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I was rather taken aback at the amount of lobbying that goes on and that does not just go on for senior jobs, it goes on for jobs across the system. But the bigger obstacle to reform perhaps comes from the UN members states themselves. Here's 50 Important Things That Have Happened Since Putin Decided To See, for example, the Roadmap for Digital Cooperation and the UN Strategy, United Nations, June 2020; and United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech, United Nations, May 2019. [fn]The Security Council should also plan to adjust the mission's leadership structure. They also argue over whether to hold a referendum on a draft constitution before any national poll. The primary task for UN members and the secretary-general is to work out how to get enough aid to Afghanistan to avoid economic catastrophe and worsening food shortages exacerbated by severe drought. Performance management is a joke, said one official. What Has the UN Done for Women's Rights? | National Review The UN has made repeated efforts to mediate an end to the civil war in Yemen since 2015. Salient issues include countering disinformation and misinformation that can exacerbate conflicts, addressing linkages between climate change and political violence, and helping blunt the impact of COVID-19 in volatile areas. [fn]See, for example, Crisis Group Africa Report No295, Easing Cameroons Ethno-political Tensions, On and Offline, 3 December 2020; and Crisis Group Asia Report No314, Myanmars Military Struggles to Control the Virtual Battlefield, 18 May 2021.Hide Footnote Dealing with these threats could open up a new space for the UN in conflict management at a time when its more traditional tools such as peacekeeping appear to be on the wane. For more, see Crisis Group Middle East Report No216. Its a very heavily bureaucratic organisation. Some UN agencies resist it. The UN, as the only credible facilitator between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides, should keep trying to resolve their differences. But that is just a small portion of the total spend. Resolution 2587 (2021), UNSC/S/RES/2587, 29 July 2021. Which raises what many consider the real obstacle to remaking the UN for the 21st century that its most powerful body is still locked in 1945. Elected members note that, absent any real impetus from the main powers to address crises politically, the body ends up devoting more time to debating the terms of humanitarian aid. Yet the UN is valuable in this turbulent period precisely because it still offers a vehicle for divided powers to contain conflicts and mitigate the suffering they create despite their strategic differences. You have member states coming at the reform agenda with very, very different perspectives, she said. It is likely to be further postponed after the devastating 14 August earthquake. China and Russia abstained from the text partly because it did not address their concerns about the adverse effects of maintaining international freezes on Afghan financial assets. The Talibans rapid takeover of Afghanistan presents immense political and operational challenges for the UN. From 2015 to 2018, U.S. financial support for peacekeeping fell by 40 percent. The UNs largest contributors have a caustic view of the committee, regarding it as run by countries who make a minimal contribution to the cost of the UN but decide both the secretariat and peacekeeping budgets. United Nations peacekeepers north of the provincial capital of Goma, Congo, 2008. Some of those involved say the lack of top-level oversight from New York may have been an advantage, allowing them to work without too much interference. In some sectors, such as water and energy, more than 20 UN agencies are active and compete for limited resources without a clear collaborative framework. The bank was divided into two parallel branches as a result of the conflict. In the past, the Greek Cypriots have signalled openness to such arrangements, while the Turkish Cypriots have argued that beyond a fair share of revenue, they should also have a say in managing the islands natural resources. UNEP helped establish the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in the 1980s and has concentrated on efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly by promoting renewable energy and improved energy efficiency. The UN has struggled to craft a coherent response to the security consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Once I cracked that, it meant I could use the organisation how it was supposed to be used irrespective of the structure, because the structure will always protect the incompetent, in a sense.. The article was further amended on 18 September 2015 to correct an editing error that left iy saying that Dag Hammarskjld was the third UN secretary general. - Ask DAG! The global response to HIV has averted 30. The Security Council could expand the small but generally well-regarded UN Regional Conflict Prevention Office for Central Asia to contribute to these efforts. [fn]For more, see Crisis Group Middle East Briefing No79, Exiles in Their Own Country: Dealing with Displacement in Post-ISIS Iraq, 19 October 2020.Hide Footnote. cit.Hide Footnote. Antimicrobial resistance: a global threat - UNEP - UN Environment Programme [fn]See, for example, the Roadmap for Digital Cooperation and the UN Strategy, United Nations, June 2020; and United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech, United Nations, May 2019.Hide Footnote The UN has been especially active in combating disinformation (ie, intentionally false or misleading information) during the COVID-19 pandemic. 