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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

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

• 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

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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

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

• 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

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

• 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

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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 …

Gender Violence, UN Peacekeeping, WORLDVIEWS

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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

For Myanmar, Why Not Send an Asean/UN Civilian Monitoring Mission?

Ian Martin and Charles Petrie

• April 24, 2021

This weekend, Asean will be deliberating on possible courses of action regarding Myanmar. Across the country, brave people, many of them children, are being murdered daily; health services are ceasing to function in the middle of a pandemic; the economy is collapsing; and every well-informed analyst predicts only a future of deepening civil war, …

Asia, Myanmar, WORLDVIEWS

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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

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The OECD Recognizes the UN Secretariat’s Central Role in Development

Sebastian Borchmeyer

• April 20, 2021

For 60 years, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has measured money flows to developing countries. It adopted the benchmark standard for foreign aid, which it coined Official Development Assistance — or ODA — in 1969. In 2020, the OECD Development Assistance Committee, a forum of 30 member states overseeing ODA standards, made …

Development, WORLDVIEWS

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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

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A Latin American Pact on the Environment Is Picking Up Speed, but Brazil and Others Need to Ratify It

Gabrielle Alves

• April 7, 2021

RIO DE JANEIRO — Regional cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean is declining, with intergovernmental organizations, such as the Organization of American States and Mercosur, nearly paralyzed or underperforming because of political divergences among member states, weak commitments and lack of resources. Yet despite these setbacks, a promising initiative is gaining space in …

Caribbean, Latin America, WORLDVIEWS

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The Audacity of Change: A Specific Example of How the UN Can Still Make a Difference

• March 23, 2021

GENEVA — One of the quiet pleasures of life is an early-morning cappuccino in the company of a good newspaper. That was before Covid-19 came along. The pandemic and resulting disruption of newspaper deliveries and shuttering of cafes has obliged me to suspend my habits of a lifetime. Pending the resumption of normal service, …

Development, Sustainable Development Goals, WORLDVIEWS

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

• 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

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The UN Should Adopt a Seventh Official Language, for the Deaf

• March 12, 2021

While recently attending a virtual tour of the United Nations Office at Vienna, I was astonished to learn that the translation services did not include sign language interpreters. There are six official UN languages — Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish — that provide “clear and concise communication on issues of global importance,” according …

Disabilities, WORLDVIEWS

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