Towards Dystopian Democracies in Europe and the USA?
Jacqueline Bhabha: Europe Must Step Up to Protect Refugees
The Migration Crisis
Tracking Disease at World’s Largest Religious Festival
by Karen Feldscher September, 24, 2015 — From July through September this year, up to 30 million people are traveling to the cities of Nashik and Trimbakeshwar in India to bathe in the holy waters of the Godavari River, as part of the Kumbh Mela Hindu religious festival. Amidst this mass gathering—supported by acres and acres of temporary parking lots, police stations, fire stations, health clinics, streetlights and toilets—a small…
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Fourth Legal Latin American Congress on Reproductive Rights: Violence against Women and Reproductive Justice
Harvard FXB Policy Director Alicia Ely Yamin will deliver a keynote address the Fourth Legal Latin American Congress on Reproductive Rights in Peru in November 2015. Objectives Promote dialogue between judicial officers, legislators, academic scholars, and activists on the importance of incorporating international standards of protection of reproductive rights as human rights in court decisions and public policy. Strengthen legal arguments and judicial interpretations with a gender, public health, and…
SDG SERIES: Are the SDGs the Vehicle to End AIDS by 2030?
by Allan Maleche September 17, 2015. This month’s UN summit for the adoption of the post-2015 global development agenda will provide an opportunity for States to endorse 17 new global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The goals, built on the momentum from implementing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 2000-2015, will guide economic, environmental and social initiatives for the next 15 years. SDG 3, the overarching goal on health issues, seeks to…
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SDG SERIES: Leaving No One Behind: Human Rights and Accountability
By Rebecca Brown At the upcoming Summit to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UN will adopt the broadest political agreement to date, which in its Preamble announces the goals of eradicating poverty and inequality, achieving sustainable development, realizing the human rights of all, and achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. The agreement rightly points out that it is unprecedented in its scope. Overall,…
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Mu’addameen: I offer them to you
The story of a Syrian refugee family in Jordan By Josyann Abisaab September 14, 2015. In Middle Eastern culture, when one expresses admiration for personal belongings such as clothing, jewelry, or decorative accessories, it is customary to offer the praised object in return. However, I did not expect the delicate-faced woman with the melancholic smile wearing a long, black dress and matching embroidered headscarf to offer me her most precious…
A Practical Manifesto for Women and Children’s Health
At an intensive two-day June meeting in Washington, DC, sponsored by UNFPA, center director Jennifer Leaning joined colleagues from around the world to write the penultimate draft of Every Woman, Every Child, a practical manifesto to embed in the discussion of the Sustainable Development Goals that will take place at the meeting of the UN General Assembly  this September in New York City.  The aim during this final drafting workshop…
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Groundbreaking Technical Follow-up Commission
Policy Director Alicia Ely Yamin is part of a commission that will report on Brazil’s implementation of Alyne da Silva Pimental v Brazil, a 2008 CEDAW (UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women) Committee decision recognizing states’ enforceable obligation to address and reduce maternal mortality. This marks the first time any technical follow-up commission has been engaged in providing expert input of this kind on the decision of…
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