United Nations
UN Secretary General's Statement: End Criminalization based on Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity
Thank you, Ambassador Jim McLay of New Zealand, Ambassador Ranko Vilovi of Croatia, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, and particularly representatives of civil society, it is a great pleasure.
Thank you all for coming to this important event.
Today is Human Rights Day - a day we dedicate to defending freedoms and protections for all people.
We know how controversial the issues surrounding sexual orientation can be.
UN General Assembly: UN Member States Should Vote Against Proposed Resolution On “Vilification Of Religions”
London 19.11.10: ARTICLE 19 and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) urge UN Member States to vote against the draft resolution proposed at the current session of the UN General Assembly on “combating religious hatred and vilification of religions”.
Somalia: Sexual and gender based violence on the increase
NAIROBI, 4 November 2010 (IRIN) - Armed groups in Somalia have continued recruiting children to fight and engage in piracy, and girls have found themselves facing increasing risk of sexual violence, a senior UN official says.
SKSW Statement on Human Rights and Traditional Values
The traditional values underpinning international human rights: How can they contribute to promotion and protection?
Room XXI, Palais des Nations, Geneva
4 October 2010
Thank you, honourable members of the panel, friends and colleagues in the international human rights community, good afternoon.
On behalf of the Global Campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women, we welcome the opportunity to participate in the discussion on the relationship between human rights and traditional values.
SKSW welcomes appointment of Michelle Bachelet at UN Women
The Global campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women (SKSW Campaign) welcomes the appointment of Michelle Bachelet as the first Under-Secretary-General for the new UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women).
UN Special Rapporteur on Torture statement on Acid Attacks and Women
"From my position as Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, I have tried to ensure that the torture and ill-treatment protection framework is applied in a gender-sensitive manner to ensure that women are effectively protected from any form of violence that may constitute torture and/or ill-treatment... I have previously focused on several types of gender-specific violence among which domestic violence in the form of intimate parrtner violence might be of interest to this panel since often, women victims of acid throwing are attacked by husbands, ex-partners and/or partners......When viewed through the prism of the anti-torture framework, the fight to end violence against women can be strengthened and provided with a broader scope of prevention, protection, justice and reparation for women." - Manfred Nowak
UN Women Born: Civil Society Celebrates Creation of Gender Equality Entity After Four Years of Advocacy
UN Women Born: Civil Society Celebrates Creation of Gender Equality Entity After Four Years of Campaigning
The Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) Campaign celebrates the United Nations General Assembly resolution, agreed to on 30 June and to be formally adopted by the General Assembly on Friday, 2 July, to establish “UN Women”—the new gender equality entity at the UN. This move has been sought by women’s organizations and other civil society organizations around the world since the UN established a System-Wide Coherence Panel for UN Reform in 2006. Charlotte Bunch of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) at Rutgers University, a founding member of the GEAR Campaign, stated, “We have high expectations for this new agency to be a solid foundation for advancing the human rights of women as central to global policy efforts to reduce poverty and move toward greater realization of peace and democracy in the world. The coalition of women’s groups and other social justice, human rights and development organizations that played a pivotal role in this effort will now turn its efforts toward ensuring that the new body has the human and financial resources necessary to succeed.”
Human Rights and Cultural Diversity - UN Experts Statement
The following statement has been issued by a group of UN human rights experts to mark World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, 21 May 2010
The Politics of UN Human Rights Council and Iran's Candidacy
The Islamic Republic of Iran, in a provocative act, has announced its candidacy for the United Nation Human Rights Council, a UN organization based in Geneva. The candidacy of Iran comes at a time that during the last 10 months, Iranians are experiencing one of the darkest periods of human rights violations since 1979 revolution. The candidacy of Iran for the UN Human Rights Council is comparable to electing apartheid South Africa to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination or to awarding the US for humane treatment of detainee's right after the world was shocked with pictures revealing sexual torture and humiliation of naked prisoners.
UN Secretary-General calls for religious leaders to foster dialogue between cultures
Religious leaders have a vital part to play in promoting dialogue between different cultures and societies at a time when globalization has left many people feeling discontented, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has told an international gathering of leaders.