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Welcome to This Week @UN: Femicide in the workplace; Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s legacy; youngish diplomats; Saudi COP. Plus: Syria; South Sudan; South Africa; UNRWA; Ireland; Myanmar.
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• Our #1 story this week: Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US Envoy, Can Stop Holding Her Breath, by Damilola Banjo
• Our #1 story this month: Argentina’s Far-Right Turn at the UN, by Dulcie Leimbach
• Watch out, Netflix: Our new “Young Diplomats” series launched this week! Damilola Banjo, who conceived the series, asks youngish diplomats why they went into such a complicated field, what they like about it and what needs fixing. This is the not a vague group of future ambassadors but incredibly smart people shaping policy right now, so listen up!
• At the UN Desertification COP in Riyadh, progress was made on many agenda items, including expanding ecosystems under the wing of the UN Convention on Combating Desertification (UNCCD) to rangelands. But there were signs in the final days of the COP16, which ended Dec. 13, that agreement on how to devise a global drought-resilience regime within the Convention would stall. As midnight approached in Riyadh, there was no “white smoke” that the COP’s Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw expressed hope for on Thursday. But it seems safe to say that the major question is whether any directive on droughts will be in the form of a legally binding protocol or as a looser framework. People are saying the United States is the major blocker to such a decision, which may be connected to current US efforts in the ICJ to keep climate obligations out of the courts. One possible resolution is punting a decision till COP17. This is the apparent indication in the latest limited-distribution draft text. Final UNCCD press release. — MARIA LUISA GAMBALE, in Riyadh
From PassBlue this week:
• It’s Time for Frank Talk About Femicides in the World of Work, op-ed by Krishanti Dharmaraj and Ardra Manasi
• Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US Envoy, Can Stop Holding Her Breath, by Damilola Banjo
• ‘‘Young Diplomats’: Our New Short-Video Series Makes Its Debut, by Dulcie Leimbach
• Is the World Drowning in Climate Talks? At the Saudi COP, Some Say Yes, by Maria Luisa Gambale, from Riyadh
Top UN news:
Monday, Dec. 9
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Secretary-General António Guterres said the people of Syria can “seize an historic opportunity to build a stable and peaceful future” after Syrian rebels ended the country’s 14-year civil war when they captured Damascus, the capital, ousting President Bashar al-Assad’s 24-year regime on Dec. 8. Guterres reiterated his “call for calm and avoiding violence at this sensitive time,” nothing that there is “much work to be done to ensure an orderly political transition to renewed institutions.” Sixteen million people need humanitarian aid in the country as it transitions into a new government. UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric has not been informed of a request by the rebels to be delisted as a terrorist organization by the Security Council.
Additionally, Israel informed the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in the Golan Heights in Syria that its troops had entered the area of separation at the two countries’ border as a “temporary defensive measure” to “prevent it from being occupied by non-state armed groups.” Israel added that it “reserved the right to take any action against any threat against the State of Israel.”
UNDOF informed Israel, however, that the actions “constitute a violation of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement that there should be no military forces or activities in the area of separation,” Dujarric said. On Dec. 12, Dujarric noted that Guterres is “concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria” and condemned “all actions that would be inconsistent” with the 1974 disengagement agreement. He called on the parties to “uphold their obligations under this instrument” by “ending all unauthorized presence in the area of separation and refraining from any action that would undermine the ceasefire and stability in the Golan.” The Syrian mission to the UN also sent a letter to Guterres and the Security Council to demand that Israel stop its bombing in Syria.
[UPDATE, Dec 10: Geir Pederson, the UN special envoy for Syria, told media in Geneva that the transition in Syria should prioritize “the protection of civilians, de-escalation, and credible transitional arrangements.” Dec. 13: Pedersen is traveling to Jordan on Dec. 13, where he plans to meet on Saturday with Arab foreign ministers, the foreign minister of Türkiye, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and others at a meeting in Aqaba, Dujarric said]
Tuesday, Dec. 10
• Spokesperson’s briefing: The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is “alarmed by the recent surge” of people crossing from Sudan into South Sudan to flee the “fresh violence in the border areas of Sudan,” and although it is increasing efforts to help the tens of thousands of new arrivals, the agency faces “severe underfunding.”
Wednesday, Dec. 11
• Spokesperson’s briefing: As South Africa gears up to assume the presidency of the G20 for 2025, Guterres traveled to the country to meet President Cyril Ramaphosa, during which they discussed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), reform of the international financial architecture, financing for development and climate action, Dujarric said. Guterres’s press encounter in South Africa.
• Additionally, Dujarric was asked for a comment about a New York Times report regarding Israeli allegations of Hamas infiltration of schools run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). Reply: ” . . . I can tell you that our colleagues at UNRWA were contacted by the New York Times. I think what’s interesting is that those reports were shared by the Israeli security apparatus with the New York Times as opposed to UNRWA, which, whenever they have received information, have taken action. . . . I think, whether it’s UNRWA or the Secretary-General, we’re committed to do whatever we can to ensure the continued neutrality of UNRWA and its operations and its staff.” He added: “As soon as UNRWA is actually given information, action and investigations are done. But doing it through the media is probably not the most efficient way to do it.”
• Maj. Gen Anita Asmah of Ghana is the new head of mission and force commander of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), succeeding Lieut. Gen. Nirmal Kumar Thapa of Nepal.
Thursday, Dec. 12
• Spokesperson’s briefing: An RTE reporter asked Dujarric about the lack of full disclosure of a UN investigation into the killing of an Irish peacekeeper, Private Sean Rooney, in Southern Lebanon on Dec. 12, 2022, saying: “A year ago, the Irish Defence Minister, Micheál Martin, wrote to the Secretary-General, asking for his permission to share the UN’s Board of Inquiry report with the family of Private Sean Rooney. Did the Secretary-General respond?”
Dujarric: “There continues to be a dialogue between ourselves and the Irish Permanent Mission. We have provided quite a bit of information to them to pass on to the family of Private Rooney. I think there is more information in the pipeline that will be shared, and that’s all part of the Secretary-General’s ongoing response and dialogue or the Secretariat’s ongoing response and dialogue with the Irish Permanent Mission.”
RTE: In July, Defense Minister Martin told the Dail, the Irish Parliament, “that the UN insisted that the Board of Inquiry report was for official use only and could not be shared or made public in any form, whole or in part. Is that the case?”
Dujarric: “Boards of Inquiry remain internal documents. It doesn’t mean that at some point that some information that was harvested as part of that Board of Inquiry cannot be shared with the relevant parties. . . .”
He added that “the primary responsibility for investigating the killing of one of our colleagues, of Mr. Rooney, who was serving under the UN flag, remains with the Lebanese authorities. And they are the ones responsible for bringing those responsible for his killing to account.”
Friday, Dec. 13
• Spokesperson’s briefing: The UN and its partners launched the 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan for Myanmar, appealing for $1.1 billion to reach 5.5 million people next year. Humanitarian needs have reached unprecedented levels in the country, Dujarric said, with nearly 20 million people, almost a third of them children, requiring some help in 2025, marking an increase of 1.3 million people over this year.
Arthur Bassas is a researcher and writer who graduated from St. Andrews in Scotland, majoring in international relations and terrorism. He lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., and speaks English and French.
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