10 Things Accomplished by the United Nations 1 By Staff Reports on October 10, 2013 The Good News NEW YORK, New York - Among the many prominent activist projects done to help the world each year, below are 10 things accomplished by the United Nations. At least two people died and three more were hospitalized after a residential building in Obolon, a suburb of the capital, Kyiv, was hit by shelling early on Monday morning, Ukraine's State . One diplomat points to the saga of the UN print shop in New York, a growing anachronism in the digital age. He said the changes proposed in the report were fundamentally good ideas but had not had the impact its authors had hoped for. 70 years and half a trillion dollars later: what has the UN achieved Some 400,000 of them are acutely food-insecure. UN deputy chief praises Chinas investment in tackling climate change, forging new development pathway, Pride Month: UNs transgender rights campaign goes global, Time to end gender-based violence, boost role of women in politics, public life, Myanmar: Militarys obstruction of humanitarian aid could be international crime, UN Security Council terminates Mali peacekeeping mission, Eastern DR Congo: Health system at breaking point warns WHO, UN rights office calls on France to address deep issues of racism in policing, Following a third night of riots and protests across France over the police shooting of a teenager of Algerian and Moroccan descent, the UN rights office (OHCHR). Key Findings: that once flowed through the region. Overall, Guterres is likely to remain circumspect in dealing with most crises, especially those involving P5 interests. Overview The United Nations (UN) was created at the end of World War II as an international peacekeeping organization and a forum for resolving conflicts between nations. Since 1982, the US has used its security council veto to block resolutions critical of Israel 35 times. The United Nations Security Council votes on a resolution at the headquarters in New York. An additional question for UN diplomats is whether the Taliban can fill Afghanistans seat in the General Assembly, although the UN Credentials Committee may defer a decision on this matter. While Secretary-General Guterres called for a global humanitarian ceasefire during the first outbreak in March 2020, the Security Council took months to endorse the worthy if quixotic initiative, mainly due to bickering between U.S. and . The prime minister, David Cameron, put forward just one name to the UN for the post his former health minister Andrew Lansley. Despite these tensions, Council members and UN agencies can take steps to better manage the treatment and return of detainees, especially women and children. Since closing down the last large-scale blue helmet operation in 2017, the UN has aimed to disengage gradually from Haitian affairs, although a small political mission remains on the ground. Helmets belonging to soldiers of the Nigerian army before deployment to Mali in 2013. The goals themselves are pretty impressive but it doesnt say anything to the UN about what they should be doing, he said. Act Now: Speak Up Facts about the climate emergency The Challenge Solutions such as reforestation, ecosystem protection and rewilding represent 30% of the opportunity to address climate change yet receive just 3% of the available funding. For much of the year, the U.S. and UN urged the Haitian authorities to hold national elections (already delayed twice due to COVID-19) in late September to help resolve the countrys interlocking problems, despite the risks that disputed polls would make them worse. It has spent more than half a trillion dollars in 70 years. What Russia Should Do with Ukraine - Wikipedia But the world organisation still has several vital roles to play. For more on the STC, see Peter Salisbury, Yemens Southern Transitional Council: A Delicate Balancing Act, Istituto Per Gli Studi Di Politica Internazionale, 29 March 2021. Already, competition over land and water, climate-related displacement and transboundary water disputes are exacerbating deadly conflict in parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East dynamics likely to worsen in the future. The UN Support Mission in Libya established a set of principles governing social media use among a prominent set of journalists, activists and influencers during the countrys peace process in consultation with journalists, influencers and civil society actors. While the Council should consider a military mission only in extreme circumstances, it can pursue non-military options. It is not clear that the UN will continue in this role, but it could act as a convener for governments to discuss issues such as refugee flows and terrorism risks (as it tried to do during the last period of Taliban rule in the 1990s). The unwavering commitment by all sides to pursuing a military solution threatens not just many more deaths but also the Ethiopian state itself. Full Report (en) The leaders of UN member states are meeting at the General Assembly for the first time since Russia's 24 February all-out assault on Ukraine. These offshore tensions have spilled over into incidents on the island itself. We still have a lot of fragmentation. Timeline of United Nations peacekeeping missions - Wikipedia World leaders are participating in the UN General Assemblys annual high-level session after a year in which the world organisation has failed to respond decisively to a series of crises and wars from Haiti to Myanmar. Ten Challenges for the UN in 2022-2023 | Crisis Group That has been corrected to say that since 1982, the US has used its veto to block resolutions critical of Israel 35 times, while the total number of resolutions blocked by other permanent members over the same period is 27. Climate Action | UNEP - UN Environment Programme Promoting Women's Rights The Council still has opportunities to reverse course in some cases and help ease crises through political means as well as aid. Even accounting for inflation, annual UN expenditure is 40 times higher than it was in the early 1950s. The geopolitical tensions complicating UN action will persist, and even if the U.S., China and Russia can cooperate on some matters, the overall trajectory of their relations is likely to remain negative. Many UN member states, including those on the Security