Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

• February 11, 2017

The annual meeting of the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women, held in New York every March, may be in trouble because of uncertainty and fear about the Trump administration’s attempt to ban immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. One major group has announced it is pulling out, and calls are being heard …

UN Agencies, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations, Women

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GEOPOLITICS

Top Sellers of Weapons to the Developing World in 2015? US and France

Julie Vanderperre

• January 18, 2017

A responsibility to promote worldwide cooperation toward peace and security is not the only role that the permanent-five veto-wielding powers in the United Nations Security Council have in common. Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States are also the world’s largest exporters of conventional weapons to developing countries. The export of weapons by …

Disarmament, Geopolitics, Middle East

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TOPIC: WOMEN

What, Exactly, Is a Feminist Foreign Policy? A New Website Explores the Subject

Dulcie Leimbach

• November 4, 2016

Two young women in London are taking on what they call the elitist nature of foreign policy and turning it toward a more feminist approach that could play out in many different pathways, said Marissa Conway, a founder of a new blog, Feminist Foreign Policy, in a phone call recently. “We want to provide …

Gender Violence, Peace and Security, Women

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Syrian Women Are Ready to Participate in UN-Led Geneva Peace Talks

Dulcie Leimbach

• January 20, 2016

While new Syrian peace talks organized by the United Nations remain tentatively scheduled to begin on Jan. 25 in Switzerland, a substantial group of Syrian women is preparing to convene in Geneva starting that day to demand an equal place at the negotiations table. Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy for Syria, who …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, Middle East, Syria

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WORLDVIEWS

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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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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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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The UN Adopts an Arms Treaty ‘With Teeth’

Dulcie Leimbach

• April 3, 2013

The momentous adoption of the Arms Trade Treaty at the United Nations has been greeted with much enthusiasm worldwide but also strong skepticism as the reality of carrying out its aim — regulating international transfers of conventional arms — sets in. “Effectiveness will be slow as it comes into force,” Peter Woolcott, the permanent …

Disarmament, General Assembly, Peace and Security, US-UN Relations, Women

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The Lethal Effects of Arms on Women

Amy Lieberman

• March 25, 2013

The $100- to $120-billion international arms trade in 2012 intensified the internal conflicts in Colombia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo but also brought guns into homes in these countries, where men turned them against women. That was the message that the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom brought to an …

Gender Violence, Peace and Security, 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

UN Women's Conference 2014

A Place for Women at the Table

Mirva Lempiainen

• November 28, 2012

A dozen years have passed since the United Nations Security Council made history by adopting a resolution that addressed women’s rights during conflicts and required their participation in preventing wars and in peace talks. Until Resolution 1325was approved, post-conflict reconstruction had been mostly the realm of those possessing the Y chromosome in the …