In my latest podcast episode, I spoke with former Principal Deputy Director in the Secretary of State`s Office of Global Women`s Issues, Katrina (Kat) Fotovat about the backsliding on women`s rights between the first and second Trump adminstrations. Kat noted the shift in priorities between administrations, and the national security implications of such cuts to women`s issues.
Listen to the full episode via the link in bio; episodes also available on all major podcasting apps
A new Human Rights Watch report shows how Trump’s immigration policies are hurting some of the most vulnerable people, especially undocumented survivors of serious crimes. The US was once the place where people fleeing violence came to feel safe. Under Trump, that promise has been willfully abandoned.
#Immigration #UnitedStates #Migration #HumanRights
Today’s podcast guest is Katrina Fotovat, the former Principal Deputy Director in the Secretary of State’s Office of Global Women’s Issues, where she led a team of experts promoting women, peace, and security, countering violent extremism, promoting women’s economic empowerment, and combatting gender-based violence.
In this episode, we discuss the critical work that has been done by the Office of Global Women’s Issues under three different presidential administrations, local outreach programs facilitated by the US overseas to support women’s issues and combat gender-based violence, including working with men and boys, and the global impacts of the current Trump administration’s drastic cuts to foreign aid.
Listen now; link in bio.
The authorities’ and social media platforms’ insufficient responses have further deterred journalists from speaking out. Additionally, many journalists have migrated to better regulated online media platforms, leaving behind X and Facebook, where abuse remains prevalent, in search of safer, more controlled spaces.
https://ihcr.institute/writing/a-digital-conflict-is-escalating-technology-facilitated-violence-against-women/
War, displacement, economic collapse, and food insecurity are leaving millions vulnerable to exploitation, violence, and extreme hardship.Across the Middle East and neighboring regions, ongoing conflicts are creating a deepening humanitarian crisis for women and girls. War, displacement, economic collapse, and food insecurity are leaving millions vulnerable to exploitation, violence, and extreme hardship. As infrastructure deteriorates and access to healthcare, education, and basic services disappears, women are increasingly forced to carry the burden of survival for entire families. In many conflict zones, women spend their days searching for food, water, medicine, and safety while also caring for children, the elderly, and the injured. At the same time, growing instability continues to expose women and girls to heightened risks of abuse, forced displacement, and poverty. Humanitarian responses and peacebuilding efforts cannot ignore the disproportionate impact conflict has on women. Protecting their dignity, safety, and access to opportunity must remain central to any long-term path toward stability and recovery.
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The prosecution of alleged ISIS-linked crimes against humanity in Australia is a landmark test of justice, accountability, and human rights. Australian authorities have charged three women over alleged atrocities connected to ISIS, including the enslavement of Yazidi women and girls—crimes that shocked the conscience of the world. Yet justice must not abandon the principles it seeks to defend. Human Rights Watch stresses that due process rights must be fully respected while ensuring support for victims and survivors. Equally critical is the protection of the children returning from years of arbitrary detention in northeast Syria, many traumatized by war, deprivation, and separation. Accountability, trauma care, and humane reintegration must all remain central to Australia’s response.
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The global escalation of violence is a structural crisis rather than an aberration—one that reveals the failure of international institutions, exposing the normalization of suffering across political, economic, and societal dimensions. The proliferation of violence signals not just an increase in armed confrontations but a breakdown in the very mechanisms meant to constrain conflict, rendering dehumanization a routine tool of power, as demonstrated in the following. The global epidemic of violence will continue to haunt us for generations at unfathomable cost in lives and treasure unless we recognize its scope and invest in the Herculean efforts needed to start mitigating this plague. The UN and democracies must be at the forefront of this campaign, which captures precisely what these thinkers warned us against: a world where violence fills the vacuum left by the collapse of legitimate authority.
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United Nations human rights experts are urging Equatorial Guinea to stop plans to deport migrants and asylum seekers to countries where they face torture, political persecution, violence, or death. Rights groups warn that vulnerable people transferred by the United States are now trapped in one of the world’s most repressive authoritarian states without legal protections or safety guarantees. Some deportees reportedly include individuals previously granted protection from removal because of credible fears of persecution in their home countries. Human rights experts stress that international law prohibits returning people to places where their lives or freedom are at risk. Human dignity and protection must never be sacrificed for political deportation policies.
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