UN Population Fund

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

June 7, 2018

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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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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GOINGS-ON

Babatunde Osotimehin, UNFPA Head Since 2011, Dies Suddenly at 68

June 5, 2017

by Barbara Crossette

The death on June 4 of Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, and a Nigerian, was not only a personal tragedy and a shock to the staff of the fund but also another blow for an agency that had recently lost all its United States financial support. Osotimehin, a …

Africa, GOINGS-ON, Health and Population, UN Agencies

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TAKE A LOOK

US Republicans Extend Global Gag Rules, and Asia’s E-Trash Piles Up

February 14, 2017

by Barbara Crossette

In this third installment of an occasional series on research and data useful to readers, PassBlue takes a look at financial threats to a United Nations agency focused on family planning and how e-waste in Asia is hurting the regional environment and public health. With the fate of funding for the United Nations Population …

Climate and Environment, Health and Population, Take a Look

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Educators on the UN Denounce Trump’s Crackdown on Refugees

January 28, 2017

by Irwin Arieff

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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In a Single Day, US Congress Castigates Both the UN and Obama Over Israeli Vote

January 6, 2017

by Barbara Crossette

While Washington is caught up in the unfolding drama about the extent and motives of Russian hacking and possible attempted manipulation of the 2016 American presidential election, another story is playing out around threats to “punish” the United Nations. On Jan.5, the United States House of Representatives voted to repudiate the Security Council resolution …

Health and Population, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Middle East, Security Council, UN Agencies

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TOPIC: WOMEN

In Russia, Men Die Young, Leaving Women With Bad Choices

October 15, 2016

by Svetlana Shkolnikova

For every girl born in Russia today, so are 1.06 boys. The gender ratio at birth is consistent with the international average of 1.07 boys for every girl, but the similarities end there. By the time Russian women reach 25 years old, the number of male counterparts begins to dwindle at a pace not …

Health and Population, Women

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A New Campaign, #EveryHourMatters, Urges Instant Post-Rape Care

March 28, 2016

by Lori Silberman Brauner

Maureen Phiri, a young girl from a poor family in Malawi, was only 11 years old when she was raped by the man who had hired her to do housework for him and his wife. Not only did Maureen continue to experience sexual abuse from the man she worked for, he left her with another …

Gender-Based Violence, Health and Population, UN Agencies, UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Women

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Rights of Girls, a Politically Loaded Issue, May Sink in the New UN Development Goals

September 8, 2015

by Barbara Crossette

When member countries of the United Nations agreed to the Millennium Development Goals 15 years ago, advocates for stronger rights for women and girls were disappointed as governments (and the Vatican) balked at reasserting the bold promises of the international conferences of the 1990s in Cairo and in Beijing. Later campaigns, inside and outside …

Development, Education, Sustainable Development Goals

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WORLDVIEWS

The Philippines’ Population Boom Will Hurt Its Economic Boom

May 12, 2015

by Barry Mirkin

DAVAO, Philippines — An Asian country with more than 100 million people, spread over 7,000 islands, the Philippines is probably best known for two things: the boxer and native son, Manny Pacquiao, who just lost a big fight, and devastating typhoons that periodically sweep across the country, leaving widespread death and destruction in their …

WORLDVIEWS

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A UN Expert on Women Who Refused to Be Silenced

July 1, 2013

by Barbara Crossette

In the global annals of women’s rights defenders over the last half century, Nafis Sadik’s name will always rank high, though little may be known about her among the broad American public, focused as it usually is on Western feminists with Western issues. As head of the United Nations Population Fund in 1994, Sadik …

Health and Population, Women

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SPECIAL REPORT

Nations Reject Gender Violence, but the Suffering Endures

March 27, 2013

by Barbara Crossette

The 57th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women ended in mid-March more with a sigh of relief than with jubilation. The commission, comprising 45 national delegations, managed to reach a final agreement (which it could not do last year) without losing ground on women’s rights that had been gained, …