UN envoy for Libya resigns; older women’s rights forgotten by the General Assembly; UN staff’s dependents to leave Ethiopia. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. UN headquarters was closed on Nov. 25 for the
Nine months ago, Myanmar witnessed the demise of what was still the beginning of a slow transition to a democracy. In the early morning hours of Feb. 1, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and his fellow generals seized power in a well-orchestrated coup d’état. Soon after, the junta began rolling out a campaign of repression
The images are stark: In India, Hindu widows who are considered burdens by their families are being abandoned at temples on the banks of sacred rivers. In Ethiopia, homeless older women evicted by their relatives sleep on the steps of a cathedral; many others shelter on the doorsteps of places of worship of all faiths
BERLIN — As the daughter of Iraqi political refugees, Reem Alabali-Radovan has always felt that she would go into politics, though she imagined herself playing a background role. That thinking changed two years ago, when a far-right extremist killed nine people with migrant backgrounds at several locations in Hanau, Germany. “The people he killed looked
COP26 ends on a teary note; an Indigenous activist expounds on Colombia’s failing peace; UN personnel released from detention in Ethiopia. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. This week, PassBlue’s investigation into the International
Women have a right to participate in public and political life and the work of international organizations under the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, or Cedaw. This right extends to membership in all UN bodies, including the 10 committees that are meant to help countries protect international
Celia Umenza, an Indigenous leader who has survived three attacks on her life while advocating for the self-determination of Indigenous, Afro-descendant and peasant communities in the northern Cauca region of Colombia, recently told the United Nations Security Council that its bears some responsibility for the rising violence against human-rights defenders in her country. Umenza, 53,
GLASGOW, Scotland — COP26 president Alok Sharma held back tears as he accepted India’s last-minute motion to weaken the summit’s pledge to “phase out” coal. Sharma had been saying for months that he wanted COP26 to “consign coal to history.” And until India insisted otherwise at the eleventh hour, it looked like the summit might
PassBlue probes the global body granting licenses to mine the deep seas; UN staff detained in Ethiopia; global famine rises. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. This week, Mexico’s president proposes a plan to
Adversarial data manipulation is the nuclear weapon of the 21st century. New techniques to conduct offensive cyberoperations could corrupt the integrity of datasets in voter registration systems as well as political and electoral management databases. This is just one example of how “data poisoning” — when data is manipulated to deceive — poses a risk
GLASGOW, Scotland — It’s an article of faith in United States political and media circles that American leadership is essential to global climate progress. That message was repeated Tuesday at the United Nations climate conference, COP26, as speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and a delegation of 16 fellow Congressional Democrats congratulated
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known as Amlo for his initials, called on the United Nations to “wake up from its slumber” and support the creation of a mechanism to end poverty for 750 million people worldwide. In his first visit to the UN, on Nov. 9, López Obrador said the proposal could be
On the seafloor, anemones with eight-foot-long tentacles live alongside blind crabs that cultivate food in their arm hair, sharks with glow-in-the-dark bellies and glass sponges that have been thriving since before the invention of the wheel. “Because of the lack of light and the fact that creatures do need to see each other to eat
COP26 opens with a foreboding announcement from the UN secretary-general; peacekeepers shot by the presidential guard in the Central African Republic; Mexico’s agenda on the Security Council. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. This
The Taliban are back in power in Afghanistan, and the hard-won gains women have made in the country are at risk. The situation is dire for all Afghans. The country is on the brink of starvation, and in recognition of this urgent need, more than $1 billion has been pledged to provide humanitarian assistance to
It is not news that morale in the American State Department hit new lows during the Trump administration, under a president who despised and insulted the institutions and people engaged in international affairs. On Oct. 27, however, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking at the United States Foreign Service Institute to diplomats, members of Congress
Mexico has only one chance in its two-year term to shine as president of the Security Council, and it’s this month. While all eyes are now focusing on Glasgow, Scotland, and the United Nations-led COP26 meeting on climate change, Mexico aims to bring at least one national issue to the attention of the Security Council
Just days before the COP26 environment summit in Glasgow, Scotland, three of the United Nations’ lead agencies on climate and development each published alarming reports. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) produced evidence to show that greenhouse gases reached a new record high in 2020. Concentrations of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere
A coup in Khartoum; global carbon emissions revert to pre-Covid levels; a new UN envoy is named for Myanmar. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. This week, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres unveiled a
The Taliban’s dramatic takeover of Afghanistan in August sparked a predictable outpouring of angst and argument as to why it happened despite the massive, two-decade effort to prevent that result. Much of the commentary focused on the supposed failures of nation- and state-building. It is important now to take stock of these concepts and to
It is now 30 years since the United Nations referendum mission for Western Sahara, known as Minurso, was created, and I was one of the original staff members. Starting in 1971, Sahrawi students in Morocco started a movement for the independence of Spanish Sahara. The Sahrawi are the Indigenous people of the western region of
PassBlue is a nonprofit, independent women-led media company that covers foreign affairs and the United Nations with a focus on women’s issues and the impact of major world powers on ordinary citizens. We are strongly committed to high-quality original reporting, and our team strives to ensure that these powers are accountable for their actions and decisions.
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