Women's rights

Children make up over 40 percent of the 13.1 million people in Syria that require life-saving assistance, pointed out Panos Moumtzis, UN Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis. The year 2017, he said, had been the deadliest year of the Syrian conflict for children, quoting verified figures from the Syria Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism that reported at least 910 children killed and 361 injured primarily in Aleppo, Idleb and Deir-ez-Zor. Moumtzis revealed these figures at a high-level panel discussion held by the Human Rights Council on the human rights violations against children in Syria. The Human Rights Council listened to the testimonies and recommendations made by three members of Syria’s civil society who had gathered, through presences on the ground, information on violations of children’s rights in Syria. “What is growing now in Syria is not just fear and hatred, but also the call for justice and peace, and the rejection of war itself, of all wars a...

In Latin America, poverty rates are high for women, but even higher for women of African descent; in the USA, 37 percent of households head by African-American woman live below the poverty line; and First Nations Canadian and Afro-Canadian women and girls have less opportunity for education and academic achievements. These were some of the findings of a booklet called Women and girls of African descent: human rights achievements and challenges. The publication, by the UN Human Rights Office and the UN Department of Public Information, is based on the UN Secretary-General’s report on the implementation of the International Decade for People of African Descent to the UN General Assembly last year. It contains analysis of the findings of human rights mechanisms and illustrates the realities of discrimination against women and girls of African descent. When it comes to experiencing human rights, women and girls of African descent often face obstacles that are as much based on their r...

Changing the way women are treated globally should not simply be left in the hands of governments and policy makers, said best-selling author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Changing policies and laws will have no effect if mindsets remain the same and if the stories about women stay mired in discrimination. “Popular culture becomes very important because it is a way to start to challenge people stereotypical ideals,” she said. “I think it’s important to have diverse stories of diverse women in diverse roles and to make that ordinary and to make that common so that we can start thinking differently about what is possible for women.” Adichie spoke during an interview to celebrate International Women’s Day with the UN Human Rights Office. A well-known supporter of women’s rights and feminists issues, she helped fuel the popular conversation on women’s rights through essays and TED talks including “The danger of a single story” and  “We should all be feminists,” part of which was samp...