2017

More than two decades have passed since a series of dynamic international conferences in the 1990s — on human rights, reproductive choices and broad empowerment for women — inspired and encouraged women around the world to raise their hopes in many ways. Subsequently, there have been gains in female education at all levels, a …

Development, Gender Violence, Women

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Societal Breakdown? Bold Legislators Face Harassment and Persecution Worldwide

Barbara Crossette

• October 22, 2015

In Iraq and more than a dozen diverse other nations, from Malaysia to Eritrea to Venezuela, members of national legislatures face persecution or personal risks as the development machinery of the United Nations often places its hopes on national parliaments to act on behalf of people they represent. The Inter-Parliamentary Union, or IPU, announced …

Governance

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Desperate Escape: Why Syrian and Other Refugees Are Rushing to Europe

Shazia Z. Rafi

• September 18, 2015

As a relentless remake of the Middle East and North Africa has been taking place, mass displacements of populations have also been occurring. And more chaos is ahead, says the United States Defense Intelligence chief, Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, in his assessment that Iraq and Syria may have been permanently torn asunder by war …

Middle East, Migration, Refugees, UN Agencies

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National Lawmakers Want More Contact With the General Assembly

Barbara Crossette

• December 4, 2011

They would seem, logically, to be natural partners: delegates in the United Nations General Assembly and members of parliaments in capitals around the world who have the power to monitor and follow up on the assembly’s decisions. But when scores of national legislators from dozens of countries met in New York on Nov. 28 …