Barbara Crossette

Barbara Crossette is the senior consulting editor and writer for PassBlue and the United Nations correspondent for The Nation. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She has also contributed to the Oxford Handbook on the United Nations.

Previously, Crossette was the UN bureau chief for The New York Times from 1994 to 2001 and previously its chief correspondent in Southeast Asia and South Asia. She is the author of "So Close to Heaven: The Vanishing Buddhist Kingdoms of the Himalayas," "The Great Hill Stations of Asia" and a Foreign Policy Association study, "India Changes Course," in the Foreign Policy Association's "Great Decisions 2015."

Crossette won the George Polk award for her coverage in India of the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and the 2010 Shorenstein Prize for her writing on Asia.

Israeli Campaign in Germany Blocks Award to Navi Pillay, a Renowned Rights Leader

It was billed as a grand ceremony staged by the United Nations Association of Germany to award its biennial Otto Hahn Peace Medal to Navi Pillay, marking her decades of groundbreaking work in human rights and international criminal law, including …

 

Born Under Apartheid, Navi Pillay Has Climbed to Global Heights in Promoting Human-Rights Law

Nations of the world have taken giant steps in recent decades to build international structures and strengthen institutions to deal with mass human-rights abusers. At almost every stage, Navi Pillay, a South African lawyer, was there, advancing the rights of …

 

Ukraine Boosts Its Campaign to Find Children That Russia Has Abducted

Amid mounting reports of Ukrainian children being forcibly deported to Russia during Moscow’s brutal war against the country and its culture, savvy Ukrainian technocrats are launching a tool to fight back in cyberspace. An interactive public website will soon go …

 

Regional Rifts in Southeast Asia Stall Action on Myanmar as Atrocities Soar

Among governments and international organizations worldwide there is a refrain that the catastrophic collapse of Myanmar is a regional problem to be solved primarily by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The 10-member group, known as Asean, remains deeply split, …

 

Reporting in Afghanistan: Listen, Ask Questions. You Are Not the Story, an Award-Winning Journalist Says

Kathy Gannon never wanted to be a journalist. That changed when she was urged by a journalist brother to give the profession a try. She became a successful reporter and editor of local newspapers in Ontario and British Columbia. With …
 

In Russia’s War, Ukraine’s Cultural Strengths Are Now Targets

Maria Shust, director of the 56-year-old Ukrainian Museum, in New York City, above. Putin is not only demolishing Ukraine’s infrastructure and murdering civilians but it is also singling out artists and arts institutions because, as Shust said in an interview, …
 

India’s Stance on Ukraine and Where Modi’s Geopolitics Go Next

In India, a country of probing and often rambunctious political debate, another chapter in the “who we are” story has started in the wake of what President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine is calling a Russian “war of annihilation” of his …

 

Rebeca Grynspan: No Woman Will Be Marginalized at Unctad

Rebeca Grynspan, the first woman and first Latin American to lead the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, has a lot of work to do. The organization, founded in 1964 as a standing committee, now has 195 member nations. …

 

Estonia’s Leader Stands Out as She Grapples With Europe’s Crisis

Prime Minister Kaja Kallas of Estonia, a small Baltic nation with a tragic history of living with Russia, has become a leading European voice demanding that no breathing space or second chances be given to Vladimir Putin as his troops …
 

In Barbados: A Break With Royal Britain While Looking Toward Africa

At a moment past midnight on Nov. 30, the island nation of Barbados severed its last direct links to colonial Britain and became a republic to the celebratory music of brass bands and Caribbean steel drums. Queen Elizabeth II, who …

 

The New UN Envoy for Myanmar Gets Its Neighbors and the Wider Region Talking

A year after the Burmese military overthrew the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, horrifying statistics of death, torture, detention and disappearance of civilians continue to mount. As of Jan. 19, according to the Assistance Association for Political …

 

More Female Judges Are Named to Top Courts, Yet Brutality Against Women Persists

For decades, amid genocidal wars and gender violence that tore apart the lives and bodies of girls and women, Denis Mukwege, facing repeated threats to his own life, worked as a medical doctor in poor, broken communities in the eastern …

 

Rural Taliban Accept a Swedish Plan to Keep Educating Girls in Afghanistan

Far from Kabul in rural Afghanistan, where an economic crisis and a bitterly cold winter threaten starvation, communities with few resources have been reopening schools for girls up to grade 12. Collectively, these add up to an expansion of girls’ …
 

Action to Protect Older Women’s Rights Has Stalled in the UN General Assembly

The images are stark: In India, Hindu widows who are considered burdens by their families are being abandoned at temples on the banks of sacred rivers. In Ethiopia, homeless older women evicted by their relatives sleep on the steps of …
 

US Envoys Encouraged to Voice Dissent in New Diplomacy Policies

It is not news that morale in the American State Department hit new lows during the Trump administration, under a president who despised and insulted the institutions and people engaged in international affairs. On Oct. 27, however, Secretary of State …

 

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