Anti-Asian Threats; Troubles in the UN Humanitarian Aid Agency?; Yes, the UN Still Matters
by Ivana Ramirez. Read more on PassBlue.
Anti-Asian violence; the closing window for a woman secretary-general; a UN expert threatened by Saudi Arabia; the UN’s humanitarian-aid agency cries out for changes.
You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources.
Barbara Crossette, who has worked as a journalist for 50 years, was featured in the Journalism Salute podcast series, created and hosted by Mark Simon, who spotlights “people and organizations providing communities and groups with the journalism that matters to them.” The…
The first informal dialogue with the only candidate, current Secretary General António Guterres, will be May 7 at 10 am.
by Sonah Lee-Lassiter. Read more on PassBlue.
Unless a strong candidate backed by an influential member state comes forward soon, it looks unlikely that Secretary-General António Guterres will be denied a second term and that a woman could be elected to succeed him, starting in 2022. Any challengers for the United Nations’ top leadership post will need to step up in the next month or so to allow enough time for the 193 member states to consider them seriously.
The current president of the General Assembly, Volkan Bozkir of Turkey, has announced that deliberations of candidates will begin by May…
OpEd: The United Nations can still “resolve the existential challenges to our people and planet,” especially in the pandemic.
by Alan Doss. Read more on PassBlue.
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, I have gone digital. I now get my daily news fix online, which I admit has its advantages, including easy access to relevant collateral reporting.
That’s how a story on Covid linked me to the World Bank’s Atlas of…
The departure of Mark Lowcock presents a chance for a new management style to be instilled in the Ocha, some staff members suggested.
by Laura Kirkpatrick. Read more on PassBlue.
The United Nations’ top agency for humanitarian aid is poised for a new boss to arrive, one who could instill a management style far removed from what some of its staffers call a “neocolonial mind-set” under the outgoing head, Mark Lowcock, a Briton. As Secretary-General António Guterres decides on who will next lead the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, some people in the agency say it needs major changes in how it is run. …
Recap: Biden and Harris Interact With the UN; a New Envoy for Afghanistan; Canada Meets a Secretary-General Candidate
by Ivanna Ramirez. Read more on PassBlue.
The Security Council gathers with President Biden; commercial surrogacy is legalized in New York State; Kamala Harris on women and democracy; a UN secretary-general aspirant meets with Canadian diplomats.
You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources.
We appreciate the huge support from our readers to ensure that we keep the UN and its member states accountable to the public. …
Akanksha faces a steep climb to be recognized as a legitimate candidate by the UN itself and in broader diplomatic circles.
by Stéphanie Fillion. Read more on PassBlue.
Arora Akanksha, the United Nations millennial staffer who launched her own campaign to run for secretary-general last month, held meetings with three high-level Canadian officials this week in New York City, including Canada’s ambassador to the UN, Bob Rae. Akanksha is a Canadian citizen who was born in India. So far, her candidacy has no national endorsement. She is challenging Secretary-General António Guterres, who is running for another five-year term starting in 2022.
“Ambassadors Rae, Arbeiter and Blais have met with Ms. Akanksha to discuss her potential candidacy,” Grantly Franklin, a spokesperson for…
As the United States re-engages with the Council, it faces an examination by the organization of violations in its own country.
by Peter Splinter. Read more on PassBlue.
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 there is considerable curiosity and speculation about what specifically the US will do in Geneva, first as an observer in 2021 and then as a member, if it is elected for a three-year term starting in 2022.
The priorities…
The first female US Vice President made her first appearance at the United Nations, during the Commission on the Status of Women.
by Barbara Crossette. Read more on PassBlue.
Facing a world unsettled and even shocked by what has happened to the United States in recent years and not sure what to expect of Americans now, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke today in clear, reassuring terms to a United Nations audience, tuned in globally. But she warned that democracy everywhere was in peril and that strengthening it “depends fundamentally on the empowerment of women.”
Addressing a mostly virtual annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the UN’s key advocate and protector of women’s rights since 1947, Harris said in…
The first female US Vice President made her first appearance at the United Nations, during the Commission on the Status of Women.
by Barbara Crossette. Read more on PassBlue.
Facing a world unsettled and even shocked by what has happened to the United States in recent years and not sure what to expect of Americans now, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke today in clear, reassuring terms to a United Nations audience, tuned in globally. But she warned that democracy everywhere was in peril and that strengthening it “depends fundamentally on the empowerment of women.”
Addressing a mostly virtual annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the UN’s key advocate and protector of women’s rights since 1947, Harris said in…
On Feb. 15, surrogate pregnancies became a recognized business in NY s most nations around the world have made the practice illegal.
by Barbara Crossette. Read more on PassBlue.
In the middle of the night on April 2, 2020, buried in a 400-page state budget, a provision to make commercial surrogacy legal in New York was adopted despite a campaign against the move by leading advocates of women’s reproductive health and rights.
The law took effect on Feb. 15, and surrogate pregnancies became a recognized business in the state. Pleas to Gov. Andrew Cuomo from leaders of numerous organizations asking him to withdraw the legislation had gone unanswered. Then Covid-19 disrupted plans to take the opposition campaign to Albany, the capital. The…
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