Human Rights

• May 14, 2021

Abed Al Fatah Skafi at his house in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, March 1, 2021. Skafi’s family is one of four that are being threatened with eviction in favor of Israeli settlers. Anger over Israeli treatment of Palestinians in Jerusalem have incited the worst violence between the two sides in years, plunging them this week into …

Africa, Health and Population, Human Rights, Humanitarian Aid, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, US-UN Relations

Leave a Comment

SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENCY

China’s Agenda for May: Less on Myanmar, More on Tech, Peace and Security

Stéphanie Fillion

• May 5, 2021

When China last took the reins of the Security Council, in March 2020, the country was just starting to control the pandemic at home, while the virus was spreading rapidly abroad, all the way to United Nations headquarters in New York City. Yet China refused to talk about the pandemic during that stint, and …

Human Rights, Myanmar, Security Council Presidency

Leave a Comment

WORLDVIEWS

She Had a Front-Row Role in the Early Days of the UN, but Is Forgotten Now

Erwin R. Tiongson

• May 1, 2021

Anastasia Dragon Nezeriotis — Anne to her colleagues and friends — died in Clearwater, Fla., 25 years ago last month. A native of Lynn, Mass., she was a teacher at Lynn English High School, her obituary said. She married George Nezeriotis in 1957, but before all that she had a front-row role in the …

General Assembly, Human Rights, UN Diplomats, WORLDVIEWS

4 Comments

WORLDVIEWS

Tigray Can’t Wait: The UN Security Council Must Act to End Sexual Assault Now

Susana Malcorra

• April 22, 2021

As a woman who has worked for the United Nations in emergency and humanitarian operations, I am deeply shaken over what is occurring in the protracted conflict in Tigray, in northern Ethiopia, where reports of human suffering, including growing allegations of grievous gender-based violence, keep increasing. These actions are cruel and ruthless, and they …

Africa, Gender Violence, Human Rights, Security Council, WORLDVIEWS

One Comment

Is Burma’s Army in Trouble? Yes, Says a Top Former UN Adviser on the Country

Barbara Crossette

• April 19, 2021

For more than a decade, from 2004 to 2017, Vijay Nambiar was a special adviser to United Nations secretaries-general Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon, charged with following events in Burma, which the military generals renamed Myanmar in 1989. A former deputy national security adviser to the government of India and Indian ambassador to the …

Human Rights, Myanmar

One Comment

TOPIC: WOMEN

This Feminist Is Putting Women at the Peace Table

Sonah Lee-Lassiter

• April 13, 2021

In 2010, Maria Victoria (Mavic) Cabrera-Balleza founded an organization to help and advocate for the rights of women and girls globally, but it was her childhood experiences that first politicized her. Martial law was declared by the dictator President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines in 1972, when she was in fourth grade. Born in …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, Peace and Security, Women

Leave a Comment

WORLDVIEWS

America’s Forbidding Legacy on the Southern Border

Stephen Schlesinger

• April 11, 2021

While the United Nations focuses fitfully on its own long string of refugee problems, President Joe Biden has tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to resolve the problems of migration at the United States-Mexico border. There are legitimate reasons for Americans to be concerned about the flood of migrants, mostly coming from Central America. But …

Human Rights, US Foreign Relations, WORLDVIEWS

One Comment

THIS WEEK @UN

Myanmar’s Coup Crisis Persists; Global Bias Against Older People; Vietnam Is in Charge

Ivana Ramirez

• April 9, 2021

The Myanmar crisis isn’t going away; global bias against older people; Vietnam leads the Security Council; Chadian peacekeepers killed and wounded in Mali. 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. A huge thank you to …

General Assembly, Health and Population, Human Rights, Myanmar, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, US-UN Relations

One Comment

COVID-19

The Pandemic Reveals the Disturbing Depths of Ageism, Especially for Women

Barbara Crossette

• April 6, 2021

During more than a year of tracking the parameters of Covid-19, medical science has made one thing clear: the virus hits the elderly hardest. Yet their vulnerability is often taken as fate. A new international study disagrees. Prejudice, institutional bias and societal discrimination against older people in both rich and poor countries, it says, …

Covid-19, Gender Violence, Health and Population, Human Rights

3 Comments

THIS WEEK @UN

America’s Blinken ‘Visits’ the UN; Mexico’s Split Personality on Women’s Rights; New Secretary-General Applicants

Ivana Ramirez

• April 2, 2021

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken dials the UN; Mexico’s dual-personality approach to women’s rights; a deadly French airstrike on a wedding in Mali; two new applicants for secretary-general. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting …

