COPENHAGEN — In her book, “The Second Sex,” Simone de Beauvoir argued that one is not born but rather becomes a woman. De Beauvoir emphasized that destiny is not a cosmic force but a human choice, a result of circumstances and culture. It follows that circumstances and social determinants dictate a woman’s role in politics …
Continuing crises in Myanmar and Ethiopia; the US envoy to the UN’s first week; why Britain has held the top humanitarian job for so long; and women’s gains in the African Union. You are reading This Week @UN, a summary of the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from the UN spokesperson’s …
When she arrived in Turtle Bay the morning of Feb. 25, a day after being sworn in as United States ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield didn’t hide the tight timeline she had inherited in her new post, which includes president of the Security Council in March: “I’m not only hitting the ground running, …
LONDON — Should the world’s top humanitarian official be chosen through a meritocratic selection process open to candidates from any country, or should the choice be restricted to a single nationality and nomination by that government? The answer is obvious — but may be the opposite of what is about to happen again during the …
Former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a memoir due out in June, is done concealing his anger over Donald Trump’s bad behavior on the international stage. The UN has always tried hard to maintain strong ties with the United States, its biggest dues-payer and the world’s leading superpower. And Ban, it seems, was careful …
The African Union, living up to its longtime promise to improve the gender balance in its leadership, has elected the first woman as deputy chair of the organization’s operating commission. She is Monique Nsanzabaganwa, an economist who was deputy governor of the National Bank of Rwanda and earlier Rwanda’s minister of trade and industry. Nsanzabaganwa, …
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States envoy to the UN, starts her job; Iran’s troubling nuclear developments; UN-convoy murders in the Congo. You are reading This Week @UN, a summary of the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from the UN spokesperson’s press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. As International Women’s Day …
VIENNA — The International Atomic Energy Agency reported in a confidential document, seen by PassBlue, that Iran has added 17.6 kilograms of uranium, enriched up to 20 percent, to its total stockpile. The enrichment process, which had been announced by Iran in January, is occurring at Iran’s underground Fordow nuclear facility. The 20 percent enrichment …
António Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, announced early last month that he would seek a second five-year term, starting in January 2022, as the organization’s highest official, “if it would be the will of the member states.” The respective presidents of the General Assembly and the Security Council have since defined the “selection and appointment process,” …
It was a tough and discouraging year, 2020, for women around the world as they prepare for the 12-day annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women. It begins at the United Nations — mostly virtually — on March 15. Last year, it was canceled, though a large UN forum commemorating the 25th …
VIENNA — Iran has told the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, that it will significantly limit inspections of its nuclear facilities as of Feb. 23. Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director-general of the Vienna-based agency, traveled to Tehran over the weekend to meet with Iranian officials to try to preserve at least …
The United States jumps back into the Paris Agreement; the Security Council tackles climate-security risks (for now); a new UN envoy’s letter from the past returns to haunt him. You are reading This Week @UN, a summary of the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from the UN spokesperson’s press briefings, PassBlue …
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is scheduled to preside over a Security Council meeting virtually on climate and security risks on Feb. 23. The British introduced the topic to the Council in 2007, but with Washington’s 180-degree turn toward climate change action and certain new Security Council members that are climate-friendly, 2021 could be the …
A controversial letter written in 2019 by a Norwegian diplomat who is now a leading United Nations envoy in the Middle East, vouching for an Israeli billionaire’s role in the release of a Norwegian-British citizen sentenced to death in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was recently published by The Norwegian Business Daily (Dagens Næringsliv/DN). …
Even with vaccines steadily rolling out in many countries, the end of the Covid-19 pandemic is hardly on the horizon. As countries continue to weave in and out of shutdowns, curfews, virus variants and new deadly waves, the travel and tourism industries are being devastated. In the first 10 months of global shutdowns, tourism worldwide fell more than …
The US returns to the Human Rights Council; atrocities documented in the Mali conflict; a woman declares her candidacy for UN secretary-general. You are reading This Week @UN, a summary of the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from the UN spokesperson’s press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. In case …
Arora Akanksha, a 34-year-old staff member who works as an audit coordinator for the United Nations Development Program, has announced her candidacy for the job of UN secretary-general, so far the only person to challenge António Guterres, the incumbent. Guterres announced in January that he would run for another five-year term, which begins in January 2022. …
Five-hundred-thousand Rwandans were killed in the course of 100 days in 1994. In its “media case,” the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 2003 held nationalist Hutu political leaders and media accountable for the false propaganda and promotion of ethnic hatred that led to the genocide of the Tutsi population in the country, convicting the two …
GENEVA — In May 2016, Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary-general, received an unexpected request from a fellow Nobel peace laureate, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s civilian leader and state counselor. She asked him to lead a commission to advise the government on the stability and development of Rakhine State, a region in …
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — A recent United Nations investigation has documented years of grave human-rights violations, including war crimes and other atrocities, in Mali that have gone unpunished as the UN peacekeeping mission there struggles to stabilize the troubled West African nation. A highly detailed, 336-page report on the abuses, obtained in full by PassBlue …
A coup staged in Myanmar; the UN’s first unofficial feminist dies; Aleksei Navalny’s sentencing. You are reading This Week @UN, a summary of the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from the UN spokesperson’s press briefings, original PassBlue reporting and other sources. Sunday, Jan. 31 • Margaret C. Snyder, the founding …
