Stéphanie Fillion
Stéphanie Fillion is a New York-based reporter specializing in foreign affairs and human rights who has been writing for PassBlue regularly for a year, including co-producing UN-Scripted, a new podcast series on global affairs through a UN lens. She has a master's degree in journalism, politics and global affairs from Columbia University and a B.A. in political science from McGill University. Fillion was awarded a European Union in Canada Young Journalists fellowship in 2015 and was an editorial fellow for La Stampa in 2017. She speaks French, English and Italian.
The last time the United Arab Emirates was elected to the Security Council, in 1986, the country was only 15 years old, and Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, the current UAE ambassador to the United Nations, was just 7. Since then she …
- Categories: Human Rights, Middle East, Peace and Security, Security Council Presidency
If it were up to the Kremlin, the United Nations Security Council would not have discussed tensions building along the Ukrainian border at a public meeting on Monday. It’s a nonissue, according to Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s deputy ambassador to the …
- Categories: Peace and Security, Security Council, Security Council Presidency
Norway holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council in the country’s 2021-2022 term only once — in January — so it is aiming to make the best of this moment. “We have to make sure to put our mark …
- Categories: Gender Violence, Peace and Security, Security Council Presidency
Jane Holl Lute is in high demand. In 2020, on top of her two high-level United Nations jobs, the American diplomat has juggled other numerous executive roles on corporate and/or nonprofit boards, earning more than $900,000, according to public records. …
- Categories: Gender Violence, UN Diplomats
When Niger, a landlocked country in West Africa, started its term on the Security Council almost two years ago, Covid-19 was not an international crisis yet, Operation Barkhane, a French antiterrorist operation launched in 2014, was full-fledged in the Sahel …
- Categories: Africa, Security Council Presidency
Mexico has only one chance in its two-year term to shine as president of the Security Council, and it’s this month. While all eyes are now focusing on Glasgow, Scotland, and the United Nations-led COP26 meeting on climate change, Mexico …
- Categories: Caribbean, Latin America, Migration, Refugees, Security Council Presidency
In October, the United Nations Security Council diplomats are packing up their suitcases and hopping on an overseas flight to the Sahel region of West Africa to assess the serious challenges that this semiarid strip is countering. It is the …
- Categories: Africa, Caribbean, Latin America, Peace and Security, Security Council Presidency, Terrorism
It is that time of year again: The United Nations General Assembly’s annual meeting with world leaders returns in a hybrid format after being virtual last year. Which heads of state and government are coming? What should you watch for? …
- Categories: Secretary-General, UNGA76, US-UN Relations
This year’s United Nations General Assembly could make or break the future of in-person meetings at the gathering in New York City. After a year of carefully negotiating, adapting and crafting health guidelines, UNGA organizers are hoping to avoid a …
- Categories: Africa, Asia, General Assembly, Latin America, Middle East, Secretary-General, Security Council, UNGA76, US-UN Relations
The day after the Taliban took over Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason of Ireland spoke directly to Afghan women through her remarks in the United Nations Security Council, telling them: “Women of Afghanistan: we hear you and we …
- Categories: Human Rights, Security Council Presidency
Diego Arria, a former Venezuelan diplomat and political figure, is a moving target. But he took the time recently to speak with PassBlue — and explain how, in the 1990s, informal coffees in one of the United Nations headquarters most-famous …
- Categories: Security Council, UN Diplomats
The presidency of the Security Council is always a high time for a country’s diplomacy, but for India right now, it’s more than that. In August, the country is going to try to show the world why it deserves a …
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought enormous changes and challenges to the United Nations Security Council. One result has been the heightened politicization and proliferation of the Arria-formula meetings, or informal sessions, of the Council that can be initiated by any …
- Categories: Peace and Security, Security Council
France is in the diplomatic spotlight at the United Nations as it’s not only leading the Security Council for the month of July, but it is also just finishing up hosting the long-awaited Generation Equality Forum, a UN-led gathering that …
- Categories: Africa, General Assembly, Humanitarian Aid, Security Council Presidency, UN Peacekeeping
The small Baltic country of Estonia is ready to boost the prospects of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres winning a second term as the country holds its last Security Council presidency in June during its current elected term. “It will …
- Categories: Child Soldiers, Secretary-General, Security Council Presidency



