UNESCO

Murders of Journalists by Militants Just Keep Coming, a Report Finds

• November 2, 2016

Somalia, Iraq and Syria lead the world in the killing of journalists by Islamic extremists who get away with their crimes, but militants also continue to target the media with impunity in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Pakistan, according to the latest report from the Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonprofit group based in New …

Journalists

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Failing Public Schools Spur Global Boom in Private Education

Barbara Crossette

• May 16, 2016

While governments bask in data showing that the development goal of universal access to primary education has largely been achieved, attention is turning to what that really means in the classroom. Educators and human-rights advocates question whether acceptable standards are being met in many schools, as evidence mounts of the proliferation of private education …

Education, India, SDGs

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Another First for Candidates for UN Secretary-General? Tweeting

Laura E. Kirkpatrick

• April 19, 2016

This is not your grandfather’s election cycle. Will this be the year a woman is elected to one of the highest political positions in the world? What’s up with the surprise candidate gaining unexpected momentum? Can any candidate truly blend the need for the best-qualified administration with gender parity? It is unequivocal that this …

Secretary-General

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BOOKS

What Can Save Unesco? Advice From an Insider

Helmut Volger

• December 15, 2015

Founded in 1946 with noble goals, namely “to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science and culture,” the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) has in fact achieved considerable progress, above all in assisting its member nations in providing quality basic education for children, youth …

BOOKS

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Saving Scholars Who Become Victimized in the Middle East

Chris Chaky

• August 20, 2015

Khalid al-Asaad, an internationally recognized Syrian scholar of antiquities, was beheaded by ISIS on Aug. 18 for refusing to disclose the location of archeological treasures apparently removed for safekeeping from Palmyra, one of the Middle East’s most important archeological landmarks and a Unesco World Heritage Site in Syria. This latest tragedy inflicted by ISIS highlights …

Education, Middle East

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A Peruvian Paradise, Sensitive to El Niño and Other Climate Effects

Rhona Scullion

• August 15, 2015

ICA, Peru — Located in the Pisco Province of the southern Ica region of Peru, the Paracas National Reserve is a Unesco World Heritage Site because of its rare natural diversity. Rich in marine life and wildlife, its unique ecosystem is one of the most biologically productive on the planet. Encompassing the Atacama Desert, the …

Climate Change

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Eastern Europe Presses Its Claim to the Secretary-General’s Office

Barbara Crossette

• April 13, 2015

In 70 years of United Nations history, Eastern Europe has been the only regional group in the organization that has never filled the position of secretary-general. Western Europe has had three secretaries-general; Asia and Africa, two each; and Latin America and the Caribbean, one. The 23 nations of the Eastern European region, determined to …

Secretary-General, Security Council, US-UN Relations, Women

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WORLDVIEWS

Netanyahu’s Scorched-Earth Campaign Destroys US Plea for Bilateralism

Irwin Arieff

• March 19, 2015

Benjamin Netanyahu’s desperate 11th-hour election strategy has left in tatters the main United States argument for aggressively protecting Israeli interests in the Middle East peace process, a development that will most likely weaken the Obama administration’s already strained fervor for shielding Israel in international diplomatic battles. A new dynamic will surely surface in the …

WORLDVIEWS

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Sacking of Iraq’s Cultural Heritage Takes Yet Another Turn

Barbara Crossette

• March 4, 2015

The shocking scenes of irreplaceable centuries-old treasures being smashed and toppled from their pedestals in a museum in Mosul — with the rabid acts of destruction proudly videotaped by fighters who call themselves the Islamic State — has provoked global outrage. But for Iraqis, who have seen decades of losses over centuries of intermittent …

Asia, Middle East

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Caribbean Nations Preserve a Complicated Heritage

Barbara Crossette

• March 1, 2015

DORADO, Puerto Rico — When Europeans first invaded the Caribbean beginning in the late-15th century — more by chance than by design — devastation soon followed. Local populations were decimated by diseases from another world, and native people’s doomed attempts to repel the fearsome strangers met with only more death. Within two centuries, the slave …

Caribbean, UN Agencies

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The Noose Tightens on Money Flows to Jihadists in Iraq and Syria

Dulcie Leimbach

• February 12, 2015

The Russian-sponsored resolution to fight more precisely the financing of the Islamic jihadists who control swaths of Iraq and Syria passed unanimously in the United Nations Security Council recently, expressing the entire council’s dread, at least for now, of the two main protagonists terrorizing the region — Islamic State (ISIS) and Al Nusra Front. …

Gender Violence, Human Trafficking, Middle East, Security Council

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Favela Girls Pirouette Out of Poverty in Brazil

Kamayani Bali-Mahabal

• January 27, 2015

FORTALEZA, Brazil — Bom Jardim, home to some 200,000 people, is one of the poorest and most violent neighborhoods in this city. Located at the southwestern tip of the metropolis, with long streets laid in a grid, the signs of poverty appear everywhere: cracked cement or none at all, half-built houses and other makeshift …

Education, Poverty

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Islamists Systematically Destroying World Heritage Sites in Syria and Iraq

Barbara Crossette

• October 29, 2014

Beyond the horrific executions, the deadly assaults on Christian and Yazidi communities and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people fleeing towns to avoid their terror, fighters of the Islamic State movement sweeping through Syria and Iraq are deliberately demolishing or damaging ancient historical sites in some of the world’s oldest towns and …

Middle East, UN Agencies

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Saving Timbuktu’s Manuscripts, One Ancient Page at a Time

Dulcie Leimbach

• August 25, 2014

BAMAKO, Mali — The deliberate burning of thousands of ancient manuscripts by the Islamic jihadists who seized Timbuktu and other parts of northern Mali in 2012 dealt an emotional blow to the culture and scholars there and far beyond. To add insult to injury, some of the manuscripts, which were destroyed in the Ahmed …

Africa, Security Council, UN Peacekeeping

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Millions of Children Remain Out of School, Many of Them Girls

Danielle M. Bennett

• August 13, 2014

Positive trends in education have been achieved in 17 countries, where out-of-school populations, one-quarter of the global total, have been reduced by nearly 90 percent since 2000, says a new report from Unesco. But with progress comes a sobering reality: the goal of universal primary education by 2015 will not be reached. Millions of …