More Than A Magazine, A Movement
The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization aimed at promoting peace between nations and protecting human rights across the globe.
World leaders will gather in New York City on Sept. 21 for the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to review progress toward universal health coverage (UHC).
We call on world leaders to step up and make clear and strong commitments defining sexual and reproductive health services—including safe abortion care—as non-negotiable components of UHC.
In September 2019, it was my honor to attend the United Nations General Assembly 74 as media on behalf of Ms. As I sat in the meeting for “Gender Equality: from the Biarritz Partnership to the Beijing+25 Generation Equality Forum” with U.N. Women, I kept thinking about the impact that Joannie Parker had on my life. This year she would have turned 90 years old and her teaching inspires me every day to do more and to do better. I wish I could call her to tell her that my memoir, Brave-ish, One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After Fifty, will be published on Sept. 19, 2023.
U.S. foreign policy prevents the protection of refugees, those in conflict zones, and those impacted by natural disasters. Yet the House Appropriations Committee has chosen to pass a budget that will defund the agencies and programs that are most prepared to expertly respond to the needs of girls and women on conflict zones.
It is far past time that Congress passes the Abortion is Healthcare Everywhere Act, which will repeal the Helms Amendment; and the Support UNFPA Funding Act, which would restore funding to UNFPA for the next five years. With the stroke of a pen, the Biden administration also has the power to issue guidance to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on Helms Amendment interpretation, preventing a chilling effect and expanding the agency’s reach.
The Taliban has issued over 100 edicts stripping Afghan women and girls of their most basic human rights and opportunities, effectively putting them under house arrest.
The timeline we’ve assembled here encompasses all the edicts and orders that impact women and girls, often addressing issues related to human rights, media freedom and movement restrictions.
The United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) convened this year from July 10-19 to assess progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the halfway point between their adoption and 2030 deadline. The SDGs are a collection of 17 interlinked objectives designed to serve as a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future,” ranging from ending poverty, gender inequality and hunger, to promoting clean water and sustainability.
As HLPF came to a close, we spoke to four feminist activists from the Women’s Major Group about their experience at the convening—and their work fighting for gender-just implementation of the SDGs.
Catherine Kassenoff made it crystal clear. She resorted to an assisted suicide in Switzerland because she endured the most heart-wrenching agony a mother can face: losing her children.
Catherine was a smart, tenacious attorney, whose story has gone viral on social media—where many have asked: What will happen to her three daughters now?
A coalition of nearly 200 organizations and individuals this year made an urgent appeal to United Nations human rights experts, explaining that the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization puts the U.S. in violation of its obligations under international law. This op-ed follows up on that appeal, authored by medical practitioners who describe the dire state of abortion access in the U.S.
“We never expected to witness this kind of regression of human rights and are embarrassed that such cruelties can occur in the United States, which holds itself as champion of human rights.”
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: The percentage of women in state legislatures has steadily increased, but the gender gap is far from being bridged; President Biden and Vice President Harris celebrate Juneteenth with Opal Lee, the advocate who helped turn Juneteenth into a national holiday; bias against women is as entrenched as a decade ago, says a new U.N. report; “student loan debt is a true albatross on the ankles of young Black women and young, low-income people everywhere”; and more.
The Taliban has introduced a cloak of fear and violence that threatens the rights, freedoms and livelihoods of the women and girls fighting to survive under looming security threats, humanitarian crises and gender apartheid in Afghanistan.
Ms. spoke with Russian journalist and activist Nadezhda Azhgikhina about the global demise of journalism and women’s roles in peace negotiations between Russia and the U.S.
“I believe it’s possible for women in Russia and in Ukraine to find a common language and help each other. It’s women’s potential which expedites and eases a common language of peace so that we can all overcome the consequences of the tragedy we collectively face today.”
