In the past five years in Afghanistan, there have been impressive gains in key health indicators, and a dramatic decrease in infant and child mortality rates due to the efforts of the Afghan Ministry of Public Health, with the support of the United States and the international community. Now many more Afghan women survive pregnancy and childbirth. These dramatic improvements serve as a good reminder to the international community that with sound investments to tackle Afghanistan's still-daunting humanitarian and development needs, progress has been and will continue to be achieved.
Today, I had the honor of joining with the Afghan Minister of Public Health, Dr. Suraya Dalil, who has a very impressive resume, working most recently at UNICEF, to sign a Memorandum of Understanding that serves as another step forward for Afghanistan. In the Memorandum, our countries have… more »
At the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, as we commemorate International Women's Day and Women's History Month, we recall the struggle of women in the United States to gain equal nationality rights as we seek to promote women's equal right to nationality in other countries around the world. Less than a century ago, discrimination against women in U.S. nationality law threatened women's dignity, broke apart their families, blocked their political participation, and undermined their livelihoods. Today, this insidious inequality persists in at least 30 countries around the world.
The story of Ethel Mackenzie illustrates this struggle here in the United States in the early 20th century. She was a native-born American citizen and resident of San Francisco who was active in the women's suffrage movement and participant in California's voter registration drive.… more »
This month Americans welcomed the three millionth refugees since 1975, helping them build new lives, homes, and communities in all 50 states. The United States is proud of its history of welcoming immigrants and refugees.
The 1980s saw primarily refugees resettling in the United States from Vietnam, Laos, and the Soviet Union. The 1990s brought large numbers of Bosnians as war engulfed the former Yugoslavia. In the 21st century, we welcomed refugees from Burma, Bhutan, Iran, Iraq and Somalia, among others, reflecting a more diverse and expansive refugee resettlement program.
Historically the United States has provided protection to such well-known individuals as former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Madeline Albright, Nobel Prize winner Albert Einstein, performer Gloria Estafan, and marathoner Mebrahtom Keflezighi.
Update: You can watch the event in the video player above and read the transcript of Secretary Clinton's remarks here.
On Thursday, February 16, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will host and deliver remarks at an event commemorating the Ninth Anniversary of the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) at the Department of State. The event will be streamed live on DipNote at 1:00 p.m. EST.
Following the Secretary, Representative Joe Crowley (NY-07) will also deliver remarks. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues Melanne Verveer will then moderate a panel discussion with leading experts and activists dedicated to the global effort to eradicate… more »
Today, on the Ninth Annual International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation, we stand in solidarity with men and women who are working to address and prevent this practice that takes place in many countries around the world. Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) occurs across cultures and religions, although no religion mandates the procedure. It is a practice rooted in beliefs about the “dangers” of women's sexuality, and involves a rite of passage into adulthood that has extremely detrimental consequences on the health and overall well-being of women and girls subjected to it.
It is estimated that 100 to 140 million women globally have undergone this procedure and three million girls are at risk every year. Cutting is often performed by untrained practitioners, employing no anesthesia and often using such instruments as broken glass,… more »
As one makes the final approach into Kiziba Refugee Camp, located at more than 2,000 meters above sea level in the verdant hills above Kibuye town in western Rwanda, you are treated to spectacular views of the shimmering waters of Lake Kivu several hundred meters below. The camp, home to 18,950 registered refugees who fled fighting in the eastern portion of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is divided into 10 neighborhoods, each divided into five villages which include approximately 70 houses. Refugees live in detached family houses of 4.5 x 3.5m built with wooden poles with the sides covered with mud and the roofs made from plastic sheeting. Kiziba is well managed by the Government of Rwanda (GoR) with technical and financial assistance from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and several non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including the American Refugee Committee (ARC). ARC has embarked… more »
With an estimated 40 million displaced people worldwide, up to 12 million who do not have citizenship to any country, and some 10.5 million refugees around the globe, the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) assists persecuted and uprooted people through our support to international organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and by advocating for their protection through humanitarian diplomacy. From the Arab Awakening to the crisis in the Horn of Africa, global political upheaval and conflict have presented many humanitarian challenges, and as 2012 begins, I'd like to take a moment to share a few examples of the work we did last year.
Refugee Admissions: The United States welcomed more than 56,000 refugees… more »
May 23: The State Department, through its office of the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), is pleased to announce $1.5 million in funding to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to support open governance and political participation in the Middle East and North Africa. more »
May 23: Today, Russia was invited to join the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) at a ceremony hosted by its parent body, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. ã more »
![An Afghan doctor checks on a newly born baby at the Malalai Maternity Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, in November 2011. [AP File Photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0425_Afghan_Doctor_Baby_m.jpg)
![A child, daughter of an activist, looks on as women mark International Women's Day in Colombo, Sri Lanka, March 8, 2012. [AP File Photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0308_womens_day_m.jpg)
![Vietnamese refugees wave before their departure for the United States, at Manila's International Airport on Sept. 26, 2005. [AP File Photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0227_refugees_us_m.jpg)
![A Masai girl holds a protest sign during the anti-Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) run in Kilgoris, Kenya, in 2007. [AP File Photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0206_stop_fgm_m.jpg)
![Democratic Republic of Congo refugees at Kiziba camp volunteer their time to beautify the common area in their neighborhood, November 2011. [State Department photo by Greg Shaw/Public Domain]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0109_drc_refugees_m.jpg)
![Water center in Dolo Kobe, Ethiopia, 2011 [State Department photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0102_prm_water_center_m.jpg)
