HAPPY JULY 4TH to all our readers across the world! The PassBlue team is celebrating Independence Day in the USA, but we never stop forgetting that our work is to push for transparency and accountability of governments and officials everywhere: a hallmark of democracy — consent of the governed, not of the elite. We constantly amaze ourselves by the extent of our reporting, which we couldn’t do without you, and this week was no exception. Please donate to our fact-based journalism because we all need it.
This Week @UN: Hamas regenerates itself; Pakistan banks on the UN Charter; where’s gender equality?
Plus: Financing for global development; EU heat wave; Cyprus talks; accusations and more slaughter in Gaza.
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• Our #1 story this week & month: Pakistan Is Still Betting on the UN Charter, interview with Pakistan’s UN envoy, by Damilola Banjo
US-UN Tracker: We have a new editorial feature, closely covering the actions of the US @UN through short items in the weekly summary and longer articles published during the rest of the week. Let us know what you think of this new column and send us your tips through our confidential email: passblue1@gmail.com
• Real help for Haiti? In the UN Security Council on July 2, John Kelley, acting US representative at the UN mission, said, in part, on Haiti: “We remain concerned about the increasing levels of violence, recruitment of children in armed gangs, and food insecurity. As a result of the escalating gang violence, Haiti was reported as one of the countries with the most violations and abuses against children in 2024.”
Yet, the US has ended its temporary protected status, or TPS, for up to 500,000 Haitians living in the US, effective Sept. 2, 2025, although a federal judge blocked the decision. Kelley also referred to the Organization of American States (OAS) just passing a resolution, co-sponsored by the US, “to take a stronger role in Haiti.” These steps occur as the mandate of the UN Security Council-endorsed Multinational Security Support mission (MSS), led by Kenya, is up for renewal on Oct. 2 and as a new head of the UN mission in Haiti (Binuh), Carlos Ruiz Massieu of Mexico, starts in August. The US State Department confirmed to PassBlue that in March, the US unfroze its $15 million contribution to the MSS trust fund. — DULCIE LEIMBACH
• They just don’t like her: On July 1, Dorothy Shea, US interim chief of mission to the UN, told Secretary-General António Guterres to “condemn” the activities of and remove Francesca Albanese, a law professor and UN special rapporteur who monitors human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem. Albanese released a report this week on businesses that work with Israel “sustaining the Israeli settler-colonial project of displacement and replacement of the Palestinians in the occupied territory.” Special rapporteurs are unpaid and appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. Stéphane Dujarric, UN spokesperson, said to PassBlue about rapporteurs: “The Secretary-General has neither the authority to hire them nor does he have the authority to fire them. So, while they do have a UN logo and UN title in their name, they work fully independently of the Secretary-General. He has no idea what they’re going to do, where they are or what they say. . . . “
• Clarity, please: Shea in a Security Council meeting on Sudan, June 27: “Finally, the United States praises the work of the Emergency Response Rooms [ERR] in the last-mile delivery of humanitarian assistance and as first responders to protect civilians.” PassBlue asked a State Department spokesperson whether it was funding the ERR, which provide such services as food kitchens in Sudan. Response: “We are not going to discuss individual Sudanese implementing partners for security reasons.” However, money from USAID to the ERR was frozen in January, leading to reports of children starving to death. According to an ERR representative in the US, the State Department is again helping to finance the 1,600 soup kitchens of the charity as well as water and shelter services, but the actual dollar amount is unclear. –– DULCIE LEIMBACH
From PassBlue this week:
• In Gaza, Hamas Regenerates Itself Despite Israel’s Relentless Killings, Q/A by Arshi Qureshi
• Pakistan Is Still Betting on the UN Charter, by Damilola Banjo
• Where’s the Support for Gender Equality? Women Ask at the Global Forum, by Maria Luisa Gambale on the UN-led Financing for Development conference in Seville, Spain
Top UN news:
Monday, June 30
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Speaking at the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development, which ran in Seville from June 30 to July 3, Guterres said that financing, the “engine” behind international development, is “sputtering” amid widespread cuts to foreign aid programs, putting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development “in danger.” Asked during a joint press encounter with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez who could fill the investment gap left by the US’ potential withdrawal from major development banks, Guterres said that “there are many ways to multiply the resources available if we have the political will for that,” citing tripling the loan capacity of those banks and carbon tax. He stressed, however, that the adoption of the Sevilla Commitment document is proof of countries’ “dedication to getting the engine of development revving again.”
• Press briefing with UN head of policy, Guy Ryder, on updates regarding UN80 reforms.
• Sigrid Kaag of the Netherlands, steps down as the UN interim Mideast coordinator for the peace process
Tuesday, July 1
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Asked about the record-breaking temperatures across Europe, Dujarric said that with increasing deaths from heat exhaustion and economic derailment from rising temperatures, the “heating planet is more than plain to see for anyone who is willing to open their eyes.” Dujarric echoed Guterres’s post on X that record-breaking temperatures are the “new normal” and said that if member states, the private sector and “carbon peddling companies” still need “encouragement to do the right thing, maybe just looking at a thermometer should do that.”
Wednesday, July 2
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Guterres will convene Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders and representatives of the guarantor powers Greece, UK and Türkiye in the UN’s New York City headquarters July 16-17 for the latest informal meeting on the divided island of Cyprus.
• Asked about accusations that the head of the Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF), Johnnie Moore, made in an interview that the UN is refusing to collaborate with and attempting to sabotage the Israeli-backed group’s aid distribution plan in Gaza, Dujarric said Tom Fletcher, the UN Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, had responded to a letter the GHF sent, and that the UN has “never told people not to go to [GHF] sites.” Dujarric added that “[there] is enough work for everyone” as long as “people operate with the minimum standards” for delivering humanitarian aid, notably impartiality, independence and avoiding putting aid workers or recipients “at risk of being shot at.”
Thursday, July 3
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Dujarric said Guterres is “appalled” at the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza after Israeli attacks on shelters and food sites killed and injured scores of Palestinians this week as Israelis also forced “nearly 30,000 people to flee, yet again, with no safe place to go and clearly inadequate supplies of shelter, food, medicine or water.” Without an “urgent influx of fuel,” which Israel has blocked from entering the strip for more than 17 weeks, “incubators will shut down, ambulances will be unable to reach the injured and sick, and water cannot be purified.”
Friday, July 4: The UN was closed for the US holiday.
ICYMI:
• US Contractors Say Their Colleagues Are Firing Live Ammo as Palestinians Seek Food in Gaza
• As Gaza’s Militarized Aid Scheme Proves Deadly, Its Backers Could Face a Legal Reckoning
• Annalena Baerbock, president-elect of the UN General Assembly and a German politician, announced the theme of the annual GA debate in September.
• Crisis-Stricken UN’s Frantic Hunt for Low-Cost Locations Away From New York and Geneva
• Rome-based UN Air Service Slashes Fleet by Nearly a Quarter
• Who Can Lead a Disarrayed World? Electing the Next UN Secretary-General
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.
