Australian Delegate Elizabeth Reid at International Women's Year Conference at the United Nations

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Women against violence demonstration at the United Nations

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Mrs. Salvador Allende at the United Nations

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Germaine Greer at the United Nations

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Religious women demonstrate at the United Nations in support of Nuns becoming priests

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

United Nations women demonstration

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

United Nations interpreter at work

Inscription: Verso: Jeanette Morrison, simultaneous interpreter, United Nations

Woman wearing socks with female symbol at United Nations demonstration

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

NY police woman with other officers in front of the United Nations

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

International women gather in front of United Nations in hopes of stopping human trafficking in women. Later in the day they spoke to representatives at the United Nations

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Simultaneous Interpreter at the United Nations Jeanette Morrison

Inscriptions: Verso: [stamped] Photograph by Freda Leinwand. [463 West Street, Studio 229G, New York, NY 10014].

Interpreter at the United Nations

Inscriptions: Verso: [stamped] Photograph by Freda Leinwand. [463 West Street, Studio 229G, New York, NY 10014].

Interpreters at the United Nations

Inscriptions: Verso: [stamped] Photograph by Freda Leinwand. [463 West Street, Studio 229G, New York, NY 10014].

Equitable representation in councils: theory and an application to the United Nations Security Council

We analyze democratic equity in council voting games (CVGs). In a CVG, a voting body containing all members delegates decision-making to a (time-varying) subset of its members, as describes, e.g., the relationship between the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). We develop a theoretical framework for analyzing democratic equitability in CVGs at both the country and region levels, and for different assumptions regarding preference correlation. We apply the framework to evaluate the equitability of the UNSC, and the claims of those who seek to reform it. We find that the individual permanent members are overrepresented by between 21.3 times (United Kingdom) and 3.8 times (China) from a country-level perspective, while from a region perspective Eastern Europe is the most heavily overrepresented region with more than twice its equitable representation, and Africa the most heavily underrepresented. Our equity measures do not preclude some UNSC members from exercising veto rights, however.

The four general principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: the potential value of the approach in other areas of human rights law

At the outset of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Committee on the Rights of the Child identified four of its provisions (non-discrimination; best interests of the child as a primary consideration; life, survival and development; and participation) as ‘general principles’. This approach has shaped implementation of, advocacy for and the scholarship on the Convention. The use of general principles has the potential to make a significant contribution in other areas of human rights law provided that the principles are selected carefully and address the distinct issues at the root of potential rights violations for particular rights-holders.