WORLDVIEWS

UN’s Guterres Proposes a 2023 Summit of the Future in ‘Our Common Agenda’ Report

• September 13, 2021

A year ago, as Covid-19 took its toll on countless lives and livelihoods and presented yet another reminder of how global crises inevitably require global cooperation and solutions, world leaders convened virtually to endorse a declaration marking the United Nations’ 75th anniversary. To achieve progress on the declaration’s 12 commitments, member states requested Secretary-General …

Governance, Peace and Security, Secretary-General, WORLDVIEWS

One Comment

WORLDVIEWS

Myanmar’s Credentials at the UN

Rebecca Barber et al.

• September 12, 2021

The United Nations General Assembly is due to consider an issue in the coming weeks that will profoundly affect the lives of 55 million people in Myanmar. Its Credentials Committee will debate whether to accept the credentials of the junta which seized power on 1 February, or those of the National Unity Government (NUG), …

Myanmar, WORLDVIEWS

Leave a Comment

WORLDVIEWS

Unicef’s Next Boss Should Be an Internationalist and a Development Pro

Ellen Tolmie

• August 9, 2021

Jockeying for Unicef’s next executive director is well underway, after the July 13 announcement by its current head, Henrietta Fore, that she is leaving before the year’s end. She is going because of a family health emergency and well before her five-year term, which began January 2018, is up. Fore is Unicef’s seventh executive …

UN Agencies, WORLDVIEWS

One Comment

WORLDVIEWS

The UN General Assembly Must Reject Myanmar Junta’s Attempts to Grab Envoy Seat

Chris Gunness

• July 26, 2021

The battle is on to grab the Myanmar seat at the United Nations in New York City, a hugely significant prize as the junta wages a campaign for diplomatic recognition. Nonrecognition of the regime is crucial right now, because recognizing it would embolden its “brute force terror campaign” against the people it claims to …

Myanmar, UN Diplomats, WORLDVIEWS

7 Comments

WORLDVIEWS

Does the UN Pension Fund Really Need to Invest in Financial Derivatives?

Lowell Flanders

• July 17, 2021

When the market for mortgage-backed securities — derivatives — exploded in 2008, the investment guru Warren Buffet called them “financial weapons of mass destruction.” The crisis was the worst American economic disaster to occur since the Great Depression. In the United States, the stock market tanked, wiping out nearly $8 trillion in value between …

General Assembly, Secretary-General, UN pension fund, WORLDVIEWS

One Comment

WORLDVIEWS

Thinking Outside the Box: How UN Sanctions Can Be Used to Bring More Women Into Peace Talks

Sophie Huvé and Rebecca Brubaker

• July 13, 2021

Since 2008, the United Nations Security Council has been integrating part of the women, peace and security agenda into its sanctions regimes — albeit inconsistently and with mixed results. So far, this practice has mostly focused on protecting women and girls against sexual and gender-based violence in conflicts with a twofold approach. In six …

Gender Violence, Security Council, WORLDVIEWS

Leave a Comment

WORLDVIEWS

Feminist Wanted: Seeking the Next Leader of UN Women

Anne Marie Goetz and Joanne Sandler

• July 8, 2021

UN Women is looking for a new executive director. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, a former vice president of South Africa, is stepping down after eight years at the helm. The appointment comes as the Generation Equality Forum in Paris just ended, with historically high financial pledges by some governments. But it comes at a moment of peril …

Gender Violence, Secretary-General, UN Agencies, WORLDVIEWS

One Comment

WORLDVIEWS

The German Envoy Did a ‘Good Job’ Shaking Up the UN Security Council

Helmut Volger

• July 4, 2021

BERLIN — When Christoph Heusgen was appointed Germany’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York City in 2017, there were critical comments by foreign policy experts and journalists in our country. They voiced doubts about whether Heusgen, who had been serving as security and foreign policy adviser to Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2005, …

Security Council, WORLDVIEWS

2 Comments

WORLDVIEWS

Making the UN More Relevant Is Within Our Reach

Richard Ponzio and Cristina Petcu

• June 21, 2021

Against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change crises, extremist violence and social unrest, the specter of cross-border economic shocks and increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, the UN75 Declaration, adopted by world leaders last September, was an important first step in bolstering the case for the United Nations’ ability to cope with huge challenges …

Governance, Secretary-General, WORLDVIEWS

One Comment

WORLDVIEWS

What Now, António?

Thomas G. Weiss

• June 16, 2021

António Guterres soon will be recrowned Secretary-General after Manhattan’s five-member Electoral College, the permanent members of the Security Council, send its recommendation to the General Assembly for a ceremonial vote. In 2016, his election was an unusually transparent process — at least by United Nations standards — with contenders vetted by the General Assembly; …

Secretary-General, WORLDVIEWS

3 Comments

WORLDVIEWS

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

Anna Samya Sri

• June 9, 2021

As the United Nations Security Council has just officially endorsed Secretary-General António Guterres for a second term, below, there is little regret being voiced publicly among the UN’s 193 member nations that in the organization’s 76-year history, there has never been a woman in charge. And once the General Assembly casts its vote behind …

General Assembly, Secretary-General, Security Council, US-UN Relations, WORLDVIEWS

2 Comments

WORLDVIEWS

Her Personal Mission: Helping to Release Yemen’s Prisoners in Its Continuing War

Laila Lutf Al-Thawr

• June 1, 2021

CAIRO — “They dug a hole in the ground, threw us in and shot at us randomly. I only survived because a body laid on top of me. Al Qaeda has my friends — please help me save them.” With those words, 13-year-old Adel barged into my office in Sana, Yemen, in 2015, and …

Gender Violence, Middle East, WORLDVIEWS

Leave a Comment

WORLDVIEWS

A Top German Court Toughens the Nation’s Climate Goals, Requiring Explicit Details

Franz Baumann

• May 25, 2021

In September 2016, the German parliament unanimously adopted the Paris Agreement. The government then translated Germany’s commitments under the agreement into a Climate Protection Law, which was approved by the Bundestag in November 2019 with a wide majority, making Germany the first country in the world with a greenhouse gas neutrality plan. By 2030, …

Climate and Environment, WORLDVIEWS

2 Comments

WORLDVIEWS

Who Is Behind the High Civilian Death Toll Since Myanmar’s Coup? Its Own Security Forces

Damian Lilly

• May 19, 2021

Since the military coup in Myanmar on Feb. 1, 802 civilians have been killed. The majority of the people who have been killed were peaceful protesters shot by state security forces — the very people that are meant to protect them. According to civilian casualty monitors, the number of recorded civilian fatalities in Myanmar, …

Asia, Humanitarian Aid, Myanmar, Security Council, WORLDVIEWS

One Comment

WORLDVIEWS

Is Combating Sexual Abuse in the UN Now a Low Priority for Guterres?

Sabrina White and Fred Carver

• May 12, 2021

LONDON — On taking his oath of office in December 2016, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres listed four priorities for his new job, the first combating sexual exploitation and sexual abuse across the UN system. In contrast, Guterres’s recent vision statement presented to the UN’s 193 member states as part of his candidacy for …