[14] Nonetheless, Guterres has to some extent shaken off his notoriety for inaction, and non-Western diplomats say they would like to see him engage more on other crises in the years ahead. Russias massive February offensive has inevitably changed the scale and complexity of the humanitarian challenge facing the UN. China runs the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Thus far, the UN can claim Yemen as one of 2022s relative bright spots, but it is not yet clear whether recent gains are sustainable. Critics point to large numbers of support staff doing ill-defined jobs. The prime minister, David Cameron, put forward just one name to the UN for the post his former health minister Andrew Lansley. Getting Aid to Civilians in Russian-occupied Areas of Ukraine. Proponents centred their objectives around country-specific resolutions and statements where they aimed to safeguard pre-existing climate-security language and expand it where possible. It couldnt just be decreed because no one has the power to decree it, she said. Neither Russia nor any other of the Councils permanent five members want to give ammunition to those states that say the body is irredeemably broken and irrelevant. If the Council cannot agree on this additional extension, the inhabitants of north-western Syria will be deserted mid-winter, when they are most vulnerable. The UN could offer these volunteers grants, salaries, training and protective equipment to help them expand their efforts. Sharply rising temperatures across the globe continue to endanger the safety of workers and impact communities with the least capacity for adaptation, according to a senior economist at the International Labour Organization (ILO). Some of these convenings have also been linked directly to negotiations on UN mission mandates. [7] See Sam Kniknie, A playground for colonial forces: Unpacking the anti-UN protests in DR Congo, The New Humanitarian, 23 August 2022; Le gouvernement congolais demande lONU lexpulsion de son porte-parole en RDC, RFI, 3 August 2022. UNHCR Mali also focuses on asylum issues and supports the government by strengthening the . Then, the UN and the Honduran government would sign an agreement including provisions defining the commissions methods and funding sources. NATO is a crisis prevention and management organisation that has the capacity to undertake a wide range of military operations and missions. The first is the shifting balance of power among anti-Huthi factions. [1] There are differing views among AU member states, for instance, regarding whether the AU Peace Fund would be best used to fund peace operations or mediation and prevention. [1] Most Council members are dismissive of Russias claims, although some also fault the U.S. and other Western powers for airing recriminations that have no real chance of promoting a diplomatic solution to the war. Recently, the Philippines contributed and participated in the Global Compact for Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees. Crisis Group telephone interviews, UN officials and NGO staff working on the eastern DRC, August 2022. In the past 24 months, Mali has witnessed two coups and the exit of a longstanding French counter-terrorism operation, Barkhane, amid jihadist strikes that are getting closer to the capital Bamako. The Guatemalan government likewise closed down the CICIG, in effect, after the commission opened investigations into then-President Jimmy Morales and his son and brother, as well as into Morales alleged illicit campaign funding. With some continental actors rallying their neighbours to address insecurity through ad hoc coalitions in the Sahel and now in the eastern DRC, a dormant debate over the UNs role in assisting and partly funding certain future initiatives led by the AU is re-emerging. U.N. experts say Rwanda has intervened militarily in eastern Congo, Reuters, 4 August 2022. [6] Russia and China have also abstained on a growing number of resolutions, which Council members generally believe corrodes the credibility of the bodys decisions. An aid official says the cross-line option is simply not scalable, given logistical hurdles and the Syrian governments record of manipulating humanitarian assistance.[58]. Crisis Group Latin America Briefing N45, Handling the Risks of Honduras High-stakes Poll, 25 November 2021. In the event, the impact has been mixed. What is the United Nations doing about climate change? MACCIH had the power to prompt and support high-level corruption probes by national judicial authorities as well as suggest essential legislative reforms. The UN, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Afghanistans major donors need to go back to the drawing board, consulting with the Taliban to develop a more straightforward plan for economic development that has buy-in from the de facto authorities. What the UN General Assembly Can Do for Ukraine, Maintaining a Coalition in Support of Ukraine at the UN, Mali: Staying Engaged Despite Souring Relations, Why the UN Security Council Stumbles in Responding to Coups, Toward a New Mandate for the UN Mission in Afghanistan, East Africas DR Congo Force: The Case for Caution, Southwest Land Border Encounters (By Component), U.S. Border Patrol Southwest