Council, are also keen to focus more on such non-traditional threats. But elected Council members also tend to argue against the Council becoming too active in their own backyards. It ticked off criticisms which said the UN was badly failing those it was supposed to help. While the Security Council has discussed climate security since 2007, and it has included references to the issue in many peace operation mandates, the UNs mechanisms for tracking and analysing the effects of climate change on conflict are still quite limited. The Libyan negotiators who hammered out the unity government deal under UN auspices have failed to resolve these questions. What we have now is another multiplication of targets and goals which are an extraordinarily comprehensive assessment of whats needed to be done but theres no operational clarity around them. But he said the UN was weighed down by incompetence and red tape. [fn]For more on the UNs role in sponsoring political talks among Libyan factions, see Crisis Group Briefing Note, Libya Update #3, 21 January 2021.Hide Footnote UN mediators helped the countrys warring military coalitions sign a ceasefire agreement in October 2020. The kind of hell Hammarskjld had in mind was not hard to imagine in the wake of world war and Hitlers extermination camps, and with the atom bombs shadow spreading across the globe. This article was amended on 9 September 2015. While waiting for vaccine supplies to improve, the Security Council could appoint a temporary informal expert group to discuss these options, and the Secretary-General might appoint a personal envoy to drive cross-UN planning on the challenges ahead. It is still possible, however, for UN mediators and other officials on the ground to take political initiatives when the Security Council and secretary-general are disengaged. How did the UN get so big, asks Rachel Weisz video animation. The other major item on the Councils agenda is what to do with the Taliban sanctions regime, which dates back to 1999, beyond the immediate question of avoiding potential restrictions on humanitarian relief. [fn]For more, see William Davison, The Dangerous Expansion of Ethiopias Tigray War, Crisis Group Commentary, 30 July 2021.Hide Footnote The UN has been active in engaging with Ethiopian stakeholders but needs to do more to urge all parties including Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Tigrays leadership to back off from the battlefield, where an expanding war could easily cause massive casualties. The faster warming will result in increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts and floods. UN relief agencies remain essential to mitigating conflicts like those in Afghanistan and Ethiopia. Many organisations have overlapping mandates. Guterres should urge the Tigrayan side to give federal, Amhara and Eritrean leaders time to complete these steps rather than trying to achieve them via military means. Experts call for immediate release of Kashmiri human rights - UN News A United Nations' report released in November detailed the degree to which his proxy war in Ukraine has turned the country into Russia's killing field. [fn]For more on this initiative, see Richard Gowan, Germany on the Security Council The Score at Halftime, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 19 December 2019.Hide Footnote This initiative, however, met with rejection by China, Russia and the U.S., with the Trump administration threatening to wield its veto. She is touted as a potential successor to Ban and the UNs first female secretary general, although the politics of the appointment, which moves between regions, is a big obstacle. For all the noise from the US, Britain and France in particular about modernising the UN, they show no willingness to give up the power they wield sometimes in ways governed entirely by political interest. How much of a part the UN played in holding nuclear armageddon at bay divides historians. In his final year in office, former U.S. President Donald Trump took an increasingly disruptive approach to the organisation, looking in particular for opportunities to embarrass China. Clark laughed as she said the plan she was presented with was so broad in its goals that it made no sense. At present, however, no single point of contact is monitoring or coordinating initiatives designed to reduce disinformation. UN armoured personnel carriers, manned by Zambian soldiers serving with the international peacekeeping force, patrolling the streets of Abyei, South Sudan, in 2011. It does mean that there are people who dont seem to be particularly good or work very hard at what they do. Following a third night of riots and protests across France over the police shooting of a teenager of Algerian and Moroccan descent, the UN rights office (OHCHR) said it was time for the country to reckon with its history of racism in policing. . But its imperfect, of course it is, and everybody knows that it is, he said. The protection of civilians should remain the top priority amid the continued full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and strict control over weapons supplies is needed to prevent diversion, the UN disarmament chief told the Security Council on Thursday. In 2021, however, the Biden administrations firm commitment to addressing climate change underscored by Washingtons rejoining the Paris Agreement in February has shifted Council dynamics considerably. For more on the ceasefire agreement, see Crisis Group Middle East and North Africa Briefing No80. Any resolution will mark only a small step toward improving the Security Councils engagement with climate security, but it will at least provide a foundation for more systematic UN efforts to address this rapidly growing challenge. Clark chairs the UN Development Group, an umbrella of major agencies, where she is responsible for implementing Delivering as One. The report proposed extensive changes to promote greater collaboration and efficiency under a programme called Delivering as