Peter McCarey

Peter McCarey worked at the WHO from the Chernobyl disaster until the Ebola outbreak, 2014-2016. He is the author of "Collected Contraptions" (Manchester, Carcanet, 2011) and lives with his family in Geneva.

Peter McCarey

COVID-19

In Geneva’s Lockdown, Getting to Know Your Neighbors

May 7, 2020

by Peter McCarey

GENEVA — If your idea of normal is Glasgow or New York City, you might think, Geneva is in lockdown? How can they tell? In our building, a row of nine townhouses, it’s been sweet. Here’s an odd stat: three of the families have three daughters, no sons. There’s just one little boy, suitably timid, …

Covid-19

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COVID-19

Trump Disses the UN’s 75th Birthday

May 6, 2020

by Stephen Schlesinger

This fall, the United Nations will celebrate its 75th anniversary. This is a notable occasion. Most global security bodies have had short shelf lives. But the UN has shown an extraordinary durability — a tribute to how this body was conceived and fashioned during World War II by one of America’s great presidents, Franklin …

Child Soldiers, Covid-19, Secretary-General, Security Council, US-UN Relations

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COVID-19

E-Learning Is Nothing New for UN Peacekeepers, but Demand Is Up

May 5, 2020

by Susan Manuel

Covid-19 has forced educators from preschools to universities to create digital classrooms overnight. But at least one global community has been using e-learning for more than a decade. Tens of thousands of United Nations peacekeepers from Chile to Bangladesh to South Africa have long been using online courses to prepare for deployment to the …

Covid-19, UN Peacekeeping

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COVID-19

Canada, Ireland and Norway Wrap Up Their Campaigns for Security Council Seats as New Voting Methods Are Proposed

May 4, 2020

by Stéphanie Fillion

CHICOUTIMI, Canada — The Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, Marc-André Blanchard, told a Canadian newspaper in March “now is not the time to campaign for a Security Council seat,” as world diplomacy is being disrupted by the coronavirus and the United Nations headquarters remains physically closed for now. But the reality is there …

Covid-19, General Assembly, Security Council

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COVID-19

Dire Times in Beirut as Lebanon Faces Possible Collapse

May 2, 2020

by Sam Mattar

BEIRUT — In these dire times of the Covid-19 crisis, I am quarantined at home in the hills overlooking Beirut and the Mediterranean. I take comfort in the prospects of clear, clean skies, no longer tainted by the brown nitrogen-dioxide inversion on the horizon. I can finally breathe fresh air. The crowded protests of …

Covid-19, Health and Population

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COVID-19

Trump’s Break-Up With the WHO and the US Push for a Vaccine

May 1, 2020

by Irwin Arieff

Just how crazy is Donald Trump’s campaign to punish the World Health Organization over its apparent “China-centric” bias in the midst of a deadly pandemic? Let us count the ways. At the top of the list: It may contribute to a big setback for Trump himself. When the United States president announced on April …

Covid-19, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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COVID-19

Why the Head of the UN Pension Fund Resigned

April 28, 2020

by George G. Irving and Sugiyama Iutaka

In the middle of the coronavirus epidemic, the United Nations spokesperson announced that Sudhir Rajkumar resigned from his job as representative of the secretary-general for investment of the assets of the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund, effective March 31, 2020. The abruptness and lack of explanation in the March 29th announcement came as a surprise …

Covid-19, UN pension fund

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COVID-19

In Spain, a Strong Sense of Solidarity Drives Endurance in the Pandemic

April 27, 2020

by Susana Malcorra

MADRID — The first two cases of Covid-19 infections here were identified on Feb. 26, 2020. That day, 23 people had become infected in Spain in less than 24 hours. Three days later, the number was 80. From then on, Madrid rapidly became the city with the most cases in the country, and by …

Covid-19, Health and Population

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COVID-19

Is It a Crime to Mishandle a Public Health Response?

