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General Assembly

Trending UN News: Week Ending Dec. 2

• December 2, 2022

This week, we focus on the issues of intensifying violence in the Mideast raised separately by UN special envoys in the Security Council. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. This week, we zero …

Climate Change, General Assembly, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Migration, SDGs, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, US-UN Relations

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Trending UN News: Week Ending Nov. 25

• November 25, 2022

This week, we focus on climate commitments made at the just-concluded COP27 as well as the UN Environment Program honoring activists. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. This week, the UN Secretary-General António …

Africa, Climate Change, Gender Violence, General Assembly, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Middle East, This Week @UN, Ukraine-Russia War

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Navi Pillay, Who Leads a UN Rights Probe on Palestine and Israel, Hits Back on Slurs Against Her

Dulcie Leimbach

• November 23, 2022

Navi Pillay, who leads the United Nations Human Rights Council’s commission of inquiry on Palestine and Israel, has written to the president of the General Assembly about a “matter of significant concern” involving the Israeli ambassador at a public meeting in October at the UN. The letter, dated Nov. 21, 2022, was sent to …

General Assembly, Human Rights, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Secretary-General

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Will the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council Send a Strong Message to Iran?

Kourosh Ziabari

• November 22, 2022

Leaders of major democracies are intensifying their denunciations of the Iranian government for its continued brutal crackdown on the protests in the country, which are moving into their third month as Iran has issued four death sentences so far linked to demonstrations. Not only are countries levying new sanctions on individuals and entities implicated …

Asia, General Assembly, Human Rights, Middle East, Security Council

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Trending UN News: Week Ending Nov. 18

• November 18, 2022

It’s a sad one this week as two girls were beheaded in a camp in Syria. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. This week, we looked at the terrible news coming out of …

Africa, Climate Change, General Assembly, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, UN Peacekeeping

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Trending UN News: Week Ending Nov. 4

• November 4, 2022

There’s a new sheriff in town! This week, UN Secretary-General António Guterres appointed a new man to lead the Department of Peace Operations as the police adviser. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. This …

Climate Change, General Assembly, Refugees, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, Ukraine-Russia War

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Trending UN News: Week Ending Oct. 28

• October 28, 2022

It was UN day this week! Hurray!! We saw schoolchildren around the world celebrate the creation of the organization on Oct. 24, 1945, and we also took a cue from the message of the UN secretary-general. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is gathered …

Climate Change, Disarmament, General Assembly, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, US-UN Relations

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Serious UN Reform: Going Beyond Minor Fixes?

Natalie Samarasinghe

• October 27, 2022

“The United Nations is dead,” said the Catholic Herald in 1947, two years after the UN was founded. Reports of its demise are perennial, but they seem to have reached a crescendo this year, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine considered a litmus test for the 77-year-old organization. Russia’s wanton act of aggression is not …

Africa, General Assembly, Secretary-General, Security Council, WORLDVIEWS

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Trending UN News: Week Ending Oct. 14

• October 14, 2022

This week, we celebrate the International Day of the Girl Child amid various restrictions on and violations of girls’ rights globally. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. This week, Russia escalated its war …

Africa, General Assembly, LGBT, Migration, Peace and Security, Secretary-General, This Week @UN, Ukraine-Russia War, US-UN Relations

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The Saga of Guterres and Putin

Stephen Schlesinger

• October 11, 2022

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres started out wobbly on the Ukrainian crisis. In the days leading up to the Feb. 24 Russian attack on Ukraine, he remained on the sidelines. He was apparently unconvinced that the Russians would invade the country. Had he taken the threat of Russian troops assembled on Ukraine’s borders seriously, …

General Assembly, Peace and Security, Secretary-General, Ukraine-Russia War, WORLDVIEWS

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Trending UN News: Week Ending Oct. 7

• October 7, 2022

This week, we bring you good news from Sierra Leone, one of the first countries in West Africa to roll out the human papilloma virus vaccine as part of routine immunization for girls. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is gathered from UN press …

Asia, Climate Change, General Assembly, Peace and Security, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, Ukraine-Russia War

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Day 5, UN General Assembly’s Big Week: Mali, China and Russia Squeezed Into One Morning

• September 24, 2022

On the next-to-last day of the globe’s largest talkfest by world leaders, Sept. 24, the United Nations may have been quiet and most of the police barricades may have been dismantled outside, but inside the Assembly Hall, two powerful, stern foreign ministers — Wang Yi of China and Sergey Lavrov of Russia — dispelled …

Africa, Asia, General Assembly, Peace and Security, Secretary-General

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Day 4, UN General Assembly’s Big Week: Hearing the Voices of Smaller Countries

Clair MacDougall

• September 23, 2022

As the speeches by world leaders in the General Assembly begin to wind down, the focus stays on the devastating war in Ukraine and its rippling effects across the globe, the warming Earth and other serious crises that continue to hurt people everywhere. Some of the world’s smallest countries, however, took the rostrum to …

Africa, General Assembly, Secretary-General, Security Council

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Day 3, UN General Assembly’s Big Week: Africa Wants a Permanent Seat in the Security Council

• September 22, 2022

Many African leaders who spoke at the United Nations General Assembly so far seem to all want the same thing: a permanent seat at the Security Council table. “Africa has waited long enough and will not wait any longer,” Ali Bongo Ondimba, Gabon’s president, said to the gathering on Sept. 21. The continent of …

Africa, General Assembly, Security Council, Terrorism

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Day 2, UN General Assembly’s Big Week: Russia’s War on Ukraine Dominates

• September 21, 2022

On Day 2 of the “high-level” week, featuring many of the world’s heads of state and government, President Joe Biden shared the forum with a diverse roster of speakers, who stood at the rostrum, one by one, stretching from the early morning to late evening on the cusp of the fall equinox, in New …

Africa, Asia, General Assembly, Latin America, Secretary-General, Ukraine-Russia War, US Foreign Relations

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