On this commemoration of Armistice Day, 11 November 1918, Marking the silencing of weapons at the end of World War I, We, the undersigned concerned citizens of the world, Call for a ceasefire in all conflicts currently raging on our planet, between and within countries, on all continents. How many more millions of dead human…
This essay is written to distance proper understanding of the Russian war against Ukraine from any false equivalence that this is a conflict between two belligerents, whose perspectives deserve equal recognition as a prelude to a negotiated outcome. Attempts to explore alternative avenues to peace, and identify differentiated messages and appropriate envoys and institutions should…
Seventy-seven years ago today, on 6 August 1945, the United States Airforce dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, instantly killing an estimated 70,000 people – a number that would grow to about 140,000 over the coming year as radiation sickness took its toll. The bomb dropped on Nagasaki only three days later raised the total…
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UCNFCC), the world’s first climate change treaty, is 30 years old. It was adopted on 9 May 1992 and opened for signature at the Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro on 4 June 1992. Should the world be celebrating? Looking back Personally, I take…
*This tribune was originally published in French in Le Monde dated 30/3/2022 After unsuccessfully and repeatedly calling on Russian President Putin to end this deadly conflict and respect the United Nations Charter, Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations (SG), seems to have disappeared from the radar. Heads of State talk to Putin, heads…
Over the weekend of 28 January 2022, Russia moved blood supplies close to its border with Ukraine, where tens of thousands of Russian troops have been amassing, further adding to US concern of the imminency of invasion. When stored at 6ºC, donated blood can last up to approximately six weeks. The clock is ticking as the…
The Glasgow Climate Pact, taken together with other decisions adopted at the close of COP 26, constitute an impressive step forward in multilateral climate policy. The true measure of success of “Glasgow”, however, will lie not in the words uttered or committed to paper but in the lasting impact of the full array of Glasgow’s…
This is a republished version of the original article published on EuroNews, which you can access here. As we slowly exit pandemic lockdown mode – at least those of us who are fully vaccinated and till the Delta and/or other COVID-19 variant submerge our health systems with new cases – it is good to take…
The following keynote speech was delivered by Richard Kinley on 17th June 2021 at the Coalition for the UN We Need‘s online event – ‘Europe and North America Regional Consultation: working together for the world we deserve’. I was asked to give a keynote on UN multilateralism, for which I’d like to thank the…
India – one of the cradles of human civilization, an economic powerhouse with the fifth-biggest GDP among all countries, the largest and most diverse democracy in the world. Yet recently, the COVID-centred coverage of international media has reduced this enormously complex nation into an endless series of calamitous scenes of death and suffering wrought by…