One. While roughly a third of the detainees are Syrians, the majority are from Iraq and other countries. Contested reports that both Mose and his predecessor embezzled large sums from social programs associated with PetroCaribe, an oil deal with Venezuela meant to free up funds for domestic spending, were particularly explosive. [fn]For more on needs on the ground, see Crisis Group Statement, As Ethiopian Troops Exit Tigray, Time to Focus on Relief, 9 July 2021.Hide Footnote The fighting has also interrupted the planting season, with harvests estimated at only about 25-50 per cent of average levels. Recently, the Philippines contributed and participated in the Global Compact for Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees. The United Nations of today is hugely different from the United Nations 70 years ago, and therefore it is very important the United Nations changes and adapts itself to changing circumstances, he said. Through a very bruising one-year consultation process it became very evident that there was not that much that could be done that could fly politically and we ended up getting rid of two small gender outfits and creating a much bigger gender agency.. The evidence is clearer that political violence can be an obstacle to public health efforts to control COVID-19. [fn]See the Tech Against Terrorism website.Hide Footnote The secretary-general should call on member states to fund creation of a dedicated cell situated in the UNs Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, possibly in partnership with its Department of Global Communications to backstop efforts to track and respond to the manipulation and distortion of information in conflict areas. The two powers, for example, ensured that the Council did no more than make symbolic protests over the 1 February coup in Myanmar and the conflict in Tigray. The UNs childrens organisation, Unicef, provided an education and a path to a better life for millions, including the present UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon. Our Work | United Nations - But the alternative of leaving al-Hol and other detention sites for ISIS to exploit in trying to destabilise north-eastern Syria and neighbouring regions is likely to lead to worse outcomes. This site uses cookies. For more, see Crisis Group Middle East and North Africa Report No222, For more on the ceasefire agreements unfulfilled terms, see Crisis Group Briefing Note, . EdTech Hub. United Nations - Wikipedia What are the sanctions on Russia and are they hurting its economy? - BBC It goes to war in the name of peace but has been a bystander through genocide. Its led to reams of reports written in the UN, many of them impenetrable to the rest of the world because of the jargon used. Staff costs account for two-thirds or more of some UN agencies outgoings. U.S. UN General Assembly votes to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Western diplomats hope that he will be a little more enterprising now that his renewal in no longer in doubt. . No 1: the UNHCR, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. It would be great to see what difference a strong secretary general would make, said one top official. While Iraq cleared 500 families for repatriation in early 2021, the process was reportedly bumpy, with little real planning for reintegrating the first set of returnees, who were moved to camps in Iraq that lacked sufficient food and shelter. [fn]For more, see Crisis Group Middle East Report No208, Women and Children First: Repatriating the Westerners Affiliated with ISIS, 18 November 2019.Hide Footnote The detainees face rampant disease and endemic violence. UN peacekeeping has also made a real difference in other places with recently completed or on-going operations such as . The United Nations, he said, was created not to lead mankind to heaven but to save humanity from hell. See Rebecca Barber, Will the Taliban represent Afghanistan in the UN General Assembly?, EJIL: TALK!, 1 September 2021.Hide Footnote. Looking ahead, even if the global supply of vaccines improves, there is a risk that the World Health Organization and national health authorities will struggle to distribute them in conflict zones. It seems clear the P5 will be divided over how to deal with the Taliban, with China and Russia already adopting a more accommodating approach to the new authorities in Kabul. Such an agreement could have several elements. The Security Council needs to throw its weight behind further UN mediation to resolve these issues, especially the immediate problems of the electoral roadmap and control of the armed forces. Our Common Agenda Report of the Secretary-General, United Nations, 10 September 2021. She said that as the leader of a small country she valued being able to use the UNs size and resources to deliver New Zealands aid programme, such as emergency assistance to Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami. Neither can the UNs huge logistical capabilities, such as the World Food Programmes airlifts, be matched by any private organisation. China and Russia, meanwhile, have hedged their bets in dealing with the U.S. since January, in some cases accommodating Washingtons needs (as over Syria) but often offering only meagre concessions. China runs the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. [fn]Both misinformation and disinformation refer to false or misleading content, but the term disinformation additionally connotes an intent to harm.Hide Footnote It could take a similar role in dealing with forms of harmful content and hate speech that fuel conflicts. The UN and the war in Ukraine: key information Explainer: What is the UN? France has advanced proposals for the sequenced withdrawal of foreign fighters, but this initiative has made no progress to date. But nor, except briefly in 2018, have the P5 treated it as a matter of urgent priority. UN Security Council discusses Kashmir, China urges India and Pakistan Almost everyone gets above average in their assessment..