Representatives from Hezb-i-Islami, the smallest of Afghanistan’s three major insurgent groups, met with the Afghan president and the United Nations Assistance Mission this week to discuss a list of 15 conditions demanded in exchange for the group laying down its arms. Part 2 of the series. (Part 1.)
The UN Human Rights Council has made “incremental, but notable” progress since the United States joined the body last July according to Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations Suzanne Nossel. Her remarks come as the council concluded its most recent meeting, which was the second formal council session in which the United States participated as a full fledged member.
Representatives from Hezb-i-Islami, the smallest of Afghanistan’s three major insurgent groups, met with the Afghan president and the United Nations Assistance Mission this week to discuss a list of 15 conditions demanded in exchange for the group laying down its arms. Part 1 of a 2 part series about why these developments should be treated with extreme caution.
On Feb. 18, 2010, what has been referred to as a “textbook coup” took place in Niger. President Mamadou Tandja – who had been in power for more than a decade, was widely criticized for his poor management of a chronic food crisis in his country and for his lack of transparency – was ousted by Major Salou Djibo.
The International Criminal Court's governing body, the Assembly of State Parties, is meeting in New York this week. The United States has not ratified the treaty, so it is not technically a "state party," but last year the Obama administration decided that the United States, for the first time, would participate as an observer to the meeting. At the time, U.S.
In Geneva this afternoon the Human Rights Council adopted a sharply worded resolution condemning human rights abuses in North Korea. The resolution passed 28 to 5, with 13 abstentions. China and Russia were among the five, but the vote showed that the Hermit Kingdom is becoming increasingly isolated on the international stage. Compared to previous years, Brazil and Djibouti switched from abstaining to voting with the majority, and Nigeria switched from a "no" vote to abstaining.
The man who became the face of UN climate negotiations leading up to the December Copenhagen climate summit announced that he will retire in July. Now, the race is on to replace Yvo de Boer as the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Our sponsors at the Better World Campaign, which is a sister organization to the United Nations Foundation, just launched a new website that provides quick summaries of all current UN peacekeeping missions. United in Peacekeeping is meant to educate an American audience on the value of UN Peacekeeping. It gives a brief history of each current UN peacekeeping, the current challenges it faces, and a quick explanation of how th
If there is one infection that terrifies me, it’s tuberculosis. Not AIDS, not influenza. TB; it keeps me up at night. It has the capacity to devastate our planet in ways we can’t even imagine yet. Tuberculosis is the single worst pandemic our planet has every faced. It has every characteristic of a superbug. Tuberculosis spreads through the air, and it mutates quickly into drug-resistant forms. It’s not bound by any animal or insect vector and it's not bound by climate conditions.