violence against women

Women from North Darfur performing a traditional dance during a celebration organized by the UN mission there. The author of this essay, an international rights lawyer, argues that Omar al-Bashir, the now-ousted president of Sudan, should be transferred to the International Criminal Court for prosecution of atrocities. ALBERT GONZALEZ FARRAN/UNAMID
The people of Sudan finally ousted President Omar al-Bashir from power, on April 11, 2019.

Critical needs arrive for the 45,000 or so Syrian refugees stuck in Rukban camp, near the Jordan border, with most residents women and children. A new bill from the US House of Representatives may overturn Trump-Pence policies that deny women and girls in poor nations and conflict zones access to reproductive health care. UNHCR

Vice President Pence suddenly showed up at the UN on April 10, 2019, to demand that the Security Council strip the current Venezuelan ambassador’s UN credentials. That has not happened. The US mission to the UN lacks a permanent representative amid an outflow of a range of personnel. Some UN diplomats say, “There is no one left.” MANUEL ELIAS/UN PHOTO

On the last day of the annual UN women’s conference in March, joy was mixed with relief by delegates after grueling negotiations over a summary document. The facilitator for the negotiations, Koki Muli Grignon, a Kenyan diplomat, received bullying text messages during the process. The US mission to the UN said it would investigate the incidents but the status of that work is unclear. RYAN BROWN/UN WOMEN

A wave of new or persistent accusations of harassment and corruption in some UN system agencies and programs reflects poor management and more politicization of high-level appointments demanded by UN member nations. Here, the UN headquarters. 

Amal Clooney, the British human-rights lawyer, told the Security Council that now is its “Nuremberg moment” to push for prosecuting cases of sexual violence in conflict. Nadia Murad, right, a Yazidi, had been held by ISIS in Iraq. In 2018, Murad won the Nobel Peace Prize with Dr. Denis Mukwege, a Congolese, for their work to end sexual atrocities.

In a refugee camp in South Sudan, people escape the fighting in the country’s civil war, including rampant rape by militias and national armed forces. Members of the UN Security Council are drafting a resolution to strengthen such victims’ rights, but the United States is refusing language on sexual and reproductive health services. GEOFF PUGH

In a refugee camp in South Sudan, people escape the fighting in the country’s civil war, including rampant rape by militias and national armed forces. Members of the UN Security Council are drafting a resolution to strengthen victims’ rights, but the United States is resisting language on sexual and reproductive health services. GEOFF PUGH

A new advocacy campaign started by Madre, an American nonprofit group, aims to introduce women in the developing world to lawmakers in Washington to explain how US foreign policy affects women at the receiving end. Life in Burkina Faso, above, can entail battling bad air, terrorist threats and poor maternal health. DULCIE LEIMBACH
“To reboot the world, we need to change the way we make policies,” says the New York-based advocacy group Madre, whose latest goal is nothing less than to “bring global women’s voices and solutions to progressive policymaking in the US.”

Christoph Heusgen, Germany’s ambassador to the UN and rotating president of the Security Council for April, introduced a German-made hourglass in Council meetings to keep speeches to five minutes each. The Russian ambassador asked in one instance that the timer be laid flat when he spoke. ESKINDER DEBEBE/UN PHOTO