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This Week @UN: Popular/unpopular UN reform ideas; Guyana loves this Afro-Caribbean alliance; remodeling UN development; Saudi-French push for 2-state solution (video). Plus: Yemen; Sudan; Gaza; killed UN staff; US bans.
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• Our #1 story this week: US Is Blocking a UN Text on Gaza as a Ceasefire May Occur, by Damilola Banjo (see more below)
• Our #1 story this month: Can the UN’s Migration and Refugee Agencies Become One?, op-ed by Jeff Crisp
• Winners in General Assembly elections: The president of the 80th session of the GA, starting in mid-September for a yearlong term: Annalena Baerbock, a former foreign minister of Germany and only the fifth women to lead the 193-member UN body.
Five new members to the Security Council for the 2026-2027 term: Bahrain, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Latvia and Liberia. They succeed Algeria, Guyana, Sierra Leone, Slovenia and South Korea. (Sad to see you go in six months!)
Eighteen countries to the UN Economic and Social Council to serve three-year terms, beginning Jan. 1, 2026: Australia, Burundi, Chad, China, Croatia, Ecuador, Finland, India, Lebanon, Mozambique, Norway, Peru, Russia, St. Kitts and Nevis, Sierra Leone, Türkiye, Turkmenistan and Ukraine. (In a by-election, Germany won the Jan. 1, 2026 to Dec. 31, 2026 term; the United States won the Jan. 1, 2026 to Dec. 31, 2027 term.)
• Just say no way: The US was the sole vote against a General Assembly proposal by Mongolia to designate July 11 as World Horse Day (it galloped ahead anyway). The next day, the US vetoed a Security Council draft text to lift aid restrictions in Gaza (see below).
• A long shot: A new candidate announced for UN secretary-general, 2027-2031 term: Bruno Donat, a former UN official. His statement; and more information about him.
• Gaza-aid killing fields: The operations of the new privatized, militarized aid hubs run by the US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), backed by Israel, were less than a week old when Israel Defense Forces, reportedly guarding the perimeter of a GHF hub, killed approximately 20 Gazans rushing to get access to the tiny boxes of food — like dried pasta and tomato sauce — and carry them back to their shelters in white bags. Two days later, the IDF killed more Gazans who reportedly veered into a no-go zone near a GHF hub, leaving approximately 26 people dead.
That Wednesday, the US vetoed a UN Security Council draft text emphasizing the lifting of aid restrictions imposed by Israel in Gaza, including by the UN. (The UN refuses to work with GHF, saying its hubs are “engineered scarcity,” among other criticisms.) In the Council, the US urged the “UN and NGOs to support the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) to help it safely deliver aid without being diverted by Hamas. The GHF has emphasized it will deliver aid consistent with the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence.”
A source told PassBlue that in the text negotiations, the US asked that the resolution endorse the GHF, which in the final version did not happen. The US also asked that references to the UN delivering aid into Gaza be deleted, as well as a reference to Council Resolution 2735 on a Gaza ceasefire. The text, approved in June 2024, was led by the US, under the Biden administration. “The US and Israel don’t want the UN to deliver aid,” the source said.
As the GHF reopens, closes and reopens some hubs this week amid the “unfortunate incidents,” a spokesperson said of the IDF killings on June 4, it named the Rev. Dr. Johnnie Moore as its new chair. Although the GHF operates a Facebook page to inform Gazans of hub hours, it has no public face and refuses to disclose its funding sources, telling PassBlue that “nonprofits don’t do that.” The GHF also regularly notes “inaccurate news reporting” in its press releases (even describing a wire story “that failed to differentiate between kinetic activity in Jabalia and GHF operations far from that area.”)
Yet, the GHF also reveals no information about the contractors and subcontractors it is has hired and how much it is paying them, including US-based security firms guarding the hubs and escorting the aid convoys into Gaza. (McNally Capital is reportedly financing one such firm, Safe Reach Solutions, who is represented by a public relations firm in D.C. named Foretell), while Boston Consulting Group dropped its involvement with GHF this week. Additionally, Rahma Worldwide, a US charity, reportedly let GHF distribute its aid, but complained that its logo was visible.