April 26, 2020

by David J. Scheffer

As the new coronavirus disease, Covid-19, continues to threaten lives and livelihoods around the world, many people are seeking to hold government and corporate leaders to account for their blunders during the pandemic. But in the United States and many other countries, public health malpractice is a relatively underdeveloped area of the law, and …

Covid-19, International Justice

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COVID-19

Suddenly, Singapore’s Coronavirus Cases Skyrocketed: Here’s Why

April 23, 2020

by Noeleen Heyzer

SINGAPORE — Singapore now has the highest number of Covid-19 cases in Southeast Asia, at 11,178, as of April 23. The daily coronavirus infection rate reached a new high of 1,426 as I write. Just over a month ago, Singapore, with 5.7 million people living in the limited space of 720 square kilometers (278 square …

Asia, Covid-19, Health and Population

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COVID-19

Where the Pandemic, the Environment and Gender Equality Meet: In Inger Andersen’s Home Office

April 22, 2020

by Nate Bernard

Inger Andersen is closing in on her first year as executive director of the United Nations Environment Program just as the Covid-19 crisis upends her agency’s work while also underscoring its critical need. “Never before have the mandate, mission and objectives of UNEP been more in focus,” she said in a recent interview, adding, …

Climate and Environment, Covid-19

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COVID-19

UN at 75: The Security Council Must Remember Why It Exists

April 21, 2020

by Mona Ali Khalil and Fred Carver

The United Nations is turning 75 this year. While the UN has so far successfully averted a third world war, the aggressions in Iraq, Ukraine and Syria remind us that interstate conflicts remain a real and present danger. The Security Council’s failure to resolve intrastate conflicts, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to …

Covid-19, Secretary-General, Security Council, UN75

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COVID-19

Covid-19 Could Shake Up Global Sanctions Regimes, UN Expert Says

April 20, 2020

by Stéphanie Fillion and Kacie Candela

During the last week of March, Hilal Elver, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food, was one of three high-level UN representatives to call for an easing of some sanctions to help alleviate the impact of the coronavirus. UN Secretary-General António Guterres sent a letter to G-20 countries asking them to …

Covid-19, Secretary-General, Security Council

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COVID-19

Kelly Craft Clarifies Her Worldview: Trump’s Word Reigns Supreme

April 17, 2020

by Irwin Arieff

What a difference a few weeks can make. At the end of March, Kelly Craft, President Trump’s top ambassador at the United Nations, insisted that midbattle against a dread disease sweeping the globe was no time for an international blame game. Just two weeks later, there she was, jumping on Trump’s blame-game bandwagon. What …

Covid-19, Security Council, US-UN Relations

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COVID-19

Sergio, Legendary UN Troubleshooter, Gets His Own Hollywood Biopic

April 16, 2020

by Dali ten Hove

The much-anticipated biopic among United Nations watchers, “Sergio,” a drama relating the tale of Sergio Vieira de Mello, opened today on Netflix. It features the actors Wagner Moura as Sergio and Ana de Armas as his partner, Carolina Larriera. Who was Sergio Vieira de Mello? And why is he the subject of a Hollywood …

Covid-19, UN Diplomats

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Peter McCarey

Peter McCarey

In Geneva’s Lockdown, Getting to Know Your Neighbors

Trump Disses the UN’s 75th Birthday

E-Learning Is Nothing New for UN Peacekeepers, but Demand Is Up

Canada, Ireland and Norway Wrap Up Their Campaigns for Security Council Seats as New Voting Methods Are Proposed

Dire Times in Beirut as Lebanon Faces Possible Collapse

Trump’s Break-Up With the WHO and the US Push for a Vaccine

Why the Head of the UN Pension Fund Resigned

In Spain, a Strong Sense of Solidarity Drives Endurance in the Pandemic

Is It a Crime to Mishandle a Public Health Response?

Suddenly, Singapore’s Coronavirus Cases Skyrocketed: Here’s Why

Where the Pandemic, the Environment and Gender Equality Meet: In Inger Andersen’s Home Office

UN at 75: The Security Council Must Remember Why It Exists

Covid-19 Could Shake Up Global Sanctions Regimes, UN Expert Says

Kelly Craft Clarifies Her Worldview: Trump’s Word Reigns Supreme

Sergio, Legendary UN Troubleshooter, Gets His Own Hollywood Biopic

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