UN Women

In 2014, a Year of Catastrophes, Women Still Made Some Gains

• December 26, 2014

Amid the horrors that women and girls have suffered around the world in 2014 — including being forced to flee their homes by the hundreds of thousands in Syria, the sexual enslavement of Christians and Yazidis in Iraq and the kidnapping and forced conversion to radical Islam of girls from schools in northern Nigeria …

Health and Population, SDGs, Women

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Women’s Voices Must Stay ‘Alive’ in ISIS-Controlled Regions

Yermi Brenner

• August 31, 2014

The extremist Sunni militant group called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, which recently declared a caliphate in parts of the Middle East, now controls an area of 13,000 square miles in Iraq and Syria. Testimonies coming out about daily life in the ISIS-controlled region depict an agenda of fear and intimidation being imposed, …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, Middle East

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GOINGS-ON

Major New Staff Appointments at the UN and Departures

Dulcie Leimbach

• June 16, 2014

Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, has appointed at least a dozen new people to high-level positions — including five women — primarily in Africa in the last few months, while the organization also loses some executives. Three new force commanders have been named for various peacekeeping missions as well. At Unicef, Anthony Lake, …

GOINGS-ON

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Is a Better UN System Possible? Global Experts Respond to an Independent Survey

Barbara Crossette

• May 26, 2014

An unusual survey of 3,400 people worldwide who know the United Nations has found strong support for some basic rethinking over the next decade on the organization’s work in development. Among the recommendations, over two-thirds of respondents suggested adding more nongovernmental representatives to governing bodies and better consolidating both organizational representation and programs in …

Development

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Putting Women and Girls at the Center of the Future Development Goals

Dulcie Leimbach

• March 24, 2014

What happened at the annual United Nations women’s conference this year? Over 10 days of both mercifully brief and far-too-long speeches by policy people, government ministers, UN staff members and a wide array of other experts, the 58th session of the Commission on the Status of Women ended on a hush. It was as if …

Women

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UN Peace Talks on Syria Collectively Failed Women

Maria Butler

• February 10, 2014

This is a difficult time for peace advocates. How can we talk about women participating at the peace table when talk has not translated into action? How can we discuss the implementation of the women, peace and security agenda, first mandated by the United Nations Security Council in 2000, when despite rhetoric, goodwill, ministerial …

WORLDVIEWS

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Mexico Rising: Advances in Women’s Health and Rights

Barbara Crossette

• February 6, 2014

When the latest list of 20 top donors to UN Women appeared last year, there was only one country outside the richer nations of the world among them: Mexico. The Mexican commitment to the women’s agency reflects the strides that the country has made in promoting women’s rights in recent years, powered by …

Human Rights, Latin America, Women

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Syrian Women Win Active Role in Geneva Peace Conference

Maurizio Guerrero and Dulcie Leimbach

• January 22, 2014

The United Nations-led peace talks in Switzerland to begin the laborious discussions to end the war in Syria have officially started, but Syrian women activists who have been demanding to sit at the crucial peace-talks table on Jan. 24 in Geneva did not know until the last minute whether any women would be involved. …

Middle East, Peace and Security, Women

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Unraveling Sexual Violence in Costa Rica and Throughout Latin America

Ryan Villarreal

• January 8, 2014

For the past three decades, Costa Rica has carried out progressive steps to reduce violence against women, a major inhibitor of human and economic development in the country and throughout Latin America. While the issue has garnered more attention among the general public in recent years, it remains intertwined in the fabric of Latin …

Gender Violence, Latin America, UN Agencies, Women

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At Geneva II Talks in January, It Is Not Enough to ‘Add Women and Stir’

Dulcie Leimbach

• December 26, 2013

The campaign to ensure women’s equal participation at the peace talks on Syria in January has become more urgent, as certain parties recognize that women are vital in rebuilding and reconciling Syrian society. Yet only a few weeks before the talks are scheduled to start, no commitment has been made as to whether women …

Middle East, Secretary-General, Women

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WORLDVIEWS

Columbia University Adds New Gender Focus to Its International Affairs School

Yasmine Ergas

• December 17, 2013

Gender is at the center of international agendas, not at their periphery. Today, plans in Sochi for the forthcoming Olympics — the emblem of international cooperation — are riven by disputes over Russia’s policies toward lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender persons. Peacemakers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo must address the needs of more than 2.5 million …

WORLDVIEWS

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Syrian Women’s Groups Push for Equal Role at Geneva II Talks

Dulcie Leimbach

• December 5, 2013

Recognizing that women in the Middle East and North Africa must play an active role in their countries’ political processes, especially amid the regional backdrop of upheavals and conflicts, the Netherlands government is providing money for a new program, Women on the Frontline, to help women-run initiatives organize themselves better to assert their rights …

Middle East, Women

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In Cambodia, Silent Reactions to Sexual Violence May Be the Norm

Clothilde Le Coz

• December 4, 2013

PHNOM PENH — Kunthear Laut, a 33-year-old Cambodian woman, is a child of marital rape and a victim of two rapes as well as three attempts and at least five years of incest from her uncle. “A woman has to obey a man; otherwise he uses violence,” she said in an interview with PassBlue …

Asia, Gender Violence, Women

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War Crimes Against Women and Girls Must Be Prosecuted

Navi Pillay

• November 4, 2013

There is now overwhelming evidence that conflicts exacerbate pre-existing gender discrimination and put women and girls at heightened risk of sexual, physical and psychological violence. One appalling example of this evidence is the report recently to the Human Rights Council by the International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, which highlights the threat and …

Gender Violence, WORLDVIEWS

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Signs of Transformation From the ‘Pink Ghetto of Gender’

Dulcie Leimbach

• October 31, 2013

One question about women’s rights that may never go away is how to ensure that women are represented fairly in large organizations, like the United Nations. For now, work on “gender mainstreaming” may suffice by concentrating on small steps as opposed to devising wholesale solutions. As one expert has described the process, it is …