In The News

UNHRC to Debate Systemic Racism: AFP

June 15, 2020
Burkina Faso’s ambassador to the UN, Dieudonné Desiré Sougouri, wrote a letter for 54 African countries calling for “urgent debate” from the UN Human Rights Council on systemic racism, police brutality, human rights violations against people of African descent and the attacks against peaceful protesters. The UNHRC, after a disruption due to Covid-19, resumes its 43rd session today. “The call came...

Battle Against the “Tsunami of Hate”: UN

António Guterres May 8, 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic has targeted vulnerable populations – initially striking cities while wielding disproportionate effect on nursing homes, prisons and other facilities where employees work in close quarters. These include US meat-processing facilities, often staffed with immigrant labor. Researchers suggest many of the deaths are due to disparities in health care, and the pandemic exposes...

Libya Defies Calls for Global Ceasefire: Guardian

Patrick Wintour April 2, 2020
The civil war in Libya has escalated even though the United Nations called for a “global ceasefire.” Warlord General Khalifa Haftar and his forces, the Libyan National Army, or LNA, claim to occupy some towns in the northwest and repel attacks by the UN-backed government army aiming to capture the key airbase. After the two warring parties recently agreed to a humanitarian truce, the peace...

Inept Multilateral System: Council on Foreign Relations

Stewart M. Patrick April 1, 2020
With COVID-19 sweeping the globe, “international cooperation has been missing in action and global solidarity has been AWOL,” reports the Financial Times. Instead of confronting the shared threat, countries take unilateral steps to protect themselves, exchanging blame for the pandemic. The Group of Seven, Group of Twenty and the United Nations have taken limited actions. The G7 finance ministers...

The Greatest Test: UN News

April 1, 2020
The United Nations urges the world to unite as COVID-19 spreads throughout communities, forcing people to isolate, ruining economic activity and livelihoods. Long-term effects could be dire, and Secretary-General António Guterres calls for shared responsibility. “This human crisis demands coordinated, decisive, inclusive and innovative policy action from the world’s leading economies – and...

Gambia vs Myanmar at the ICJ: Dhaka Tribune

Manzoor Hasan and Jessica Olney • January 24, 2020
Gambia filed a complaint with the International Court of Justice over Myanmar's harsh treatment of Rohingya people, denying the minority group citizenship and launching military attacks on villages that have resulted in the deaths of thousands and displaced more than 700,000 people. Many Rohingya fled to Bangladesh. Bangladesh ended entry for Rohingya in March 2019. The International...

Threats on Nuclear Arm Control: Financial Times

Tony Barber January 24, 2020
The United Nations’ nuclear non-proliferation treaty has been remarkable for limiting nuclear arms over the past 50 years, but three trends threaten those efforts. The first is slow breach of nuclear arms control agreements between Russia and the United States. The second is that nine known nuclear-armed countries are still spending a lot to modernize their own arsenals. The last one is the...