Women's Health

Half a Million U.S. Women and Girls at Risk of Genital Cutting

By Kitty Stapp
Jaha Dukureh knows firsthand the barbaric effects of undergoing female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). Now a resident of the United States, she was mutilated as a baby in the Gambia in West Africa. Her sister bled to death after enduring the same procedure.

‘Ambassadors of Freedom’ – Palestine’s Resistance Babies

By Silvia Boarini
Thirteen-year-old Hula Khadoura sits on a large sofa in her grandfather’s home in the neighbourhood of Tuffah, Gaza City, her one-year-old twin brothers Karam and Adam on her lap. “I am so happy they arrived,” she beams, holding the babies’ feeding bottles in her hands.

World Population to Hit 8.5 Billion by 2030

By Aruna Dutt
The global population has now reached 7.3 billion. In the last 12 years, the world has added approximately one billion people, and in the next 15 years this is expected to occur again.

U.N.’s Post-2015 Development Agenda Under Fire

By Thalif Deen
The U.N.’s highly ambitious post-2015 development agenda, which is expected to be finalised shortly, has come fire even before it could get off the ground.

In Search of Jobs, Cameroonian Women May End Up as Slaves in Middle East

By Ngala Killian Chimtom
Her lips are quavering her hands trembling. Susan (not her real name) struggles to suppress stubborn tears, but the outburst comes, spontaneously, and the tears stream down her cheeks as she sobs profusely.

Opinion: Women in Sport – Scoring for Equality

By Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
The Women’s World Cup has shown people everywhere what women athletes are all about: skill, strength, unity and determination. I extend my heartfelt congratulations to the winners – the team from the United States – and to all others who participated. You are inspiring millions of women and girls around the world to pursue their goals and dreams.

“Get to Zero, Stay at Zero” – The Comprehensive Plan to End Ebola

By Aruna Dutt
"The threat is never over until we rebuild," Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma stressed at an Ebola Recovery Conference Friday in New York.

Humanitarian Emergencies Lend Urgency to World Population Day

By Thalif Deen
On the eve of World Population Day, the United Nations is fighting a virtually losing battle against growing humanitarian emergencies triggered mostly by military conflicts that are displacing people by the millions – and rendering them either homeless or reducing them to the status of refugees.

Toilets with Piped Music for Rich, Open Defecation on Rail Tracks for Poor

By Thalif Deen
As most developing nations fall short of meeting their goals on sanitation, the world’s poorest countries have been lagging far behind, according to a new U.N. report released here.

Women’s Groups Say Gender Equality is a Must for Sustainable Development

By Beatriz Ciordia
On the eve of negotiations on the political declaration for the United Nations Summit to adopt the Post-2015 Development Agenda, the Women’s Major Group (WMG) calls on governments to define a transformative agenda to ensure just, sustainable and rights-based development.

Costa Rican Women Try to Pull Legal Therapeutic Abortion Out of Limbo

By Diego Arguedas Ortiz
The lack of clear regulations and guidelines on therapeutic abortion in Costa Rica means women depend on the interpretation of doctors with regard to the circumstances under which the procedure can be legally practiced.

Cameroonian Women and Girls Saying No to Child Marriage

By Ngala Killian Chimtom
Twelve-year-old Bienvienue Taguieke was expected to obey her parents and marry a man 40 years her senior, but an association of women in Cameroon’s Far North Region, where child marriages are rife, put a stop to it in a sign that women are starting to speaking out against the practice.

Inequality Blocks Further Reduction in Child Mortality in Latin America

By Marianela Jarroud
The progress that Latin America has made in reducing child mortality is cited by international institutions as an example to be followed, and the region has met the fourth Millennium Development Goal, which is to cut the under-five mortality rate by two thirds.

U.N. Challenges Asia-Pacific to Be World’s First Region to End AIDS Epidemic

By Thalif Deen
The United Nations has expressed confidence that the Asia-Pacific region, with almost five million people living with HIV, is politically committed towards the elimination of the deadly disease AIDS.

Despite Setbacks, Global Sanitation Makes Progress, Says Fund

By Thalif Deen
When the United Nations hosted a panel discussion last year urging its partners to “break their silence” on open defecation, Singapore’s deputy permanent representative Mark Neo was outspoken in his characterisation: “Open defecation is a euphemism. What we are talking about is shitting in the open.”

When Kenyan Children’s Lives Hang on a Drip

By Miriam Gathigah
Acute watery diarrhoea is a major killer of young children but misunderstanding over the benefits of fluid treatment is preventing many Kenyan parents from resorting to this life-saving technique and threatening to reverse the strides that the country has made in child health.

The U.N. at 70: Time to Prioritise Human Rights for All, for Current and Future Generations

By Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin
Seventy years ago, with the founding of the United Nations, all nations reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, and in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small.

Latin America Must Address Its Caregiving Crisis

By Fabiana Frayssinet
As in the rest of the world, the care of children, the elderly and the disabled in Latin America has traditionally fallen to women, who add it to their numerous domestic and workplace tasks. A debate is now emerging in the region on the public policies that governments should adopt to give them a hand, while also helping their countries grow.

Opinion: Let’s Talk Menstruation. Period.

By Chris Williams and Kersti Strandqvist
Every month, more than two billion women around the world menstruate, and yet the topic is still shrouded by a veil of silence. While some girls celebrate their period as the first step into womanhood, many girls in developing or emerging countries are shocked and ashamed of their monthly cycles.

Pregnancy and Childbirth Still Kill Too Many Women in Latin America

By Fabiana Frayssinet
In spite of strides in social progress, Latin America’s maternal mortality rates remain unacceptable, and many of the deaths are avoidable, occurring partly because of neglect of the prescriptions provided by experts: preventive action and health promotion.

Sri Lanka’s Development Goals Fall Short on Gender Equality

By Ranjit Perera
When Rosy Senanayake, Sri Lanka’s minister of state for child affairs, addressed the U.N. Commission on Population and Development (CPD) in New York last month, she articulated both the successes and shortcomings of gender equality in a country which prided itself electing the world’s first female head of government: Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike in July 1960.
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