A Spanish-led draft resolution on Gaza is scheduled to be voted in the General Assembly on June 12. Among other aspects, it “demands the immediate and permanent facilitation of full, rapid, safe and unhindered entry of humanitarian assistance, including food and medical supplies to and throughout the Gaza Strip and its delivery to all Palestinian civilians, as well as fuel, equipment, shelter and access to clean water, with full respect for the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence, in coordination with the United Nations.” — DULCIE LEIMBACH
From PassBlue this week:
• Results: Survey on Major UN Agenda Reform Ideas, by PassBlue
Most popular:
- Merging peace and security departments: Fifty-two percent of respondents “strongly agree” with merging the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and the Department of Peace Operations
- Creating a Single Human Rights Department: Fifty percent of survey-takers “strongly agree” with consolidating human rights efforts into one Human Rights Department, led by the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Least popular: - Relocating UN Jobs: Only 38.6 percent of respondents “strongly agree” with relocating some UN jobs from high-cost locations like New York City and Geneva to potentially cheaper hubs like Nairobi
- Creating a UN Humanitarian Response and Protection Organization: 42 percent of respondents “strongly agree” with integrating the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration into a single entity
• Guyana Empowers an Afro-Caribbean Alliance Through A3+, exclusive interview by Damilola Banjo
• Finally, the Moment to Reshape the UN Development System Is Here, by Stephen Browne and Thomas G. Weiss
• The Saudis and French Revive the Two-State Solution: A Video Q/A With Guyana’s Envoy, by Damilola Banjo
Top UN news:
Monday, June 2
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Secretary-General António Guterres renewed his call for the “immediate and unconditional release” of dozens of UN and civil society personnel, as well as diplomatic missions, by Yemen’s Houthi rebels one year after the staffers’ capture, calling their “arbitrary detention” a “profound injustice against those who dedicate their lives to providing life-saving assistance and support to the people of Yemen.” Guterres also reiterated his “strongest condemnation” of the death of a World Food Program (WFP) staff in detention this year, for which the Houthis have not provided an explanation.
Tuesday, June 3
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Five humanitarians were killed and several injured when a 30-person, World Food Program–Unicef convoy carrying food and nutrition supplies was attacked in Sudan’s North Darfur region while the agencies were negotiating access into the contested capital of El Fasher. The UN condemned “in the strongest possible terms this horrendous act of violence against humanitarian personnel” — the first in over a year to reach El Fasher. The UN did not say who unleashed the attack, but Sudan War Monitor, an independent newsletter published on Substack, reported that the drone strike could have been a Rapid Support Forces (RSF) hit.
Wednesday, June 4
• Spokesperson’s briefing on Gaza updates: UN health partners report that after more medical facilities suspended their operations in Gaza, leaving “not a single hospital remains functional” in the north. The UN continues to send supplies for Israeli authorities to scan at the Kerem Shalom crossing in Gaza, submitting over 130 pre-cleared truckloads on June 4, for example, for a final Israeli clearance — only 50 of which, carrying flour, were approved to enter. Overall, since the crossing reopened in mid-May, the UN has been able to collect fewer than 400 truckloads of aid to deliver inside the enclave, although “every day we have tried to coordinate access and secure safe routes through the Israeli-militarized zone in the south.” Additionally, a lot of the foodstuff that is traveling in open trucks, as it is required of the UN to do, has also been looted by people who don’t know when the next truck will come.
• Maj. Gen. Diodato Abagnara of Italy is the new head of mission and force commander of UNIFIL (Lebanon), succeeding Lieut. Gen. Aroldo Lázaro Sáenz of Spain.
Thursday, June 5
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Guterres paid tribute to the 168 UN men and women who died in the line of duty in 2024, noting at the annual memorial that their deaths are a “reminder of the “thousands of [living] UN personnel who serve around the world today, carrying out the missions entrusted to them by the countries that make up these United Nations.” Guterres said 2024 was “especially devastating” in Gaza, where 126 staff members were killed, all but one of whom served with UNRWA.
• Addressing US President Trump’s new travel bans/restrictions on 19 countries, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said it is “the right of every country to decide how to control its borders and who they allow in” as long as it “respects human dignity.” He also noted: “The US, as host country, like other host countries of UN headquarters, have responsibilities, treaty-based responsibilities to facilitate the travel of UN personnel and delegates, and we understand that is included in the order that was issued, the executive order.”
ICYMI:
• US potential cuts to the UN: voluntary contributions: Unicef, the UN Development Program, UN Population Fund. Mandated contributions to peacekeeping.
• Mother of Pvt. Sean Rooney of Ireland Can Sue the UN
• Leaked State Department Memo Reveals Profound Restructuring
We welcome your comments on this article. What are your thoughts on the US veto on Gaza aid?
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.
