Disappointingly, the 56th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women failed to adopt agreed conclusions. As a result of this outcome, Soroptimist International, together with partner women's rights organisations signed a statement to discourage any re-opening of negotiations on the already established international agreements on women’s rights.

Soroptimist International's UN Vienna Representatives report back from the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice for a second time - this time, they focus on the importance of responsible and ethical tourism if we are to see a global reduction in trafficking and sexual exploitation.  At the 21st session

World Environment Day is only 2 weeks away. As the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) draws ever closer (June 20-22), the need to press our international decision makers to take decisive steps to ensure sustainable development, safeguard the environment and to promote equitable use of resources has never been

Press Release: May 17, 2012 issued by UNCSD Representatives from governments who were negotiating the Rio+20 outcome document agreed to add five additional days to their deliberations in order to bridge differences that have hampered progress to date. The move came on 4 May as the latest round of negotiations

SI UN Representative Dora Vrdlovec reports back from an event in Vienna to raise awareness about Millennium Development Goal 5: 2015 is not far away, but what does seem very  far away are some of the Millennium Development Goals. To raise awareness and galvanise action on MDG 5 (improve maternal

Press Release: Centre for Reproductive Rights Last year, the Center for Reproductive Rights won a groundbreaking victory in our eight-year battle on behalf of Alyne da Silva Pimentel, an impoverished Afro-brazilian woman who died when doctors willfully failed to provide her with the maternal healthcare to which she was legally

Soroptimist International UNESCO Representative, Rina Dupriet, attended the Education For All working group: Early Childhood Care and Education. She reports back. The first world conference on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) organised by UNESCO (Moscow 2010) in cooperation with the Russian Federation, gave a fresh impetus to accelerating efforts to

Last week, SI President Alice Wells returned from a trip to Papua New Guinea, the location of the current December 10th Appeal: Birthing in the Pacific. She reports back from her visit.  Here we are, in 2012, with all the wonders of modern medicine and yet there are still more

The SI UN Vienna Representatives report back from the UN Crime Commission The Forgotten Children   Many of the side events which took place during the recent session of the Crime Commission were on the children of incarcerated parents. These side events, together with the many papers that were presented,

Soroptimist International is an active member of the Women's Major Stakeholder Group for the forthcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development - Rio+20. The below statement was given at the ECOSOC on May 3rd. Women’s Major Group Statement United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) 3 May 2012 Vice President of