Happy New Year!
After a holiday pause we got back to work, covering the reaction of UN member states to the US killing of Iran’s top general in early January. Since then, we have been publishing news on global women’s-rights commemorations for 2020; how the UN is trying to uplift its image; and interviewed the “face of the African American community” at the UN, Fannie Munlin, among other reports.
In total, our stories for the month generated at least 200 new subscribers and attracted approximately 200 new Twitter followers. The highlights:
• An investigation exploring how the UN’s big annual meeting in March on women’s rights may unfold revealed that last year’s acrimony could be reprised. This year’s 11-day Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) session will review the gaps remaining since the landmark Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action was adopted in 1995, empowering women. Laura Kirkpatrick reported from her base in Buffalo, N.Y., and during a trip to Manhattan, while this reporter interviewed more experts and ambassadors at the UN to round out the story.
Laura writes about the process: “I met up with some sources in December to see how the Beijing+25 UN regional meetings were going, leading up to the CSW in March, and learned that the US had been disruptive at the Asia-Pacific meeting and planned to be even more ardent in their anti-abortion policies this year.”
• Meanwhile, Barbara Crossette reported on two new people in the State Department who will play major roles at the UN: as the new ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues, Kelley Currie will head the US delegation at the CSW in New York; and Jonathan Moore, a Russian expert, now runs the International Organizations bureau, the liaison with the US mission to the UN. Moore’s appointment, Crossette writes, signals that the Trump administration is getting serious about the UN. Currie’s appointment could signal a sharper curb on women’s rights.
• Jeff Laurenti was a senior fellow at the Century Foundation on international affairs for eight years. For PassBlue, he summarized where the major US presidential candidates stand on foreign affairs topics, including the UN, Afghanistan, Syria, disarmament, human rights and climate change. The candidates have indeed said little about these subjects, and only one has publicly declared the value of the UN. To find out who, read Laurenti's analysis.
• Our exclusive op-ed by Andrea Bartoli, president of the Rome-based Sant’Egidio Foundation for Peace and Dialogue, revealed new steps by the power-brokers in South Sudan’s civil war toward a cease-fire. The essay, Bartoli told PassBlue, helped spur the two men to meet in Italy to finally decide to stop the bloodshed. One aspect that spurred them to serious dialogue after all these years? Experiencing a thriving, democratic city: Rome.
As the only women-led nonprofit media site covering women’s rights from the UN, we continue to ask for your support to make democracy a daily reality. To encourage tax-deductible donations of $250 or more from individuals in February, we are raffling off a free lunch at Smorgas in Manhattan with a PassBlue journalist.
Consider, too, hiring a PassBlue reporter, editor or other expert from our speakers’ bureau for your next event or program. The world needs to know what’s happening at the UN, and we offer first-hand reporting day in, day out.
|
