Exclusive interview with Vijay Nambiar, a special adviser to Kofi Annan & Ban Ki-moon, charged with following events in Burma/Myanmar. — by Barbara Crossette. Read more on PassBlue. For more than a decade, from 2004 to 2017, Vijay Nambiar was a special adviser to United Nations secretaries-general Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon, charged with following events in Burma, which the military generals renamed Myanmar in 1989. A former deputy national security…

This Week @ the UN: summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. — by Ivana Ramirez. Read more on PassBlue. Afghanistan mega-peace talks in Istanbul; Russia the spoiler; could a Latin American woman lead the UN down the road or sooner? You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. …

These Latin American women are being informally mentioned as potential candidates to run for SG, most likely for the five-year term starting in 2027. — by Maurizio Guerrero. Read more PassBlue. Six Latin American names are being circulated in regional political circles as possible candidates to become the first woman to lead the United Nations, while the current secretary-general, António Guterres, will most likely be re-elected for the upcoming five-year term, starting in 2022. …

A q and a with Mavic Cabrera-Balleza, the founder of the Global Network for Women Peacebuilders. — by Sonah Lee-Lassiter. Read more on PassBlue. In 2010, Maria Victoria (Mavic) Cabrera-Balleza founded an organization to help and advocate for the rights of women and girls globally, but it was her childhood experiences that first politicized her. …

An April UNSC debate on sexual violence in conflict will address victims’ care over the responsibility of countries to stop abuses & prosecute perpetrators. by Barbara Crossette. Read more on PassBlue. Human-rights advocates around the world are assessing how much lasting damage could still be done to universal human rights…

OpEd: A source of the migration influx from Central America is “America’s indiscriminate and criminal meddling” in that region. — by Stephen Schlessinger. Read more on PassBlue. 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…

This Week @UN, our summary highlighting the most important news from Turtle Bay. — by Ivana Ramirez. Read more on PassBlue. The Myanmar crisis isn’t going away; global bias against older people; Vietnam leads the Security Council; Chadian peacekeepers killed and wounded in Mali. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. …

OpEd: A 2018 agreement is “gaining space in the Latin American agenda.” The only problem is, Brazil has not ratified it. — by Gabrielle Alves. Read more on PassBlue. 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…

Ageism, a new study finds, is “prevalent, ubiquitous and insidious” and not getting enough global attention. — by Barbara Crossette. read more on PassBlue. During more than a year of tracking the parameters of Covid-19, medical science has made one thing clear: the virus hits the elderly hardest. Yet their vulnerability is often taken as fate. A new international study disagrees. Prejudice, institutional bias and societal discrimination…