America’s last chance to lead Yesterday, 9 December, was the International Day of Commemoration & Dignity of Victims of the Crime of Genocide & Prevention of this Crime. Yet, the international community continues to fail abysmally to prevent it, and to intercept, arrest and hold accountable those directly responsible; nor to adequately uphold Human Rights,…
As Members of the Peacemaking Reflection Group (PRG), composed of former UN civil servants, we are alarmed by the crisis situation in Israel and Gaza. We unequivocally reject and condemn the heinous attacks launched by Hamas on 7 October 2023 and the taking of civilian hostages. We welcome and support the approach the UN Secretary-General…
ON THE OCCASION OF THE GENERAL DEBATE OF THE 77TH SESSION OF THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY by the former UN system staff members signing below In a couple of weeks, the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly will be opening, with world leaders flocking to New York for the “General Debate” high-level segment….
Antonio Guterres, former socialist Prime Minister of Portugal and until last year head of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has emerged as the broadly accepted choice to replace UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, whose term ends on 31 December 2016. Mr. Guterres has been the frontrunner in all six informal votes held at the 15-member Security Council of the United Nations in New York in the recent months. Before that he had presented his vision for the United Nations to the 193 members of the UN General Assembly and had participated in debates and other events, as did the other declared candidates for the job.
