Gender Equality

Photo: Minister of State Müntefering during the open debate on women, peace and security in the UN Security Council on 25 October 2018. Credit: German Foreign Office.

Women, Peace and Security is Germany's Priority in 2019-2020 Security Council Membership

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – When Germany joins the UN Security Council next January as a non-permanent member for 2019-2020, promoting the 'Women, Peace and Security Agenda' by ensuring a greater political participation of women and prevention of sexual violence in conflicts, will be one of its priorities. The Security Council has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security in which women play a central role.

Before speaking in the Security Council's open debate on women, peace and security on October 25, Germany's Minister of State Michelle Müntefering said, the unanimous adoption of Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security on October 31, 2000 was a milestone in the UN Security Council.

: Santo D. Banerjee; THE WORLD; EU & Europe; 27 October 2018

Photo: Secretary-General António Guterres (centre) briefs the Security Council meeting on women and peace and security. UN Photo/Manuel Elias.

Too Few Women Peacekeepers Contrary to Commitments

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – UN Secretary-General António Guterres finds it "crippling to our credibility and protection capacity that women represent only four percent of our military peacekeepers and ten percent of police," though "over the past year, we have seen positive examples of progress".

Briefing the Security Council's annual high-level debate on women and peace and security on October 25, the UN Chief noted that women's organizations continue to make an impact – from keeping dialogue alive in Guinea Bissau, to rebuilding communities in Colombia.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 26 October 2018

Photo: Cox’s Bazar deputy commissioner Md Kamal Hossain visiting Rohingya camp Kutupalong. Credit: Md Mojibur Rahman Rana.

A Crisis Within a Crisis for the Rohingyas

By Naimul Haq

DHAKA, Bangladesh (IDN) – Despite a well-coordinated effort to address the Rohingya refugee crisis in Cox’s Bazar, a coastal town bordering Myanmar, some major challenges still need attention.

The local administration admits that with over one million forcibly displaced Myanmar citizens arriving in such a short time, it is indeed difficult to manage the environmental damages and rising crime rates faced by the local people.

Cox’s Bazar deputy commissioner Md Kamal Hossain told IDN that in terms of supplies of food, commodities and household basics efforts have been well coordinated. However, “environmental damage and the crimes rising by the day are major concerns but they are being addressed now and hopefully we would soon find solutions.”

: Naimul Haq; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 21 October 2018

Photo: Hauwa Leman, an aide worker with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), killed by a faction of Boko Haram. Credit: Business Day

Young Medical Worker Executed by Boko Haram Caliphate

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – "We urge you: spare and release these women,” begged Patricia Danzi, director of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Africa. .. “Like all those abducted, they are not part of any fight."

"They are daughters and sisters, one is a mother – women with their futures ahead of them, children to raise, and families to return to." Nonetheless, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a self-declared caliphate of Boko Haram, rejected their entreaties and executed 24 year old Hauwa Liman, an aide worker. The insurgents further vowed to make another captive, schoolgirl Leah Sharibu, a slave for life.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 16 October 2018

Image: The flag of Saudi Arabia (centre) flying at United Nations headquarters in New York. UN Photo/Loey Felipe

UN Urges Saudi Arabia to Release All Incarcerated Women Human Rights Defenders

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) – For the second time since July 31, UN human rights experts are calling on Saudi Arabia to "immediately and unconditionally" release all women human rights defenders, including six imprisoned on charges relating to their peaceful defence of human rights.

The detained have been charged for being involved in pro-democracy demonstrations, and previously campaigning for the right of women to vote and drive. In late June 2018, a long-standing ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia, was lifted by royal decree, UN News reports.

: Jamshed Baruah; THE WORLD; Middle East; 14 October 2018

Photo: Kalpana Saroj. Crdit: kamanitubes.com

An Indian Woman Rises from the Downtrodden to a Socially Aware Multimillionaire

By Sudha Ramachandran

BANGALORE (IDN) – In 2013, Kalpana Saroj, Chairperson of the Mumbai-based Kamani Tubes Ltd. (KTL), was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest honour for civilians, for her achievements in the fields of Trade and Industry.

Saroj was successful in turning around the fortunes of KTL, a manufacturing company producing quality copper and copper alloy pipes and tubes. She succeeded where others, including well-networked, male corporate honchos, failed.

What makes her accomplishments all the more impressive is the fact that she is a Dalit (formerly 'Untouchables', the lowest caste in India's millennia-old caste hierarchy) and a woman too. "Her rise to the top is, without a doubt, a function of her personal fortitude and grit," Christina Thomas Dhanaraj, consultant for #dalitwomenfight, told IDN.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 12 October 2018

Photo: The two Nobel Peace laureates: and Denis Mukwege. Credit: Amnesty International. Nadia Murad and

UN Hails Nobel Peace Prize Seeking to End Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations has extended an enthusiastic welcome to The Norwegian Nobel Committee's announcement that it has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2018 to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.

The Nobel Peace Prize 2017 was awarded to ICAN, the International Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons "for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition on such weapons."

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 06 October 2018

Photo (front l to r): High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative Ambassador A.L.A. Azeez serving as Chairperson-Rapporteur, Human Rights Council President Vojislav Šuc, Permanent Representative of Slovenia. Credit: Sri Lanka Permanent Mission to UN in Geneva.

Sri Lanka Chaired UN Forum Focuses on Sport to Promote Human Rights

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) – The Social Forum of the UN Human Rights Council serves since 2008 as a unique space for open and interactive dialogue between civil society actors, representatives of Member States, and intergovernmental organizations, on a theme chosen by the Council each year. The 2018 Social Forum, with Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative Ambassador A.L.A. Azeez as the Chairperson-Rapporteur, distinguished itself in more than one way.

It focussed on "the possibilities of using sport and the Olympic ideal to promote human rights for all and to strengthen universal respect for them". High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet emphasized at the opening the importance of sports as a tool for social and human empowerment.

: Jamshed Baruah; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; United Nations; 05 October 2018

Photo: Karin Landgren, Executive Director, Security Council Report moderates a discussion with UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Tanya Gilly-Khailany, Co-founder, SEED Foundation and former parliamentarian, Iraq. Credit: UN Women/Ryan Brown

Far from Optimal Progress in Women's Meaningful Participation in Peace Processes

By Jeanette Richter

NEW YORK (IDN) – The UN Security Council Resolution1325 (UNSCR 1325), initiated by Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations as the President of the Security Council in March 2000, drew the focus of a side event on the margins of the 73rd UN General Assembly on September 26 at 'German House' in New York.

The Permanent Missions of Germany, Spain and Namibia to the United Nations, in partnership with UN Women, convened ministers, UN officials and civil society organizations to discuss progress made in the women, peace and security (WPS) agenda and ways to increase women’s meaningful participation in peace processes, as well as protect them from conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence, especially through the WPS Focal Points Network.

: Rita Joshi; UN INSIDER; 30 September 2018

Photo: UNGA73 President María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés. Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe.

Upcoming UN General Assembly Promises a Whiff of History

Fourth Woman President in 73 years – 18-year-old Female Activist to Speak at High Level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – The 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly opening on September 18 promises to be historic. Not only because its President, María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, the Foreign Minister of Ecuador, is the fourth woman on the top in the history of the UN’s main deliberative and policy-making body.

But also because on September 26, the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, 18-year-old environmental and children's rights activist Kehkashan Basu will address the General Assembly. Espinosa has selected her to speak as one of the two representatives of global civil society.