Christian Wenaweser

• August 2, 2022

In the never-ending struggle to reform the use of the veto in the United Nations Security Council, a new initiative may prove to be relatively successful in the quest by a range of countries to change the veto step by step. This modest but potentially significant act of reform is called the “veto initiative,” …

General Assembly, Security Council, WORLDVIEWS

One Comment

WORLDVIEWS

Liechtenstein’s ‘Veto Initiative’ Wins Wide Approval at the UN. Will It Deter the Big Powers?

Ben Donaldson

• April 26, 2022

A major effort to reform the use of the veto in the United Nations Security Council came to fruition in a rare move on April 26, when the General Assembly adopted a resolution by consensus to raise the political cost of exercising the veto by the five permanent members of the Council: Britain, China, …

General Assembly, WORLDVIEWS

4 Comments

A New Plan to Recruit Candidates for UN Secretary-General Emerges

Dulcie Leimbach

• March 3, 2016

For the first time in United Nations history, officially announced candidates for the secretary-general race, underway this year, will be interviewed publicly in the General Assembly along the lines of a standard democratic election. Mogens Lykketoft, the Assembly president and a Dane, is pushing the “unprecedented transparent process,” as he put it, in selecting …

General Assembly, Secretary-General, Security Council, Women

2 Comments

Rape in War: It’s Not a Given Any Longer

Dulcie Leimbach

• January 9, 2013

One of Fatou Bensouda‘s missions as the new chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court is to make rape during conflicts a thing of the past. Until 20 years ago, she said in a speech at the United Nations recently, sexual violence and other sexual attacks were “all but ignored and dismissed as regrettable …

Africa, Child Soldiers, Human Rights, ICC, International Justice, Women

Leave a Comment

General Assembly President: A Hardly Noticed, Yet Crucial Job

Helmut Volger

• May 29, 2012

BERLIN — This United Nations top official is unknown to the broad public, yet he or she provides an important function: the president of the General Assembly. Most presidents have carried out the job inconspicuously and routinely, but a few presidents, the present one included, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser of Qatar, have revealed stamina and …