When President Obama took office he published a letter to his daughters, “What I Want for You and Every Child in America.” He spoke about righting wrongs and making America better; wanting his children and others to grow up in a world with no limits on their dreams, with schools worthy of their potential.

Speculation in Washington is Susan Rice, America's Ambassador to the United Nations, may resign in the coming weeks. Embattled by a candidacy for Secretary of State that went awry, Rice has suffered a confidence and credibility lost that will hinder her ability to be an effective representative for America at the UN.

People often recall when they learned Santa Claus wasn’t real. In Iowa, this innocence-lost moment apparently happens when children learn Betty Crocker isn’t real — or so I was told at the 10th annual Preventing Child Abuse Conference last week in Des Moines.

Peter Dalglish, a Canadian and former senior United Nations (UN) official, has been charged with child rape in the Republic of Nepal. The maximum punishment has been requested as Dalglish remains in jail, since his April 8th arrest, awaiting a final hearing.

I never understood the term "limousine liberal." I grew up down a dirt road in rural Maine. During mud-season we parked our car where the pavement ended and walked the mile to our house. Limousines had no role in my childhood. Liberalism, yes, to an extreme, but limos, I had no clue about limos.

The scandal involving Secret Service personnel and US military elites who engaged prostitutes while assigned to protect our president and our national security is so much more than a misguided "boys-will-be-boys" incident. It is a national security breach that exposes President Obama's leadership deficit.

Elections in America are now big business rather than public service. They resemble generous feeding troughs for political gatekeepers to slop up easy money by shaping candidates, predicting elections, and informing Washington power brokers what the "average" voter wants.

Maybe Canada didn’t get the memo, but blaming Russia for failed leadership on Syria isn’t sticking. The only ‘sick joke’ is Canada’s failure to enforce the international moral norm of the responsibility to protect in Syria.

August has been a monumental month in the fight to end impunity for child predators.

Penny Mordaunt, Britain’s Secretary of State for International Development, announced a $13 million dollar (USD) humanitarian sex offenders registry at the International Safeguarding Summit in London this week. Slap-dash, with, apparently, little thought to how predators operate, this latest effort to safeguard the international aid sector was denounced as “rudimentary” and “haphazard” by Code Blue of Aids-Free World.

Sexual abuse in the humanitarian sector has become widespread and systemic with little recognition of the problem. It's time to lift the lid.

Joel Davis was arrested in New York last week as he made plans to rape  children of a “father” trafficking his eight-year-old daughter and his girlfriend’s toddler. The “father” was an undercover investigator.

The Harvey Weinstein scandal and subsequent #MeToo revolution is rattling institutions and outing predatory men in various professions.  In the humanitarian aid sector Oxfam is in the #AidToo spotlight.

International aid agencies are facing scrutiny like never before. As distrust and lurid sexual abuse scandals emerge, can anything be done to salvage the sector?

Larry Nassar, a now former medical professor at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor, has finally been held to account for the prolific crimes he committed against many children over decades. What is less discussed is his December 2016 arrest on federal child pornography charges.

Dylan Farrow has moved the American conversation on silence and impunity for sexual abuse. In an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times, she describes how her stepfather, film director Woody Allen, groomed and raped her when she was seven years old.

This time it was to be a woman’s turn. But no. Not yet. Still not yet. The United Nations (UN) rung in the New Year with another white man, António Guterres from Portugal, taking over the reigns as secretary-general.

When I joined the United Nations (UN) as a human rights specialist, decades ago, I was elated that I might contribute to the ideals of the UN Charter ; a global agreement designed to improve human dignity through peace and equality. Now, as I consider the UN’s new Secretary-General António Guterres, my thoughts are occupied by all the broken promises and people silenced trying to report abuse.

NEW YORK TIMES -- It's a perennial problem. War occurs. Women are raped. Reporters flood the war zone looking for raped women. War subsides. The international community and the journalists lose interest in women's issues. Women continue to be raped. No one cares.

Rumors are flying in Washington. Were White House staff involved with prostitutes in Colombia? In advance of the long awaited Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s Inspector General (IG)’s report on the Columbia prostitution scandal, many in DC are wondering if the Inspector General’s report might answer this question.

Allen W. Dulles, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) wrote in “The Craft of Intelligence,” “sex and hard-headed intelligence operations rarely mix well.” Perhaps the boys at the Pentagon need a refresher course. This past week, the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency warned its staff not to view porn on U.S. government computers. The Pentagon also released a report on April’s Secret Service Colombian scandal. The two are connected.

Mr. Holder was up on the Hill last week testifying before Congress, again, about the Department of Justice’s gun-tracking Fast and Furious operation. There are allegations of lies and obstruction of justice committed by department employees and claims that the attorney general himself is covering for his staff rather than upholding the U.S. Constitution. Mr. Holder’s recent testimony caused Rep. Paul A. Gosar, Arizona Republican, to declare Mr. Holder is unfit to be America’s attorney general.

WASHINGTON — The Washington Beltway has an odd effect on people. Those who live too long inside are relatively clueless about life beyond. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the current Democratic leadership.