Category: Women
Million Moms Challenge Contest Winner Announced
Ed Note. A special announcement from our friends at Million Moms challenge cross posted here. Well done, guys!
President Obama Issues Executive Order Supporting Women, Peace and Security
President Obama today signed an executive order to mandate the implementation of a sweeping new US government plan to include women in peacemaking and security roles around the world. I talk to an expert who helped craft this policy about what she hopes it will accomplish.
20/20 Highlights Maternal Health (Video)
ABC News’ 20/20 program ran a special on Friday to highlight maternal health around the world.
Million Moms Challenge Contest Finalists Announced
From our friends at Shot@Life, ABC News’ Teri Whitcraft announces the finalists of the Million Moms Challenge.
Asylum Abroad is Afghan Rape Survivor’s Only Hope
In a desperate bid to save her daughter from a life as an outcast, an imprisoned Afghan rape survivor agreed to marry her rapist. Now free, she should be offered asylum abroad. If left in Afghanistan, she will be at risk for torture, more sexual violence and murder.
The Awful Story of an Afghan Woman Who Spent Two Years In Jail Because She was Raped
An Afghan women who was jailed for being raped is out of prison. But she now faces two options: marry her rapist or live the rest of her life as a social outcast.
From Asia, A Rousing Call to Action on Women’s and Children’s Health
The Secretary-General’s recent trip to Asia showcases in-country progress and leadership in advancing MDGs 4 and 5.
The Million Moms Challenge
Our friends at the UN Foundation are teaming up with the baby center tomorrow for an all day discussion and tweet-a-thon about maternal and child health.
What’s Fertility Got to Do With It? (Got to Do With It)
You gotta love Hans Rosling. In this video, the excitable academic breaks down the data on the relationship between child mortality and fertility rates to construct an argument for smart, targeted foreign aid.
Seven Billion: What Does it All Mean?
I caught up with Maureen Greenwood-Basken, director of policy initiatives for the women and population program at the UN Foundation to discuss the significance of today’s milestone and what it means for the over 200 million women around the world who are denied access to family planning.
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Syria Envoy; Sustainable Energy for All; The Sahel; Kenya; and more
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday he was working urgently to find a special envoy for Syria who would initially have a humanitarian role but would also seek a political solution for the violence-torn country.Ban, who was asked by the U.N. General Assembly last week to appoint the envoy, told Reuters in an interview that he hoped to select an Arab who would represent both the United Nations and the Arab League.
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SG Travels; Libya; Iran; MDGs in the Asia-Pacific; and more
The Secretary-General will begin a three-nation trip next week that will take him to the United Kingdom, where he will attend an international conference on the situation in Somalia, before proceeding to Zambia and Angola, where he will meet with senior officials. He will also attend the launch of a polio vaccination campaign and meet with young people at a project on water and sanitation.
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Syria; Women and Youth empowerment; Access to contraception; and more
The General Assembly today strongly condemned the continued “widespread and systematic” human rights violations by the Syrian authorities and demanded that the Government cease all violence and protect its people. The text, which was adopted by a vote of 137 in favor to 12 against with 17 abstentions, also called on Syria “to immediately put an end to all human rights violations and attacks against civilians.”
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Syria draft in GA; Somalia; Bahrain; and more
The U.N. General Assembly has scheduled a Thursday vote on an Arab-sponsored resolution strongly condemning human rights violations by the Syrian regime and backing an Arab League plan aimed at ending the 11-month conflict.Similar to the failed Security Council resolution, the assembly draft “fully supports” the Arab League plan floated last month and demands an immediate halt to military operations in Syrian cities and withdrawal of government security forces.
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SG at KPMG Summit; Sudan/South Sudan; Advancement of Women; Madagascar; and more
G Ban Ki-moon today at the KPMG Summit: Business Perspective for Sustainable Growth encouraged more businesses to embrace the principle of sustainability in their strategies, noting that with the most of the world’s ecosystems in decline, widening social inequality and climate change, global prosperity, productivity and stability was at stake. He urged business leaders gathered at the conference to five steps to advance sustainability:
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Syria; Sudan/South Sudan; the Sahel; Haiti; and more
The UN human rights chief today appealed to Member States to act now to protect the Syrian people as the Government’s violent crackdown on peaceful protests continues unabated and the number of dead and injured continues to rise. “The longer the international community fails to take action, the more the civilian population will suffer from countless atrocities committed against them,” High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told the General Assembly.
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Syria; Libya; Haiti; WFP/Horn of Africa
The United Nations and the League of Arab States are considering sending a joint observer mission to Syria, including a joint special envoy, to try to end the crisis engulfing the Middle East country, with SG Ban Ki-Moon warning yesterday that recent attacks against civilians in the city of Homs were “a grim harbinger of worse to come.”Mr. Ban spoke yesterday with Nabil al-Araby, Secretary-General of the Arab League, about how to end the killings and start political negotiations between the Government of President Bashar al-Assad and the opposition.
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Syria; Sudan; Mali; DPKO’s new sexual abuse policy; and more
The UN’s human rights chief today urged the international community to protect civilians in Syria, stating that the Security Council’s failure to agree on collective action seems to have fuelled the Government’s readiness to massacre its own people. According to local sources, as well as independent media reports from inside the city of Homs, the Syrian army has sharply increased the use of tanks, helicopters, mortars, rockets and artillery fire to attack civilian areas, stated a news release issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
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UNCTAD Report; Syria; Libya; UN Refugee Agency; DR Congo
The world needs “a global new deal” to break the mold of economic thought that led to the international financial crisis, the head of the UN agency tasked with promoting trade and development says today. In a newly released report entitled Development-led globalization: Towards sustainable and inclusive development paths, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) urges the international community to take decisive steps towards reforming global finance into a system allowing for more stable and inclusive economic progress.
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Syria; Somalia; World Youth Report; Myanmar; and more
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the escalating violence in Syria today, calling on President Bashar al-Assad’s Government to immediately cease all hostilities against the country’s civilian population.
He also voiced deep regret after Security Council members were unable to agree on Saturday on a resolution backing an Arab League plan to resolve the crisis in Syria, where thousands of people have been killed over the past year since authorities’ crackdown on a pro-democracy uprising.
