Women in Uruguay preparing to participate in an International Women’s Day march, 2019. New global plans are underway to mark the 25th anniversary of the Beijing conference advancing women’s rights in 2020, including events to be held in Mexico, France and New York. The efforts will not be easy. CREATIVE COMMONS
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
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
Wazhma Frogh, an award-winning advocate for Afghan women and girls, said in a recent interview about women’s participation in the current peace talks for her country: It’s a litmus test for the world, what’s going on in Afghanistan. LARA MCKINLEY
The Swedish prosecuting authority announced at a Stockholm press conference Monday that Sweden would seek Assange’s extradition from Britain to face investigation on a nearly decade-old allegation of sexual assault. By Joe Lauria Special to Consortium News Sweden’s deputy director…Read more →
Sam Husseini says the origin of Mother’s Day has largely been obscured, helping pave the way for Trump’s embrace of women warriors and bearers of “the next generation of American patriots,” with a hint of the Nazi “Mother’s Cross.” By…Read more →
Many have said I don’t deal with very practical matters. I spend too much time on abstract theology and deep philosophy and it’s all ohhh so hard! Well, the reality is, I love practical wisdom. Let’s examine one of the best sources of ancient wisdom much of the western (Protestant) world has abandoned! – The books Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) and Wisdom. These books are a treasure trove of sage wisdom and something (along with Proverbs) I listen to constantly (on audio). So lets dive in. The second half will be available for JaysAnalysis subscribers at my site.
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.
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
