Evelyn Leopold, a freelance writer, was bureau chief for Reuters at the United Nations for 17 years until recently. At Reuters she was a news editor for North America, the editor for the company’s Africa region, and associate editor worldwide. She was a correspondent in London and in Bonn, Germany as well as in New York and in Washington. She was the recipient of an Alicia Patterson Fellowship and co-authored a book (in German) on women in East Germany. She is chair of the Dag Hammarskjöld Scholarship Fund for Journalists, was awarded the gold medal in 2000 for UN reporting by the UN Correspondents Association, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Blog Entries by Evelyn Leopold

Emma Thompson, Helen Bamber: Finding the Silent Scream (Updated)

Posted November 17, 2009 | 02:55 AM (EST)


Torture victims often lose their voice twice: first during the torture itself and then when no one listens to their ordeal, Actress Emma Thompson says.

Thompson, an Academy Award winner, and Helen Bamber, who heads a foundation dedicated to survivors of torture and trafficking, spoke to a luncheon of...

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Emma Thompson, Helen Bamber: Finding the Silent Scream

1 Comments | Posted November 16, 2009 | 03:33 PM (EST)


Torture victims often lose their voice twice: first during the torture itself and then when no one listens to their ordeal, Actress Emma Thompson says.

Thompson, an Academy Award winner, and Helen Bamber, who heads a foundation dedicated to survivors of torture and trafficking, spoke to a luncheon of...

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UN Starts World's First Arms Trade Treaty: Will It Work?

5 Comments | Posted October 31, 2009 | 01:04 AM (EST)


At least 2,000 people a day are killed with weapons by criminal gangs, bandits, terrorists, insurgents -- and their own governments. In Africa alone $18 billion is consumed through armed conflict, about the same amount as non-military foreign aid.

In an effort to regulate the arms trade, UN members...

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Cuban Vote at UN: "Here We Go Again"

44 Comments | Posted October 28, 2009 | 10:34 PM (EST)


UNITED NATIONS - For the 18th consecutive year, the UN General Assembly condemned the US economic embargo against Cuba. The 187 countries voting in favor were friends and foes, democracies and dictatorships.

But this was the first vote since President Obama took office, and everyone listened for hints of change....

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Iran Talks: Shadows of Iraq, Legitimacy of Regime

23 Comments | Posted October 16, 2009 | 10:32 AM (EST)


Two elephants are and were in the room during negotiations on Iran's nuclear ambitions: the rigged elections that brought President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power and the shadow of Iraq in overestimating Tehran's weapons of mass destruction.

Obviously the Iraq and Iran situations differ. Iraq's Saddam Hussein did have chemical and...

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Update: Gaddafi Hijacks UN General Assembly Podium

21 Comments | Posted September 23, 2009 | 05:43 PM (EST)


In a world filled with long-winded political leaders bereft of content, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi excelled in a performance of his own.

Only a few blocks from Broadway, Colonel Gaddafi rambled on for more than an hour and a half, shuffling through his notes, tearing out pages of the U.N....

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Whirlwind Obama at the UN; Dictators Busy Also

6 Comments | Posted September 21, 2009 | 11:21 AM (EST)


UNITED NATIONS - President Obama makes his debut appearance at the United Nations this week, attending and presiding over a breathless array of events far beyond the usual schedule for U.S. presidents. A standing ovation is not out of the question among the world body's 192 member stations, drowning out...

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China Mounts Defense of Myanmar after Junta Pledges to Free Some Political Prisoners

1 Comments | Posted July 15, 2009 | 08:32 AM (EST)


United Nations - Beijing broke from its usual uncontroversial statements on Myanmar (Burma) and told the West to stop "picking" on the ruling junta and stop treating it with "arrogance and prejudice."

In a U.N. Security Council session on Myanmar, China's deputy U.N. ambassador, Liu Zhenmin, made clear that Beijing,...

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UN Chief Ends Burma Visit: No Results Yet

3 Comments | Posted July 4, 2009 | 10:58 AM (EST)


(update)
UNITED NATIONS - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited Myanmar (Burma) for the July 3-4 weekend in what turned out to be a major political gamble -- with no discernible results so far.

Ban is probably the only world figure of stature who can meet the country's reclusive 76-year...

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UN Chief Visits Burma: A Political Gamble

2 Comments | Posted July 1, 2009 | 11:56 PM (EST)


(Update)

UNITED NATIONS - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited Myanmar (Burma) for the July 3-4 weekend in what both friends and detractors view as a major political gamble. With an agenda that asks the ruling military junta to open its doors to national "reconciliation" (which would end their solitary rule),...

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North Korea U.N. Resolution: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

12 Comments | Posted June 12, 2009 | 07:23 AM (EST)


UPDATE

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution that would appreciably tighten weapons and financial sanctions against North Korea. Some analysts dismiss anything that passes through the United Nations as useless while others say sanctions won't work and only intense diplomacy has a chance.
...

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North Korea -- Waiting for China in the U.N. Security Council

28 Comments | Posted May 28, 2009 | 12:50 AM (EST)


United Nations -- Another nuclear test, missiles and threats from North Korea and the world is waiting for the Obama administration's reaction. But unless China takes firm steps, action from Washington can fall flat.

The first stop, before any bilateral action, is the U.N. Security Council, which reflects the national...

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The Mantra of 20 nuclear Weapon States -- Why 20?

3 Comments | Posted May 26, 2009 | 04:14 PM (EST)


Even one more nuclear-armed nation is too much. But since the 1960s statesmen, officials and politicians have used the number 20 - as in "there may be 10 nuclear powers instead of 4, and by 1975, 15 or 20." (President John F. Kennedy on March 12, 1963).

And in...

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Sri Lanka: UN Security Council Makes Its First Move

13 Comments | Posted May 13, 2009 | 08:00 PM (EST)


UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council finally spoke out on the tragedy in Sri Lanka, telling the government to stop firing heavy artillery at civilians in a war zone and the Tamil Tiger rebels to "lay down their arms" and allow non-combatants to leave the conflict area.

But the...

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Sri Lanka: West Appalled by Bloodbath but Action is Scarce

9 Comments | Posted May 12, 2009 | 03:53 AM (EST)


UNITED NATIONS - After the largest reported attack on civilians in Sri Lanka over the weekend, the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Austria condemned the "bloodbath" and appealed for the United Nations Security Council to put the conflict on its agenda.

Meanwhile, four non-governmental groups (Human Rights Watch, Amnesty...

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North Korea: Parsing UN Security Council Action

Posted April 13, 2009 | 10:35 PM (EST)


Thrown into a quandary, the United Nations Security Council came up with an American-Chinese compromise statement that condemned North Korea's rocket launch and pledged to revive a blacklist of Pyongyang firms, banks and people.

The outcome of a week of intense diplomacy was a partial victory for President Obama, who...

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North Korea: What's Next? Ask China

Posted April 5, 2009 | 09:42 PM (EST)


By Evelyn Leopold, at the United Nations

Until China agrees to tougher sanctions or other ways to discourage North Korea's military ambitions, the United States and its allies will have an uphill battle other than putting pressure on Beijing itself. After three hours of consultation in the UN Security Council...

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