This Week @UN: Budget cuts hit Human Rights Council; French-Saudi 2-state solution debate: dead or alive?; massive UN housing project failure in Kenya; strategizing UN reform.

Plus: Nigeria; Gaza; Israel-Iran; sexual violence in wars; refugees’ big day.

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• Our #1 story this week and month: UN80 Plan Spells Doom for the Organization’s Core Work, Insiders Say, by Damilola Banjo

US-UN Tracker:

• Morgan Ortagus, US deputy envoy for the Mideast, is leaving that post to join the US mission to the UN, reportedly to work for Mike Waltz, US candidate for ambassador to the UN, although his Senate confirmation hearing has yet to be scheduled.

• Jeremy Carl of Montana has been nominated as assistant secretary of state for State Department’s International Organizations bureau. Carl is a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute and an ex-deputy assistant secretary of interior in the first Trump presidency.

• US endorses the re-election of Doreen Bogdan-Martin as secretary-general of the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU), based in Geneva. Bogdan-Martin, an American, was first elected in 2022 in the role under the Biden administration.

• Dorothy Shea, interim chief of mission for US-UN, inadvertently said in the Security Council meeting on June 20 about the Israel-Iran conflict: “Israel’s government also spreads chaos, terror and suffering throughout the region,” before quickly correcting herself, saying, “Iran’s government also spreads chaos, terror and suffering throughout the region.” The US transcript omitted her mistake.

Comings & Goings:

• Ghada Waly, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and director-general of the UN Office at Vienna (UNOV), has announced her resignation from both posts, citing personal and family reasons. The UNODC chief of advocacy, Sonya Yee, told PassBlue that Waly will leave the UN “this autumn,” providing no date. Waly’s second term was originally to end in February 2026. She is a former minister of social solidarity under Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.

From PassBlue this week:

• The Human Rights Council Opens Amid More Budget Cuts, by Michelle Langrand (courtesy of Geneva Solutions)

• The French-Saudi 2-State Solution Debate: Postponed or Canceled?, by Damilola Banjo

• A UN Housing Project in Kenya Promised 100,000 Homes. It Delivered None., by Maurice Oniang’o

• UN Reform: Don’t Put the Cart Before the Horse, op-ed by Georgios Kostakos

Top UN news:

Monday, June 16

• Spokesperson’s briefing: About 200 people, mostly women and children, were killed in north-central Nigeria over the weekend, their bodies “burned beyond recognition,” UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said. He was asked why Secretary-General António Guterres has not issued a statement on the tragedy, which has “protracted since the beginning of this year,” and Haq said Guterres “condemns the killing of innocent civilians, including in Nigeria” and that the UN hopes that “those responsible for this violence will be found and apprehended.”

Tuesday, June 17

• Spokesperson’s briefing: Guterres condemned the “unacceptable” killing of Gazans during “the many instances in which people in Gaza have been killed near food distribution sites” and reiterated Israel’s “clear obligations under international humanitarian law” to enable humanitarian relief for civilians. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said today that 60 people were killed and over 280 were injured by the Israeli military in Khan Younis (south Gaza) after troops shot at a crowd of people clamoring for food from a convoy of the World Food Program and commercial trucks. (Separately, a media report on the militarized Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid hubs “killing fields.”) Additionally, no shelter materials have entered Gaza since 1 March, before Israel imposed a full blockade for nearly 80 days. While some commodities have since been let in through small quantities, tents, timber, tarpaulins and other shelter items remain banned.

Relatedly, a new report of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel.

Wednesday, June 18

• Spokesperson’s briefing: Guterres issued a statement saying he is “profoundly alarmed” by the military escalation between Israel and Iran, calling for a “de-escalation leading to a ceasefire” and avoidance of further “internationalization of the conflict.” Guterres said that diplomacy “remains the best and only way” to address questions about Iran’s nuclear program.

Thursday, June 19

• Spokesperson’s briefing: On the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, the secretary-general of the European External Action Service (EEAS), Belén Martínez Carbonell, and the UN special envoy on sexual violence in conflict, Pramila Patten, released a joint statement to “reaffirm our unwavering solidarity and determination to uphold international obligations and work towards ending sexual violence in all its forms.” This year’s theme on the global commemoration is focused on the “deep and lasting intergenerational wounds of conflict-related sexual violence.” The statement urged countries and international bodies to strengthen legal frameworks to ensure perpetrators face justice.

• The annual report from the Children and Armed Conflict office shows the highest number of grave violations committed against children in wars since the UN started monitoring these actions 30 years ago. In 2024, the office recorded 41,370 incidents of such violations, a 25 percent increase over 2023. The places with the most abuses in 2024: Israel and Gaza; the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Nigeria and Haiti.

Friday, June 20

• Spokesperson’s briefing: On World Refugee Day, Guterres noted the millions of refugees forced to flee war, persecution and disaster, including a record number of people having to “run for their lives,” Stéphane Dujarric said, including people from Sudan, Ukraine, Haiti and Myanmar. Developing countries hosting refugees shoulder the greatest burden, which he said was “unfair and unsustainable.”

ICYMI:

• UN Atomic Boss Achieves Gender Parity, Just Don’t Call It DEI (Rafael Grossi, an Argentine, is unofficially running for UN secretary-general)

• USA IOM appoints new CEO, Joanna Wasmuth of the US 

• Swiss to Spend $329 million to Support UN Geneva

• Geneva-based UN Refugee Agency Says It Will Shed 3,500 Jobs Due to Funding Cuts

• Geneva-based UN Trade Agency Says It Faces Painful Cuts

• Historic UN Building in Geneva Could Be Abandoned

• Geneva-based WHO’s Restructuring Process 

• Femicide Laws Worldwide: 50 Years of Evolution and Ongoing Gaps

Arthur Bassas

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.