UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Myanmar Votes in a Sea of Troubles at Home and Abroad

• October 20, 2020

A decade after the first democratic reforms began taking shape after long years of harsh military rule in Myanmar, its citizens are preparing to vote in a national election on Nov. 8. It will be an important test for the country and its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Her once-shining image as she swept …

Asia, Governance, Refugees

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Syrian Refugees Get Help to Run Their Own Business, but It’s Not Easy

Elizabeth Walsh

• September 4, 2017

TAANAYEL, Lebanon — Taanayel is nestled in Lebanon’s picturesque Bekaa Valley, and on a hot summer day in a feebly air-conditioned room, 35 Syrian female refugees gathered at a center shared by numerous local nongovernmental organizations. They arrived that morning by bus from Salaam wa Makhaba, a refugee camp nearby. The women are here to …

Refugees, Syria, Women

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TAKE A LOOK

America’s Financial Support to the UN: What’s at Stake?

Barbara Crossette

• April 4, 2017

With White House proposals to slash United States assessments and donations to international organizations now in play in the writing of a federal budget for 2018 — as an April 28 deadline approaches — the extent of potential losses to the United Nations is coming into sharp focus. The US, for example, has immediately …

Take a Look, UN Peacekeeping, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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How’s He Doing? António Guterres’s First Month as UN Secretary-General

Dulcie Leimbach

• February 5, 2017

Thirty-two days in office as United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres spoke extensively to the media for the first time at UN headquarters, on Feb. 1. Indicative of the chaos gripping many parts of the world as a result of new White House actions, Guterres might be forgiven for waiting a month to address the …

Migration, Peace and Security, Refugees, Secretary-General, UN Peacekeeping, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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Educators on the UN Denounce Trump’s Crackdown on Refugees

Irwin Arieff

• January 28, 2017

More than 700 educators and students, meeting at United Nations headquarters in New York recently, called on the international community to protect refugees’ lives, encourage countries to take in “large numbers of refugees and migrants” and do more to ensure they get an education and are protected from sexual and gender-based violence. Acting as …

Education, Human Rights, Middle East, Migration, Refugees, Syria, US Foreign Relations

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GOINGS-ON

Filippo Grandi of Italy to Lead the UN Refugee Agency Amid Continued Crisis

Dulcie Leimbach

• November 11, 2015

Filippo Grandi of Italy has been selected by Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, to become the 11th UN High Commissioner for Refugees, a post based in Geneva. Grandi will be officially voted into office by the UN General Assembly next week. Grandi replaces António Guterres of Portugal, 66, who has been high commissioner …

GOINGS-ON

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The Syrian Refugee Crisis Poses Ethical Questions for the UN and Others

Alexander Brotman

• July 28, 2014

Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, 2.9 million people have fled the country to refugee camps in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and beyond. This has not only destabilized many Middle Eastern countries, but it has also caused continuous public debates inside nongovernmental organizations and the United Nations over what the …

Middle East, Refugees

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BOOKS

No Role for the UN in the Tragic Birth of Bangladesh

Barbara Crossette

• April 8, 2014

There are few if any heroes among world leaders in the story of how the nation of Bangladesh emerged in 1971 bloodied, bruised and battered. Created by hurried British mapmakers in 1947 as the eastern wing of a bizarrely divided new nation of Muslim-majority Pakistan, Bangladesh was separated by 1,000 miles of largely Hindu …

BOOKS

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GOINGS-ON

Jane Holl Lute, US Security Expert, Is Now UN Adviser on Iranian Exiles

Benjamin Foldy

• January 14, 2014

With the appointment of Jane Holl Lute, an American, as his special adviser for relocating the residents of Camp Hurriya, located outside Baghdad in Iraq, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is showing a willingness to take major steps toward resolving a situation that has become an increasingly sore point for the Iraqi, Iranian and …

GOINGS-ON

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Western Sahara: A Chance for Change or to Stay Stuck in Time

Dulcie Leimbach

• April 10, 2013

The saga of Western Sahara, a disputed territory that has been stuck in limbo in North Africa for decades, will receive its annual nod this month by the United Nations Security Council, but this time actual changes may be afoot if the council acts more decisively, particularly on human-rights matters. Christopher Ross, the UN …