Border Apprehensions by Sector, Curtain Falls on Guatemalas International Commission against Impunity, Statement from the OAS General Secretariat on CICIES, A Vital Humanitarian Mandate for Syrias North West, An Agenda for the UN Secretary-Generals Visit to Russia and Ukraine, Priorities for the UNs New Agenda for Peace. Richard Gowan, The Peacekeeping Quagmire, Working with the Taliban on Afghanistans Recovery. Human rights under threat in DR Congo and beyond, Security Council hears, UN News, 29 June 2022. Where is the conversation happening which says that, in 2015 and beyond, what is the United Nations there for? Amos asked. Even in an era of acrimonious major-power competition, the institution has shown resilience and the capacity to offer aid and protection in crises where other actors are unable or unwilling to step into the breach. As the two sides work through these issues, the UN Secretariats objective should be to come to agreement with the Castro government on a commission that is recognised by Honduras judicial system, enjoys political support, has the independence needed to take effective action against high-level graft and can build the states ability to do the same over the long term. The point that the G77 is an obstacle isnt fair because the G77 is marginalised in the overall secretariat of the United Nations.. [2] As of 31 August, Russia and China had both cast eight abstentions in Council votes in 2022. The missions charge to protect civilians also faces fresh challenges in light of the Malian armys anti-jihadist offensive, carried out in tandem with Russians allegedly belonging to the Wagner Group, a campaign that has generated reports of atrocities. Women's political participation is a fundamental prerequisite for gender equality and genuine democracy. 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. [1] Malis tense relations with neighbouring states were highlighted when it detained 49 soldiers from Cte dIvoire deployed to support a MINUSMA contractor in July. Security Council members should make every effort to keep the cross-border mandate in place. On 28 June, the UN political and peacebuilding chief, Rosemary DiCarlo, told the Security Council that the "horrific conflict" in Ukraine shows no signs of abating. This article was amended on 9 September 2015. These divisions undermined South Africas attempt to advance the debate in 2019. In Guatemala, the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), which operated from 2007 to 2019, showed that such a mechanism can bring tangible security benefits, such as a lower murder rate. All this General Assembly activism echoed earlier periods of UN history. Moreover, since the late spring, non-Western diplomats, while not condoning Russias assault, have appeared increasingly uncomfortable taking strong positions on the conflict. Russian objections may continue to limit significant progress on a thematic resolution on climate security, but members with channels to Moscow should use all avenues in New York and through their capitals to test the feasibility of a renewed effort to systematise the UNs approach to this growing global challenge. Review our privacy policy for more details. More recently, Russia and China have used their vetoes to block UN intervention in Syria. Border Patrol Southwest Border Apprehensions by Sector, 11 September 2022. Crisis Group interview, prosecutor, Tegucigalpa, 21 October 2021. 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. The Huthis got most of what they wanted: a few airliners have landed in Sanaa, and some oil tankers have docked in Hodeida. Moreover, time may be running out, as neither side seems interested in maintaining the status quo for much longer. In late July, the frustration boiled over into riots in Beni, Butembo and Goma, North Kivus three main cities, that left at least 33 people dead, including four MONUSCO peacekeepers, with locals looting UN offices and supply bases. It also criticised a system of funding for many UN programmes in which officials had to beg for money from governments year after year, making it difficult to plan. Guterres may want to strike a modest tone in addressing these points. [4] See Gowan, An Agenda for the UN Secretary-Generals Visit to Russia and Ukraine, op. cit. Still, despite fears that the resolutions quashing could halt or even reverse climate security gains, proponents have found enterprising ways to keep the agenda alive. They have one eye on the secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, but he is a product of the permanent members of UN security council. Many organisations have overlapping mandates. . It doesn't have to be grammatically perfect, but should use standard English (no text-speak, please) and normal capitalization rules. But while putting the war on pause was an achievement, a political settlement remains elusive, with the parties unable to reach agreement on reopening roads in and around the besieged city of Taiz. It was Dag Hammarskjld, the tragic second UN secretary general, who had it best. RDC: Bahati Lukwebo exige le dpart de la MONUSCO qui dans plus de 20 ans a failli sa mission. African member states exploring options to reignite these discussions should focus on two areas. This task