This Week @UN: Restarting multilateralism; fact-checking a SecGgen debate; fighting child labor.
Plus: Gaza crossings blocked; disability-rights progress; women’s-rights protests in Afghanistan; Oman tackles hate speech; this filthy-rich guy just got richer.
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• Our #1 story: Five New Countries Elected to the UN Security Council’s 2027-28 Term, by Damilola Banjo
• Breaking news: Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Guyana’s ambassador to the UN, has been nominated by her country as a candidate for UN secretary-general.
PassBlue this week:
• How the Next UN Chief Can End the Era of Stalled Multilateralism, by Jérôme Bellion-Jourdan & Hayley Walker
• Fact-Checking a UN Secretary-General Candidates’ Debate in Geneva, by Damilola Banjo
• Free Education Is Crucial to Combating Child Labor, op-ed by Jo Becker
US-UN Tracker: In a recent interview on Fox News, Jeff Bartos, the US representative for UN management and reform, said that “UN reform is no longer an oxymoron,” noting $570 million in cuts in the organization’s budget and 2,900 positions eliminated. Bartos points to the cuts as “evidence that the Trump Administration is successfully reshaping a bloated and inefficient system detached from its core mission,” according to a statement from the US mission to the UN. Yet the interview does not mention that the US owes approximately $4 billion in mandatory dues to the UN regular and peacekeeping budgets, much of it in arrears.
On June 8, Farhan Haq, UN deputy spokesperson, took exception with Bartos contending the reforms were orchestrated by the US, saying: “You’re aware of the UN80 initiative and the role the Secretary-General has played, both in terms of streamlining the Secretariat under his own authority and proposing to the Member States steps that they can take. The steps, by the way, to make the UN more efficient that are undertaken by bodies like the General Assembly are to the credit of all the Member States, not any individual one. And we certainly appreciate the work that all States, including the United States, have played in the reform process.”
Top UN news:
Monday, June 8
• Spokesperson’s briefing: The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the Israeli government closed the Kerem Shalom crossing, the only crossing into Gaza that had been operational for cargo over the past two weeks, and the Rafah crossing on June 8, with Israel citing the recent Iranian strikes fired toward Israel for the closures, said the UN deputy spokesperson, Farhan Haq. [Update, June 9-11]: Israel reopened Kerem Shalom crossing, which remains the only point for approved cargo to enter Gaza, but on June 11, its crossings were reduced. The Rafah crossing was reopened for a limited number of people in both directions.
• Tressa Rae Finerty of the US is named deputy high commissioner for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), succeeding Kelly Clements of the US.
Tuesday, June 9
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Speaking at the 19th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), Secretary-General António Guterres celebrated the Convention’s ratification by 193 countries and one regional organization as major progress, highlighting that over 90 percent of countries have laws protecting the rights of persons with disabilities and almost 80 percent “prohibit discrimination in hiring.” Although the achievements have helped millions of people gain access to education and employment, Guterres urged governments to “empower persons with disabilities as full partners in policymaking and decision-making,” adding that the latest UN Disability and Development Report finds that “almost all disability-related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators are off track.”
Wednesday, June 10
• Spokesperson’s briefing: OCHA notes with concern violence and human rights violations amid “increasing restrictions against women and girls” as well as rising hostilities between Pakistan and Afghanistan, as the Taliban in Afghanistan reported “multiple airstrikes attributed to Pakistan” in the Kunar, Khost and Paktika provinces. (Pakistan denies the accusations.) Dozens of women and girls were reportedly detained across Herat City, after the Taliban government decreed that women must “observe the existing strict dress code requirements in public areas,” and a child was killed and others were injured when the Taliban open-fired on civilians protesting the detentions, according to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) on June 9. More on Herat’s “Education, Work and Freedom” protests.
Thursday, June 11
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Guterres delivered remarks on the launch of the Muscat Plan of Action, an initiative led by the Sultanate of Oman, the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, and the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers. The plan, Guterres said, aims to counter hate speech and help prevent genocide and atrocity crimes through the “role of traditional and Indigenous leaders in promoting peace and strengthening social cohesion.”
• Barham Salih, the UN high commissioner for refugees, announced the release of the Global Trends Report, documenting forced displacement for 2025. It shows a decrease in the number for the first time — 3 percent — in a decade, to nearly 118 million people. The report also shows that people returning to their countries totaled about 14 million, including large numbers in Syria, Sudan and Afghanistan, though the latter returns are considered “involuntary” because of expulsions from Iran and Pakistan.
Friday, June 12
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Following his company SpaceX’s market launch on June 12, Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire, a mark that Dujarric said underscores the “issue of inequality” and the “responsibility of some of those who are on the positive side of the inequality to do whatever they can to support everyone.”
ICYMI
DR Congo: Colonel Sentenced to Death for Murder of UN Experts, news article
World Cup: UN Rights Chief Urges ‘Massive Rethink’ of US Immigration Policies Ahead of World Cup, (UN) news article
World Cup: As Haiti Returns to the World Cup After 50 Years, Haitian Fans Are Left on the Sidelines, news article
World Cup: Why the Men’s World Cup 2026 Is a Gender Equality Opportunity, (UN) news article
World Cup: Hundreds of NYC Restaurants Are Offering $26 Dining Deals During the World Cup, news article
Labor: International Labor Organization Adopts Landmark Treaty on Gig Work, NGO report
US: Who’s Who in Frank Garcia’s State Department Africa Bureau, news article
Central African Republic: Malicious Markets: Mapping the Violent Criminal Ecosystems in CAR, NGO report
Global conflicts: Conflict Trends, a Global Overview, 1946-2025, NGO report
UN: Improving Impact From UN Reports, Substack post
AI: AI Governance as Competitive Advantage, NGO report
Dulcie Leimbach is a co-founder, with Barbara Crossette, of PassBlue. For PassBlue and other publications, Leimbach has reported from New York and overseas from West Africa (Burkina Faso and Mali) and from Europe (Scotland, Sicily, Vienna, Budapest, Kyiv, Armenia, Iceland, The Hague and Cyprus). She has provided commentary on the UN for BBC World Radio, ARD German TV and Radio, NHK’s English channel, Background Briefing with Ian Masters/KPFK Radio in Los Angeles and the Foreign Press Association.
Previously, she was an editor for the Coalition for the UN Convention Against Corruption; from 2008 to 2011, she was the publications director of the United Nations Association of the USA. Before UNA, Leimbach was an editor at The New York Times for more than 20 years. She began her reporting career in small-town papers in San Diego, Calif., and graduating to the Rocky Mountain News in Denver. Leimbach has been a fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center’s Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies as well as at Yaddo, the artists’ colony in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; taught news reporting at Hofstra University; and guest-lectured at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the CUNY Journalism School. She graduated from the University of Colorado and has an M.F.A. in writing from Warren Wilson College in North Carolina. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.
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