UN Women

The Failure of Mainstream Media to Cover the UN: Who’s to Blame?

• October 3, 2013

As media coverage of the United Nations dwindles and becomes more hyperfocused on geopolitics, the public learns less and less about the UN itself and how it operates. Who is to blame for the decreasing, narrow coverage — the press, a disinterested public or the UN itself? Barbara Crossette spoke on the subject at …

US-UN Relations

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For Many Latin American Women, Abuse Never Lets Up

Barbara Crossette

• August 19, 2013

Latin American and Caribbean nations have pulled ahead of most other developing regions on numerous measures of economic growth and human progress in recent years. The region has one of the world’s lowest poverty levels; hunger has been reduced to under 5 percent of the regional population; primary school enrollment rivals that of rich …

Health and Population, Human Rights, Latin America, Women

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It’s Down to Latin America v. Africa to Lead UN Women

Dulcie Leimbach

• June 29, 2013

After several months of public speculation at the United Nations, two candidates are now in tight contention for the executive director post of UN Women, the main agency tasked with promoting the treatment and rights of women worldwide since it began operating in January 2011. Rebeca Grynspan, 57, is one contender. Since 2010, she …

Africa, Secretary-General, Women

4 Comments

Nations Reject Gender Violence, but the Suffering Endures

Barbara Crossette

• March 27, 2013

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, …

Gender Violence, Special Report, Women

5 Comments

Life for Women and Girls in Afghanistan Grows Deadlier

Lorraine Boissoneault

• March 20, 2013

With the deadline for the departure of American and NATO troops from Afghanistan just a year away, civilian casualties in the country remain alarmingly high, says a new report from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Unama). Although the report said the number of casualties had decreased for the first time in six …

Asia, Peace and Security, Security Council, Women

4 Comments

Michelle Bachelet, UN Women Chief, Resigns

Dulcie Leimbach

• March 16, 2013

Michelle Bachelet, the head of the United Nations agency promoting the rights of women and gender equality, has told Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that she is stepping down after two years in the job. Bachelet, a former Chilean president, is likely to run for president of her country again in elections this fall. She made the announcement …

GOINGS-ON, Women

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The Recipe for a Better World? Ending Violence Against Women and Girls

Dulcie Leimbach

• March 7, 2013

Thousands of women worldwide flock to the Commission on the Status of Women’s conference at the United Nations every March, and this year is no exception, for good reason: the theme is eliminating and preventing all violence against women and girls. Violence is a phenomenon that all females can relate to day after day, …

Development, Gender Violence, Human Rights, Women

India’s UN Ambassador Is Retiring

Dulcie Leimbach

• February 12, 2013

Hardeep Singh Puri, 60, the Indian ambassador to the United Nations, has announced his retirement, which will take effect at the end of February. Ashoke Mukherji, The Times of India reported, is likely to be Puri’s replacement at the UN. Puri has been ambassador to the UN since 2009. He led the country through …

Asia, GOINGS-ON, Security Council

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Women, Storm Sentinels of the South Pacific

Barbara Crossette

• December 24, 2012

When hugely damaging natural disasters strike in developing nations, many deaths occur because warnings and lifesaving advice do not reach people in the path of violent storms, floods or other threats. Decades of calls for better communications and disaster preparedness could not prevent 130,000 people from dying in Bangladesh in a 1991 cyclone, nearly …

Asia, Climate Change, Women

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Gender Parity in Upper-Level UN Jobs Remains Elusive

Amy Lieberman

• December 14, 2012

This year, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has so far appointed 55 people to high-level positions. Twelve of the appointees, nearly 22 percent, are women, filling roles like the special representative for children and armed conflict and the executive director of the World Food Program. Some of the people Ban appointed include Zainab Hawa …

General Assembly, Secretary-General, Women

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Chilean Voters Want Michelle Bachelet Back Home

Barbara Crossette

• December 5, 2012

A series of opinion polls in recent months in Chile show that Michelle Bachelet, the executive director of UN Women, is still the most popular Chilean politician three years after her four-year term as the country’s president ended. Reports from Chile say that across the political spectrum, party officials are assuming she will be …

Women

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In the Mideast, Women’s Hopes Give Way to Harsh Realities

Barbara Crossette

• November 1, 2012

Overshadowed by daily reports from a horrific war in Syria, lingering violence in Libya and sporadic protests in Egypt and other regional nations, a struggle to salvage and advance the rights of women caught up in the revolutions of the Arab Spring is reaching a crucial stage. Women who joined men in the streets, …

Middle East, Women

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For Muslim Women, a Careful Script to Combat Violence

Barbara Crossette

• September 17, 2012

The saddest stories told by vulnerable women in villages or slum shacks across the developing world most often involve violence or subjugation that they must bear because they don’t know how, or don’t have the means, to escape a bad situation. In the poorest countries, women talk of being assaulted or intimidated at home, …

Gender Violence, Middle East, Women

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How Bad Is It? The UN Development System Needs an Overhaul

Dulcie Leimbach

• July 17, 2012

The clamor for United Nations reform has not stopped since its first days in 1945. Although ideas for changing the UN rise and fall each year, the newest calls for an overhaul involve development, one of the largest sectors of the world body’s system. With a Kafkaesque bureaucracy consisting of at least 30 agencies …

Development, Special Report

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Promoting Women Starts Early, in First Grade

Barbara Crossette

• July 9, 2012

With only three years left to reach an ambitious global deadline, tracking the eight Millennium Development Goals often seems like going around in circles. Perhaps no goal is better evidence of this than Goal 3: promote gender equality and empower women. So often does the empowerment of women, in one way or another, figure …