is urgent, because humanitarian donations are neither sustainable nor sufficient to meet the countrys challenges, and aid workers are warning that food insecurity and deaths by starvation will rise again as winter arrives. World leaders will gather the week of 19 September in New York for the UN General Assemblys annual high-level session. The Work UrbanShift Programme Advancing integrated water resources management Climate adaptation Mitigation In their spring consultations, General Assembly members also indicated a desire to see the New Agenda discuss regional prevention. [13] Ukrainian authorities have shut down the plant for the time being as a protective measure, and the atmosphere for diplomacy is less than promising, as Russia takes aim at Ukrainian infrastructure in the face of Ukrainian troop advances in the countrys north east. NGOs based in Trkiye could continue to send some aid if the mandate lapses and UN agencies cease cross-border operations. If they are to stand any chance of securing assistance, they should first encourage greater cohesion among AU member states and then build on the extensive work their predecessors have done on this file. While the initiative has since been on pause, there are indications that space to renew discussions of funding questions could open back up. [3] Crisis Group Commentary, Maintaining a Coalition in Support of Ukraine at the UN, 31 March 2022. Since 1982, the US has used its security council veto to block resolutions critical of Israel 35 times. Because it is open to all member states and makes decisions by a simple majority, the committee is where the G77 exerts its greatest influence. [52], But in a reversal of this trend, after taking office in January, Castro has followed up on her campaign pledge and formally requested that the UN establish an International Commission against Impunity in Honduras. Israel's parliament on Monday passed the controversial "reasonableness" bill, the first major legislation in the government's plan to weaken the judiciary, despite six months of protests . Clark laughed as she said the plan she was presented with was so broad in its goals that it made no sense. Rather than aspiring to unachievable root-and-branch reforms, the UN and its member states should focus on both applying the organisations strengths to complex crises (including aspects of the one in Ukraine) and examining its own capabilities to consider how these can be improved in light of emerging threats. Some Western officials who are hesitant about the UN funding AU-led operations admit in private that they may soften their stance as their governments jockey for support from African states in multilateral settings. The authorities did not fix a date for the missions exit, but some benchmarks in the transition plan have five-year timelines. It will continue to be high on the agenda, but other matters require urgent attention, too. [2] See Crisis Group Latin America Report N83, Virus-Proof Violence: Crime and COVID-19 in Mexico and the Northern Triangle, 13 November 2020. While Russia has ensured that the Council can do almost nothing concrete about the war, Ukraine and partner states have used it as a platform for frequent at times weekly debates with the goal of shaming Russia. The war has dominated diplomacy at the UN in the year to date and is the greatest challenge to the bodys principles at least since the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003. The authors of the New Agenda for Peace, and UN officials generally, will need to keep innovating as best they can with a flawed multilateral system. But it is difficult to imagine how the key actors could implement this plan. Delivering as One, working as one, in the United Nations, thats the main motor of my administration and I have been engaging with all different agencies and funds and programmes so that we can Deliver as One.. The outlines of a new approach emerged the following March, when the Security Council renewed the UNAMA mandate. Meanwhile, the Congolese population is increasingly dissatisfied with the UNs inability to tamp down fighting in the east. . By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. In August, Congolese authorities announced that a Burundian contingent was the first to enter the DRC under EAC auspices, but little is known about when other units will follow.[46]. [3] Hunger riot takes place in Mariupol due to lack of humanitarian aid adviser to the mayor, Ukrainska Pravda, 30 August 2022. Even before February, the UN was struggling amid increasing great-power competition and evolving threats to peace and security, and the war has magnified many challenges it faces. [51] The election of President Xiomara Castro, who ran as a leftist reformer willing to work with multilateral institutions, may create an opening for the UN to help build an institution that can help meet these challenges. For more, see Crisis Group Report, The Price of Peace: Securing UN Financing for AU Peace Operations, op. The organisation now encompasses 17 specialised agencies, 14 funds and a secretariat with 17 departments employing 41,000 people. In 2021, Secretary-General Guterres released a report entitled Our Common Agenda, exploring the future of international