Category: UN INSIDER

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Kazakhstan has made a strong plea for a close and proactive working relationship between the United Nations Secretary-General and the Security Council. In doing so, Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov of Kazakhstan – which began its two-year term as non-permanent member of the Security Council on January 1 – concurred among others with Sweden’s Foreign Minister and Security Council President for January, Margot Wallström.

She said such a relationship “is the cornerstone of this Organization’s ability to deliver lasting peace and security” – “not least to improve the UN’s capacity to take early action to prevent violent conflict”. Though conflict prevention had been discussed “many times before . . . progress is meager”.

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – UN Member States will engage in broad consultations throughout 2017 to inform negotiations on a global compact on safe, regular, and orderly migration in 2018. In this, the Global Migration Group (GMG), headed by United Nations University (UNU) Rector and UN Under-Secretary-General Dr David M. Malone since January 1 will play a crucial role.

GMG, a forum of 21 agencies and entities from the United Nations system, promotes norms relating to international migration so as to work towards improved global governance of this issue. UNU formally joined the GMG in 2014, placing UNU’s expertise on migration at its service.

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – Within days of taking up the post of the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres has urged the influential Security Council to undertake new, strengthened efforts to build and sustain peace ranging from prevention, conflict resolution and peacekeeping to peacebuilding and sustainable development.

Supporting Guterres, Sweden’s Foreign Minister and Security Council President for January, Margot Wallström emphasized that a close and proactive working relationship between the Council and the Secretary-General was the cornerstone of the Organization’s ability to deliver lasting peace and security.

By Rodney Reynolds

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – When former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stepped down on December 31 after a 10-year tenure at the United Nations, he said his “deepest regret” was to leave office with “the continuing nightmare in Syria” where a six-year-old civil war has virtually devastated a country beyond physical recognition.

As Ambassador Marc-Andre Blanchard told a General Assembly December meeting that without action, Syria would soon become “a giant graveyard, as food supplies have been exhausted and families were eating grass and the little garbage left,” in order to survive.

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – Ahead of the inauguration of Donald Trump as 45th President of the United States on January 20, analysts are far from certain whether he would take to policies that reduce nuclear dangers or resort to actions resulting in a suicidal arms race.

The guessing game is taking place against the backdrop of the United Nations General Assembly having confirmed that beginning March 2017, it would hold a conference open to all member states, to negotiate a “legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination”. The conference to be held at UN headquarters in New York will be divided into two sessions: from March 27 to 31 and from June 15 to July 7.

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) – In the face of humanitarian crisis plaguing Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory – including East Jerusalem – and those who have fled the conflict in Syria, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has launched an $813 million emergency aid appeal.

Speaking to UN News, Pierre Krähenbühl, the Commissioner General for UNRWA said: “Palestine refugees are among the worst affected by the conflict. Over 95 per cent of those who have remained in Syria – 430,000 – are in critical need of sustained humanitarian assistance.”

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – In a fresh move to deliver on his pledges on gender parity and geographical diversity, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has announced the appointment of Ursula Mueller of Germany as Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Mueller is the fourth key woman for four key posts. According to a statement on January 5, she will succeed Kyung-wha Kang of the Republic of Korea, who is currently serving as Chief of the Transition Team in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General. She has served as Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs since April 2013, and was Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights from January 2007 to March 2013.

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) and the World Customs Organization (WCO) have agreed on a memorandum of understanding (MoU) of far-reaching significance to formalize existing cooperation.

The importance of the MoU is underlined by the fact that terrorism, proliferation of weapons and materials of mass destruction, trafficking of small arms and explosives, and illicit diversion of dual use goods pose a serious threat not only to security and safety of people, but also to economic development, political stability and social cohesion of countries across the globe.

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – A few days ahead of Kazakhstan joining the Security Council on January 1 as a non-permanent member for two years, President Nursultan Nazarbayev appointed the Central Asian republic’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Kairat Abdrakhmanov as new Foreign Minister.

On December 28 he replaced Erlan Idrissov (57) who held the post from 1999 to 2002 and 2012 to 2016. He takes over as Ambassador to the UK, a post he held from 2002 to 2007. He was then ambassador to the United States from 2007 to 2012.

By Sebastian von Einsiedel and Cale Salih*

With the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States on 20 January 2017, the United Nations is headed toward a new and potentially challenging relationship with its largest funder. This article refers to four areas that may be especially affected by the change of guards in Washington DC – Security Council dynamics; funding; climate change; and human rights – and makes concrete recommendations for the new Secretary-General António Guterres on how he can best protect the UN from “beginners’ mistakes all around” in the new U.S. Administration.