Foreign Policy Blogs

Human Rights

Seeking an End to Global Child Abuse

Seeking an End to Global Child Abuse

  Every day across the globe millions of children are abused and neglected.  These innocent children are the victims of forced labor, sex trafficking and exploitation, physical abuse, sexual abuse, mental abuse, malnutrition, neglect, and used as child soldiers. The impacts of child abuse do not come to an end when the child is taken from their […]

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Growing hope in India

Growing hope in India

News reporting on India, more specifically news regarding women in India, has recently been somewhat unsettling. Horrific cases of sexual abuse, some fatal, have made their way from the Indian media to a global stage. In terms of raising awareness, the impact has been powerful. Yet tarring all of India with the same brush would […]

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Will the DPRK’s Increased Militarism Unify the International Human Rights Approach?

Will the DPRK’s Increased Militarism Unify the International Human Rights Approach?

In what is often being labeled the “Korean Crisis” or “Korean Missile Crisis” the latest outward displays of military prowess by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) have prompted concerted international efforts on not only strategies of military containment, but of human rights inquiry. Comprehensive investigation into the domestic human rights record of the […]

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Yes, U.N. Does Pass the Arms Trade Treaty

Yes, U.N. Does Pass the Arms Trade Treaty

Update to 26 of March entry, “Will a New Arms Trade Treaty Be Approved?”: On 2 April, the U.N. General Assembly passed the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) – the first binding international treaty designed to regulate the $70 billion cross-border conventional arms trade, and create a standard to protect peace and security. Countries will be […]

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Telecommuting as a Human Rights Approach

Telecommuting as a Human Rights Approach

The modern workplace and the requirements of jobs in the high-technology era have brought what was an outlying issue in the past to the forefront of the debate on employment arrangements. Some major technologically inclined corporations have come to different conclusions. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer banned telecommuting arrangements via a memo and Google CFO Patrick […]

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Violence, Peacekeeping and Negotiations: Being Part of the Solution

Violence, Peacekeeping and Negotiations: Being Part of the Solution

This past month has seen some well-written policy briefs being published on NOREF’s (the Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre’s) website. As the name might suggest, a major theme running through the collection of articles is peace — and also how women can contribute. I’ve just chosen three to focus on in this post, however there are […]

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The Day the Terminator Walked into the Embassy

The Day the Terminator Walked into the Embassy

After nearly two decades of conflict, the Democratic Republic of the Congo makes a regular appearance in international news. The most recent chapter of the story is the conflict between the Congolese government and the M23 rebel group which started in April 2012. The back and forth fighting since then displaced more than 300,000 people […]

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New Pope, New Human Rights Agenda?

New Pope, New Human Rights Agenda?

  Almost immediately after Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis I, the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church, questions regarding his human rights record were being asked. The niceties of his election to the papacy, that Francis is the first Pope to be Jesuit and to hail from the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere, were […]

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Acronyms and Acrobatics

Acronyms and Acrobatics

Tomorrow, March 15th, will mark the final day of the 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW57). As mentioned in my previous post, the theme running throughout the session is the issue of violence against women (VAW). If you’re unsure as to why this is a necessary focus, please remember that […]

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Making Progress to Curb Violence Against Women and Girls

Making Progress to Curb Violence Against Women and Girls

Millions of women and young girls across the globe continue to be denied their rights to equal and fair access to education and healthcare and many are faced with gender-based violence such a female genital mutilation (FGM)/female circumcision, child marriage, child trafficking, honor killings, female infantcide, domestic violence and other gender inequality and sexually-based human rights abuses every day. […]

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IACHR’s Mandate Under Fire

IACHR’s Mandate Under Fire

In an upcoming meeting in Washington, the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) will consider a proposal that would greatly diminish the ability of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to address human rights violations in the region. At the Forty-Second General Assembly meeting in Cochabamba, Bolivia, a bloc of states […]

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99 Red Balloons

99 Red Balloons

Next week, starting March 4, the 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place at U.N. HQ in New York. The main focus of CSW57 will be the “elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls.” A worthy cause, and one which in my ideal world […]

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Competing Rights: The GMO Debate

Competing Rights: The GMO Debate

The question of whether genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are helpful or harmful has persisted since the 1970s, but reached no solid conclusion. As the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to hear oral arguments on Tuesday, February 19 in Bowman v. Monsanto Co. that will have far-reaching implications for the GMO debate: whether self-replicating technologies can […]

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Civil Society Under Fire in Zimbabwe

Civil Society Under Fire in Zimbabwe

The last time Zimbabwe made widespread international headlines occurred as the country descended into violence following the contested 2008 presidential elections. That chapter in Zimbabwean history ended with the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that split power between President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The final conditions of […]

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Updates on Women, Children, and Human Rights from Around the Globe

Updates on Women, Children, and Human Rights from Around the Globe

Documentary exposes Pakistan gender biases A documentary film screened at the Sundance Film Festival chronicles the fallout in Pakistan after a 13-year-old girl, gang-raped by four men, took her attackers to court and was nearly put to death by village elders. The case of Kainat Soomro reveals gender biases in the country that make laws […]

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