cooperation. Some Western officials in Afghanistan agree on this point, complaining of limitations imposed from faraway capitals that restrict discussions with the Taliban-controlled government. Estado de Pas: Honduras 2022, Asociacin para una Sociedad ms Justa, 31 May 2022. Guterres has established a reputation for diplomatic caution since taking office in 2017. One diplomat points to the saga of the UN print shop in New York, a growing anachronism in the digital age. The authorities also expelled MONUSCOs spokesman, saying his comments on the missions limited capacity to fight the M23 had led the violence to escalate. Providing economic development and helping women meet their basic needs would, on the other hand, be a tangible contribution to Afghans well-being, certainly more so than symbolic gestures such as the UN Security Councils recent debates over travel bans for Taliban diplomats.[37]. Last update: 11 May 2023 Death toll reaches 36 in eastern DRC as protesters turn on UN peacekeepers. Both these members, along with China, argued that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change was the more appropriate forum to tackle climate-related issues. Urgent action is needed as it can take time to assess and address the serious risks this technology poses to human rights, warned the High Commissioner: "The higher the risk for human rights, the stricter the legal requirements for the use of AI technology should be". Its work to support a political transition, for instance, is on shaky ground given the transitional authorities uneven commitment to an electoral timetable. The first is the shifting balance of power among anti-Huthi factions. If you look at the secretariat of the United Nations it is dominated by industrialised economies because they are the ones who contribute the bulk of the budget and they get the bulk of the positions in the secretariat, managerial positions, he said. A decade ago, the UN launched its most enduring report into reform. In the context of whats happening today, a few million is not going to make any difference.. The Secretary-Generals report, due in January 2023, could help the Council come to grips with the looming question of whether and how MINUSMA can continue to function in Mali absent French support and amid the Malian authorities tightening controls. [25] These developments in turn had severe consequences for the UN mission. But the government has received nothing: the roads around Taiz remain closed. These factors combined with a Malian military build-up, a spike in civilian deaths and movement restrictions imposed by Bamako, which impede efforts to protect the population and investigate abuses have put the UNs peacekeeping operation in the country, MINUSMA, on an increasingly precarious footing. The UNs development programmes were instrumental in helping countries newly freed from colonial rule to govern themselves. [1] Crisis Group interview, UN-based diplomat, 11 September 2022. After the early withdrawal of a number of UN peace operations precipitated security crises in the 1990s, the Security Council has become congenitally wary of threatening the nuclear option of closing down struggling blue helmet operations. Ban demanded he submit at least three and eventually a former minister at the Department for International Development, Stephen OBrien, was appointed. But there are other people who are very good and they carry the rest.. The UN should use the prospect of the missions departure to leverage concessions from the authorities; at the top of the list should be seeking to convince Bamako to loosen movement restrictions. Though they do not recognise the government, the Huthis demand that it help pay civil servant salaries in areas they control from its oil and gas income and its taxes on imports. Whats new? While AU members are committed to covering 25 per cent of these costs in theory, what their pledge means in practice is a point of contention. 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. 12 Nov 2018 Story Cities and lifestyles Putting the brakes on fast fashion Photo by Unsplash Fashion revolves around the latest trends but is the industry behind the curve on the only trend that ultimately matters - the need to radically alter our patterns of consumption to ensure the survival of the planet. The New Zealander is lauded by some western diplomats for forcing through reforms, which they say are making the UNDP more efficient. [8] The DRC joined the EAC, a regional intergovernmental organisation composed of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, in March 2022. Crisis Group telephone interview, AU official, July 2022. Once openly backed by Rwanda and Uganda, and defeated by UN and Congolese forces in 2013, the M23 re-emerged in November 2021. [5] Crisis Group Latin America Report N70, Saving Guatemalas Fight Against Crime and Impunity, 24 October 2018. 