Africa, Gender Violence, General Assembly, Human Rights, Myanmar, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, UN Special Envoys, US-UN Relations

Leave a Comment

A Wedding Party Hit By French Forces in Mali Killed Mostly Civilians, UN Report Says

Clair MacDougall

• March 31, 2021

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — From above, the photographs show a stretch of charred land in the middle of the desert and a mass grave covered in dried tree branches, where people living around Bounti, a village in central Mali, said those who had been killed by French airstrikes were buried. On the ground were …

Africa, Human Rights, Peace and Security, Secretary-General, Security Council

Leave a Comment

TOPIC: WOMEN

At the UN, Mexico Works for Women’s Rights. Back Home It’s a Different Story.

Maurizio Guerrero

• March 29, 2021

Mexico and France are hosting a United Nations forum that aims to accelerate the agenda laid out 26 years ago at the landmark Beijing women’s conference: securing equal rights and equal opportunities for half the population of the world. Beginning in Mexico City on March 29-31 and culminating in Paris in early July, the …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, Women

Leave a Comment

THIS WEEK @UN

Anti-Asian Threats; Troubles in the UN Humanitarian Aid Agency?; Yes, the UN Still Matters

Ivana Ramirez

• March 26, 2021

Anti-Asian violence; the closing window for a woman secretary-general; a UN expert threatened by Saudi Arabia; the UN’s humanitarian-aid agency cries out for changes. 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. Barbara Crossette, who …

Development, Gender Violence, Health and Population, Human Rights, Sustainable Development Goals, This Week @UN, UN Special Envoys, US-UN Relations

Leave a Comment

THIS WEEK @UN

Biden and Harris Interact With the UN; a New Envoy for Afghanistan; Canada Meets a Secretary-General Candidate

Ivana Ramirez

• March 19, 2021

The Security Council gathers with President Biden; commercial surrogacy is legalized in New York State; Kamala Harris on women and democracy; a UN secretary-general aspirant meets with Canadian diplomats. 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 …

Climate and Environment, Disabilities, General Assembly, Human Rights, Human Trafficking, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

Leave a Comment

WORLDVIEWS

Advice for America’s Return to the Human Rights Council, Starting With the Issue of Racism

Peter Splinter

• March 17, 2021

GENEVA — The United States’ decision to re-engage with the United Nations Human Rights Council, announced last month, has been welcomed in many quarters. The news offered a sense of the priorities the US would have in returning to the Council under the Biden administration, after the country left the body in 2018. Now …

Africa, Human Rights, US-UN Relations, WORLDVIEWS

Leave a Comment

Test your foreign policy knowledge with our latest news quiz.

This Week's Most Popular

WORLDVIEWS

What Now, António?

Thomas G. Weiss

Support Independent Journalism - Support PassBlue - Find out how →

Human Rights

Spiraling Mideast Violence; Guterres May Breeze to Another Term; Africans Want More Covid Vaccines

China’s Agenda for May: Less on Myanmar, More on Tech, Peace and Security

She Had a Front-Row Role in the Early Days of the UN, but Is Forgotten Now

Tigray Can’t Wait: The UN Security Council Must Act to End Sexual Assault Now

Is Burma’s Army in Trouble? Yes, Says a Top Former UN Adviser on the Country

This Feminist Is Putting Women at the Peace Table

America’s Forbidding Legacy on the Southern Border

Myanmar’s Coup Crisis Persists; Global Bias Against Older People; Vietnam Is in Charge

The Pandemic Reveals the Disturbing Depths of Ageism, Especially for Women

America’s Blinken ‘Visits’ the UN; Mexico’s Split Personality on Women’s Rights; New Secretary-General Applicants

A Wedding Party Hit By French Forces in Mali Killed Mostly Civilians, UN Report Says

At the UN, Mexico Works for Women’s Rights. Back Home It’s a Different Story.

Anti-Asian Threats; Troubles in the UN Humanitarian Aid Agency?; Yes, the UN Still Matters

Biden and Harris Interact With the UN; a New Envoy for Afghanistan; Canada Meets a Secretary-General Candidate

Advice for America’s Return to the Human Rights Council, Starting With the Issue of Racism

This Week's Most Popular

A Year Later, a Sex-Video Inquiry Tied to the UN Mission in Israel Remains a Mystery

Turnabout in US Foreign Policy Puts UN in the Spotlight

Attacks on Burmese Military Intensify Nationwide, Signaling a Possible Revolt

A Huge Missed Opportunity: Putting a Woman at the Top of the UN

UN-Scripted, Passblue's UN podcast series

PassBlue needs your support to stay strong: