About the Author: María Otero serves as Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs.
It's about 10'clock in the morning, and the sun overhead is relentless. On the northern Kenyan border, the refugee camps that make up Dadaab are a combination of orange sand and brush. These camps were built in 1990 to hold 90,000 refugees fleeing neighboring Somalia. Today, more than 266,000 refugees live here. What was once supposed to be a temporary escape is now “home” to three generations of families. And the influx of Somalis shows no sign of slowing.
Visiting the camps' schools offers a small hint of hope. Hundreds of children are crowded into cement rooms. Despite… more »
No matter what country women around the world live in, no matter what religion they are, how much money they earn, or what age they are, they have at least one thing in common: They are potential victims of violence. Violence against women is endemic around the globe.
Violence can affect girls and women at every point in their lives, from sex-selective abortion and infanticide, to inadequate healthcare and nutrition given to girls, to genital mutilation, child… more »
Ten years ago, the United States passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and President Obama recently declared January as Human Trafficking and Slavery Awareness and Prevention Month. On February 3, 2010, Secretary Clinton hosted the President's Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking Persons. During this meeting, task force members discussed the work that each U.S. agency is conducting to combat modern slavery, and to make measured progress against every form of exploitation, including forced labor, peonage, and sexual servitude.
Ambassador-at-Large for the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking Luis Cdebaca said, "[T]o confront modern slavery, we must act in a manner commensurate to the sophistication and tenacity of our adversaries, the traffickers, while honoring the bravery and humanity of… more »
On February 5, Secretary Clinton spoke about the situation in Northern Ireland. The Secretary said:
"Today is a very positive day for Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland has taken another important step toward a full and lasting peace. Its political leaders have agreed on a roadmap and timeline for the devolution of policing and justice powers, and they've taken other productive steps as well. The accord they announced today will help consolidate the hard-won gains of the past decade.
"Now, this has not been an easy road. There were plenty of bumps along the way. I have been in regular contact with the parties during the past year and, especially since my trip to Belfast in October, and I know that the way forward was far from clear. So I really want to applaud all of the parties for ultimately choosing negotiations… more »
About the Author: Ambassador Ertharin Cousin serves as the U.S. Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture.
Every day we get a little bit better at providing emergency food relief to more Haitian families. The United States leads this effort by being the largest contributor to the World Food Programme with 4 million ready to eat meals and more than $78 million. These efforts are succeeding in feeding more than 120,000 families per day directly from our distribution… more »
About the Author: Paul Mayer serves as the Consular Section Chief at the U.S. Consulate General in Montrèal. He served as Acting Consul-General at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince Haiti during the days following the January 2010 earthquake.
The news of the earthquake in Haiti hit me the same way the tsunami in Southeast Asia did: A tragic event that had happened far away. I donated money to the Red Cross, and even used the same credit card I'd used five years before. It hit much closer to home when I learned that an officer with whom I'd served in Montreal had been seriously injured at the U.S. Embassy… more »
About the Author: Arturo A. Valenzuela serves as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs.
The expression "building bridges" is a poetic way of describing the work of diplomats: creating durable connections with other cultures and governments to ensure good communication, facilitate exchange, and span gaps. And then there is the diplomatic work involved in literally building a physical bridge.
On January 11, Mexican President Felipe Calderon, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual, and other officials inaugurated the first new U.S.-Mexico border crossing in 10 years. The Anzalduas… more »
Over the past decade, global demand has spiked for soldiers, police officers, and diplomats to serve on international peacekeeping missions stabilizing some of the world's most challenging hotspots. A few weeks ago, I traveled to Egypt with Ted Tanoue, Deputy Director, Office of Peace Operations, Sanctions, and Counterterrorism, with the State Department's Bureau of International Organizations, where we met with U.S. peacekeeping partners from more than… more »
About the Authors: Tiffany Smith Licciardi and Linda G. Green serve in the Office of eDiplomacy in the Bureau of Information Resource Management.
The work of the Department of State is global and requires coordination of effort from Washington, our diplomatic offices abroad, our colleagues in the foreign affairs community and partners around the world. One of the programs that has changed the way we do business in the past few years is Diplopedia, the Department of State's online collaborative encyclopedia of foreign affairs information. Like the Internet's Wikipedia, Diplopedia is a wiki. It aims to draw… more »
Today, Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard C. Holbrooke and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack discussed the top non-security priority in Afghanistan -- agriculture. Redeveloping the agriculture sector is a critical part of the Obama Administration and President Karzai's strategy for the future of the country. Eighty percent of Afghans either make their living or their livelihoods from agriculture or something connected to agriculture.
Ambassador Holbrooke said, "Our goal is nothing less than to help Afghanistan restore its agricultural sector to the vibrant export economy that it once had."
Secretary Vilsack recently visited Afghanistan to see the progress being made in this important area. During his visit, Secretary Vilsack met with Afghanistan's Agriculture Minister… more »
DipNote is the official blog of the U.S. Department of State —a place to share stories, discuss experiences, and inspire new ideas on the important foreign policy issues of the day. more »
Haiti Earthquake
For information or inquiries about U.S. citizens in Haiti, please call 888-407-4747. Outside of the U.S. and Canada, call 202-501-4444. You may email inquiries to: Haiti-Earthquake@state.gov.
(Feb. 8): Since early December, agencies have worked to create their own webpages to serve as the gateway for each agencyâs implementation of the Open Government Directive. Full Text» State.gov/open» more »
Secretary Clinton (Feb. 4): "We are working in many difficult situations in every continent, but I think weâre being received in a positive way, which gives us a better chance to find common ground." Full Text» more »
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