Christian Wenaweser

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

• 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

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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

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WORLDVIEWS

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 …