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WORLDVIEWS

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, SDGs, 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, SDGs, WORLDVIEWS

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Regional Nations Should Mediate the Crisis in Myanmar, a Leading Analyst Says

• March 9, 2021

SINGAPORE — The situation in Myanmar is growing more violent and polarized. If the situation continues without urgent intervention, the safety and security of civilians will deteriorate rapidly and a window for dialogue between the military and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy and its supporters will close further. If this …

Myanmar, Responsibility to Protect, US Foreign Relations, WORLDVIEWS

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The UN-Led Peace Process for Syria Has Failed. Women Must Be Part of the Next One.

• March 8, 2021

COPENHAGEN — In her book, “The Second Sex,” Simone de Beauvoir argued that one is not born but rather becomes a woman. De Beauvoir emphasized that destiny is not a cosmic force but a human choice, a result of circumstances and culture. It follows that circumstances and social determinants dictate a woman’s role in …

Gender Violence, Middle East, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, WORLDVIEWS

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The Job of the World’s Top Humanitarian Official Is Open. Will a Briton Get the Post Again?

• March 3, 2021

LONDON — Should the world’s top humanitarian official be chosen through a meritocratic selection process open to candidates from any country, or should the choice be restricted to a single nationality and nomination by that government? The answer is obvious — but may be the opposite of what is about to happen again during …

Humanitarian Aid, WORLDVIEWS

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The UN Must Select a Woman Secretary-General Now, Not Later

Simone Filippini

• February 23, 2021

António Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, announced early last month that he would seek a second five-year term, starting in January 2022, as the organization’s highest official, “if it would be the will of the member states.” The respective presidents of the General Assembly and the Security Council have since defined the “selection and appointment …

SDGs, Secretary-General, WORLDVIEWS

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Hate Speech and Violence at the US Capitol: Lessons From the Rwandan Genocide

Navi Pillay and Jessica Neuwirth

• February 10, 2021

Five-hundred-thousand Rwandans were killed in the course of 100 days in 1994. In its “media case,” the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 2003 held nationalist Hutu political leaders and media accountable for the false propaganda and promotion of ethnic hatred that led to the genocide of the Tutsi population in the country, convicting the …

Africa, WORLDVIEWS

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Myanmar, Still Escaping the Shackles of the Past

• February 9, 2021

GENEVA — In May 2016, Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary-general, received an unexpected request from a fellow Nobel peace laureate, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s civilian leader and state counselor. She asked him to lead a commission to advise the government on the stability and development of Rakhine State, a region …

Myanmar, WORLDVIEWS

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Danger Still Lurks in Jammu and Kashmir

• February 2, 2021

The Jammu and Kashmir dispute is one of the oldest unresolved issues on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council. At the heart of the dispute is India’s illegal occupation and persistent refusal to allow the people of Kashmir to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination. Several resolutions of the Security Council have …

Asia, Security Council, UN Peacekeeping, WORLDVIEWS

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UN Agencies Are Not Exactly Zooming Toward Open Meetings

• January 25, 2021

WASHINGTON — With United Nations entities meeting mostly virtually in the Covid-19 pandemic, it is a good time for more of them to hold open sessions. But no transparency trend has materialized in the nearly yearlong pandemic so far. Having surveyed 27 core UN organizations to learn whether they conduct open meetings and issue …

UN Agencies, WORLDVIEWS

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Trump’s UN Team: Gone Today, Sadly Still Here Tomorrow

• January 21, 2021

Donald Trump may be out, along with his disastrously incompetent foreign policy advisers, but don’t expect them to sit quietly on the sidelines while a new team struggles to clean up the mess they left behind. Just days before Joe Biden’s inauguration, Nikki Haley, Trump’s first United Nations ambassador, declared that she was forming …

US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations, WORLDVIEWS

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The Congo, Afghanistan and the Limits of Outside Intervention

• January 18, 2021

This year, two expansive — and expensive — international peace and security entities will pass a significant milestone. The United Nations peacekeeping operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the NATO operation in Afghanistan have been deployed for two decades. Although these missions differ in many respects, notably in the scale and …

Africa, Asia, Security Council, UN Peacekeeping, WORLDVIEWS

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A New Year’s Hope: Restoring the Progressive Role of the US at the UN

Jessica Neuwirth

• December 28, 2020

A wave of relief and hope is sweeping across the United Nations, and the world, desperately awaiting the inauguration of Joe Biden and the beginning of the restoration of normalcy. Hopefully, we will quickly see the rebuilding of our country’s leadership and much-needed progress in the UN, as well as in other international forums …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, US-UN Relations, WORLDVIEWS

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A Christmas Past in Pakistan and Practicing the Art of ‘Holiday Diplomacy’

Elizabeth Colton

• December 24, 2020

Pakistan is where I’ve had some of my favorite Christmases. Founded as a Muslim state by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the nation honors his birthday on Dec. 25 as a national holiday. “Merry Christmas & Greetings on Quaid-i-Azam Day” were frequent email greetings I received when I lived there as a diplomat. As our Covid-Christmas …

UN Diplomats, WORLDVIEWS

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