Some good news: The winners of the 2025 UN Nelson Mandela Prize are Brenda Reynolds, a social worker of Saulteaux heritage supporting the Indigenous communities in Canada; and Kennedy Odede, founder of Shining Hope for Communities, a Kenyan group working in urban slums. The prizes will be awarded as part of Nelson Mandela International Day, July 18.
This Week @UN: Women persevere; US defense boss bashes “feminists”; US cuts UN midwife projects; US blocks UN Gaza ceasefire text.
Plus: Gaza heartbreak; Houthis v. Israel; Sudan’s rising cholera; UN job losses?; UN elections.
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• Our #1 story this week: UN80 Plan Spells Doom for the Organization’s Core Work, Insiders Say, by Damilola Banjo
• Our #1 story this month: Can the UN’s Migration and Refugee Agencies Become One?, an op-ed by Jeff Crisp
• Damilola Banjo’s scoop on US military peacekeepers withdrawing from the UN mission in South Sudan was cited in Foreign Policy
From PassBlue this week:
• Women’s Spotlight: A Cool Head Prevails, our occasional newsletter, edited by Dulcie Leimbach
• Memo to US Defense Boss: The Women, Peace & Security Act Is Federal Law, by Arthur Bassas
• US Cuts to UN Midwife Projects Will Mean More Infant Deaths, by Anisha Dutta
• US Is Blocking a UN Text on Gaza as a Ceasefire May Occur, by Damilola Banjo
Top UN news:
Monday, May 26: The UN was closed for Memorial Day.
Tuesday, May 27
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Stéphane Dujarric called the online videos showing Gazans at new food distribution points operated by a US- and Israeli-backed plan “heart-breaking to say the least” and again stressed that a “meaningful scale-up of humanitarian operations is essential to stave off famine and meet the needs of all civilians, wherever they are.” Asked whether the UN should cooperate with the new privatized Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid project in Gaza, Dujarric said it “is not done with the parameters that we feel match our principles, which we apply across the board, from Gaza to Sudan, to Myanmar.” He added that “we and our partners have a detailed, principled, operationally sound plan — supported by Member States – to get aid to a desperate population.” Even after the UN gets clearances by Israel to truck its aid convoys into Gaza, it is often denied access to its warehouses.
[Updates: Jonathan Whittall of the Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory, said the new GHF aid system is “engineered scarcity: four distribution hubs located in central and southern Gaza, secured by private US security contractors, where those Palestinians who can reach them will receive rations.” The World Food Program (WFP) said “hungry people” on May 28 broke into its warehouse in central Gaza, “clearly in search of food supplies that have been pre-positioned there for distribution” and that the agency is still confirming details after reports that two people died and several were injured in the incident. Additionally, massive displacement continues across Gaza, with nearly 200,000 people displaced in the last two weeks alone. On Thursday, Israel issued a renewed displacement order covering about 30 percent of the strip’s territory in the north.]
• Election time @UN, per Sharon Birch, spokesperson for the president of the General Assembly:
¶ President of the 80th session of the GA, June 2, 10 AM
¶ Vice presidents of the GA and officers of its main committees, June 2
¶ The five nonpermanent members of the Security Council, June 3
¶ The UN Economic and Social Council’s 18 new members, June 4
¶ Mahmoud Daifallah Hmoud of Jordan was elected to the International Court of Justice by the General Assembly and the Security Council, succeeding Nawaf Salam of Lebanon.
Wednesday, May 28
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Dujarric said ongoing military confrontations between Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Israel, including “unacceptable” attacks on civilian infrastructure, are “exacerbating an already very fragile situation in Yemen and the broader region.” He called on “all stakeholders, including the Houthis, to de-escalate and exercise restraint, and uphold their obligations under international law and protect civilian infrastructure.” Israel’s May 28 strike on Yemen’s Sana airport, which followed Houthi strikes on Israel’s Ben Gurion airport, destroyed Yemenia airlines’ civilian aircraft, thus depriving Yemenis of a critical way to leave the country for medical, educational, family or religious reason.
Thursday, May 29
• Spokesperson’s briefing: The UN and its partners began administering cholera vaccinations on May 27 in Sudan’s Jebel Awlia neighborhood, a hard-hit locality in the capital of Khartoum, as cholera cases surge and seriously threaten the lives of children. The World Health Organization (WHO) attributes the rise to damaged water infrastructure and the movement of people amid an intensifying civil war between two Sudanese generals enabled by proxies like the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
Friday, May 30
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Asked about media reports that the UN plans to reduce its overall budget by 20 percent and cut 6,900 staffers, Dujarric said the UN comptroller sent a memo to all heads of offices and parts of the Secretariat as part of the UN80 initiative’s plan to review member states’ mandates and consider “deeper, more structural changes in the programme realignment.” The memo covers about 14,000 posts that are part of the regular budget, setting a June 30 deadline for relevant UN bodies to submit proposals. The comptroller “will look at them. The Secretary-General will look at them, and then we will update Member States,” Dujarric said.
ICYMI:
• Gaza Doctor’s Last Goodbye: Nine Children Killed in Airstrike
• Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Breaching Rules, Switzerland Authorities Say https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gaza-humanitarian-foundation-ghf-breaching-rules-switzerland-authorities-say/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
• Harvard Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights: Jessica Stern named senior fellow, focusing on LGBTQI+
• Revitalization of the CSW zero draft resolution
We welcome your comments on this article. What are your thoughts?
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.