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. tries to clarify who should do what to assist the country with economic development. Crisis Group interview, UN-based diplomat, 11 September 2022. [5] Secretary-General outraged over deadly incident by mission military personnel on Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda border, UN News, 31 July 2022. The global economic downturn and potential cuts in Western aid allotments in light of the Ukraine war are likely to impinge on UN budgets in the years ahead, perhaps also tipping poorer states into deep recession. The DRC joined the EAC, a regional intergovernmental organisation composed of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, in March 2022. But aid convoys using this route to date have been sporadic and small, with fewer than twenty trucks arriving at a time. There are differing views among AU member states, for instance, regarding whether the AU Peace Fund would be best used to fund peace operations or mediation and prevention. Even if youre saying you want to cut a few staff because it makes sense to have them somewhere else, there will be really serious lobbying against that.. A food riot reportedly erupted in August at an aid distribution point in Mariupol, which Russia had captured after intense fighting, and a cholera epidemic also threatens the battered city. The UNs humanitarian work now is a departure from the work it did before the 24 February assault. What they have done is part of a larger sentence in this case, it functions as your subject or your object. Shortly after the truce began in April, Riyadh engineered the ouster of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, then the internationally recognised president, and arranged for a presidential council handpicked by Saudi and Emirati officials to replace him. Distance yourself from the nonsense. At the time of writing, the Secretary-General and the International Atomic Energy Agency are attempting to forge some sort of bargain to demilitarise the endangered nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia, although at least in the short term this initiative may prove less successful. In July, after officials from New York paid a preliminary visit, the UN tabled a proposal charting its next steps in two phases. And yet. They should push Russia to agree to a twelve-month extension of the mandate starting in July 2023, rather than continuing to eke out six-month extensions, which create considerable uncertainty for aid agencies and donors. On Council members views of abstentions, see Crisis Group Special Briefing N1, Council of Despair? While acknowledging MONUSCOs shortcomings, several diplomats and UN officials have suggested that the recent demonstrations against it were in part ginned up by Congolese politicians who were jockeying for position by painting themselves as protectors of local interests against foreign interlopers. Crisis Group interview, UN Security Council diplomat, New York, August 2022. Getting a mandate of any kind was a major step in the right direction in such circumstances, but the mandate itself does not set out clear instructions for UN staff and their Afghan partners. UN armoured personnel carriers, manned by Zambian soldiers serving with the international peacekeeping force, patrolling the streets of Abyei, South Sudan, in 2011. Many bodies within the UN system are actively concerned with climate. As laid out in the first two measures, the government and its outside backers committed to allow commercial flights into the capital Sanaa for the first time in six years and to assure the flow of fuel into the Red Sea port of Hodeida. When I started learning about the arcane intricacies of Delivering as One, there were criticisms that it was very bureaucratic and process oriented. The missions departure would not necessarily redound to the authorities benefit, and it would almost certainly hurt the Malian people. We still have a lot of fragmentation. Indigenous Peoples Policy on engaging with indigenous peoples UNESCO policies, programmes and projects provide opportunities and have significant impacts positive and negative for indigenous peoples worldwide. Yet, as noted, its predecessor was shut down when it homed in too closely on the former president. [1] See, for example, Jonathan Landay, Humeyra Pamuk and Simon Lewis, UN says no evidence to back Russian claim of Ukraine biological weapons program, Reuters, 11 March 2022. It ticked off criticisms which said the UN was badly failing those it was supposed to help. The government has, in turn, made progress on Taizs roads a prerequisite for discussion of salaries, creating a logjam. These events have left the STC whose head Aydrous al-Zubaidi is a presidential council member in a dominant position in the south. Why does it matter? [53], Castros government is now in delicate negotiations with the UN to set parameters for the commissions work. Yet although the UN system may have shown unexpected resilience in 2022, it has also demonstrated severe and worsening vulnerabilities. 3-7. [69] The reports drafters will have to interpret that prompt carefully. How much of a part the UN played in holding nuclear armageddon at bay divides historians. There are explanations for the Secretary-Generals successes to date that point as much to Russias interests as Guterres diplomatic chops, and clear limits to what he can achieve in Ukraine for the time being. is a properly phrased question. Crisis Group interviews, UN official and Congo expert, Nairobi, July 2022.

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