Gender Equality: The Year in Review 2014 Dear Gender Equality Advocate, From the passing of one of the Arab region's most progressive constitutions enshrining women's rights to changes in legislation to provide long overdue redress to wartime survivors of sexual violence, this year there a number of gender equality achievements, milestones and noteworthy moments from around the world to celebrate. We invite you to take a moment to view a selection of some of these achievements in the latest … [Read more...]
The Quick Facts of Human Trafficking
December 11, 2014 by
Human trafficking is a global problem and one of the world's most shameful crimes, affecting the lives of millions of people around the world and robbing them of their dignity. Traffickers deceive women, men and children from all corners of the world and force them into exploitative situations every day. While the best-known form of human trafficking is for the purpose of sexual exploitation, hundreds of thousands of victims are trafficked for the purposes of forced labour, domestic servitude, … [Read more...]
OP-ED: True Gender Equality for Both Women and Men
November 22, 2014 by
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 2014 (IPS) - Numerous international and national efforts have focused on gender equality and the empowerment of women. The United Nations, for example, has convened four world conferences on women - Beijing in 1995, Nairobi in 1985, Copenhagen in 1980 and Mexico City in 1975 - and Member States have adopted various international agreements, such as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against … [Read more...]
MDG momentum – Post 2015
October 2, 2014 by
Providing key information for MDG momentum UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an end to the unfinished business of the Millennium Development Goals while speaking at a high-level event convened by the MDG Advocacy Group on 25 September. Organized by UN DESA in collaboration with a number of partners, the event featured the launch of a new publication as well as a data tool visualizing 14 years’ worth of MDG data from UN DESA’s Statistics Division. Gathering 300 global leaders, … [Read more...]
Women at the center of Economic Activity
October 1, 2014 by
Professor Muhammad Yunus established the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh with the objective of helping poor people escape from poverty by providing loans without collateral to support income-generating activities. From Prof. Yunus's personal loan of small amounts of money in the mid-70's to destitute basket-weavers in Bangladesh, the Grameen Bank has advanced to the forefront of a burgeoning world movement toward eradicating poverty through micro-lending. Today it has 8.4 million borrowers of … [Read more...]
Global Update: Special UN General Assembly Edition
September 25, 2014 by
As the General Assembly began the general debate of its sixty-ninth session, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon presented to the Assembly his annual report on the work of the Organization. UN Photo/Mark Garten 24 September 2014 – Warning that the world’s “fasten seat belt” light is illuminated, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today opened the 69th annual debate of the United Nations General Assembly with a call for decisive leadership at a time when the ghosts of the Cold War have returned and … [Read more...]
World peace?
September 7, 2014 by
These are the only 11 countries in the world that are actually free from conflict As new wars and civil unrests seem to be flaring up every week, we look for the only countries in the world that could be considered ‘conflict-free’. With the crisis in Gaza, the rise of Islamist militants in Iraq and Syria and the international stand-off ongoing in Ukraine, it can sometimes feel like the whole world is at war. But experts believe this is actually almost universally the case, according to … [Read more...]
Marina wanted to a NUN, ended up in the Sea of Brazil
September 6, 2014 by
The Brazilian Socialist Party plans to launch environmentalist Marina Silva as its presidential candidate next week, replacing party leader Eduardo Campos who was killed in a plane clash, a senior party official said on Saturday. The PSB, as the party is known, has agreed to rally around a Silva candidacy after she pledged to honor the party's program and its regional alliances, said Beto Albuquerque, a party congressman from the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. "She will be the PSB … [Read more...]
UN Foundation, Elizabeth Gore
September 3, 2014 by
Can becoming an entrepreneur help a refugee live a better life? I recently had the opportunity to join the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) for a visit to the Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda, where I met seven incredible women entrepreneurs who have formed the Twitezimbere tailoring group. And through them, I learned the answer is yes. Despite the challenges they’ve faced, these women have been able to create and grow a business serving their neighbors in the eighth largest … [Read more...]
