Compiled by Dick Bennett for a World of Peace, Justice, and Ecology
A Once-in-a-Generation Moment 2024
United Nations Foundation <mailings@unfoundation.org>
This month marked a series of grim milestones for cascading crises — some persistent and others more recent.
One year of brutal war in Sudan. Six months of horrific conflict in Gaza. The second straight month of escalating gang violence in Haiti. And 10 years since 276 girls were abducted by Boko Haram in Nigeria – many of whom remain in captivity today. Amid such devastating conflicts, the world is in desperate need of urgent solutions today — and a better plan for collectively managing future crises.
Enter: The once-in-a-generation Summit of the Future.
UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed briefs reporters on the Financing for Sustainable Development Report 2024. Photo: UN Photo / Loey Felipe
The Summit is set to deliver a transformational Pact for the Future, action-focused commitments to safeguard the future, help the world better manage and respond to crises, and reaffirm the 2030 Agenda.
The Summit of the Future is a timely convening when global challenges are steep. As UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said while calling for greater investment in the SDGs: “We must choose now either to succeed together or we will fail together.”
Sparking Citizen Engagement
With just five months until the Summit of the Future, UN Foundation experts and partners share recommendations on how to strengthen citizen participation and inclusion in the multilateral system.
FROM OUR EXPERTS…
A Big Year for the SDGs in the USA
2024 could be a huge year for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the U.S., writes Caroline Kleinfox, Director of U.S. SDG Policy Planning at UN Foundation. Across the country, a growing movement of students, local governments, and community leaders is harnessing the power of the Goals to improve their communities. Read the blog >>
The Pandemic Accord, Explained
Ahead of the World Health Assembly (held May 27-June 1), UN Foundation’s Global Health team breaks down the often-misunderstood Pandemic Accord and how its adoption could help prevent future health crises, like COVID-19. Learn more and get involved>>
Centering the Global Goal on Adaptation
A new declaration adopted at COP 28 in Dubai positions adaptation — the process of building resilience to global warming’s impacts — as a key component in responding to the climate crisis. UN Foundation’s Climate and Environment team translates the terminology and previews what’s next in a new resource section on unfoundation.org. Explore the page >>
CSW in the Spotlight
As the 68th Commission on the Status of Women came to a close, Mark Goldberg spoke with Michelle Milford Morse, Vice President for Girls and Women Strategy at UN Foundation for his Global Dispatches podcast. Listen to the discussion >>
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March 2024 Issue of UNA Today
UNA-USA
UNA-USA’s 2024 Leadership Summit
Get ready for the 2024 Leadership Summit on June 2-4, 2024 in Washington, DC where exhilarating programming and advocacy await! Every year, UNA-USA brings together over 250 activists to tell congress, “The World Needs the UN, the UN needs U.S.”
Dive into captivating discussions on global issues and advocacy strategies during the first two days. Then, on Tuesday, June 4, join the in-person Capitol Hill meetings, where you’ll have the chance to amplify the importance of U.S. funding for the UN with your Members of Congress.
*UNA-USA’s Leadership Summit is for UNA-USA members only! Don’t miss out on this extraordinary opportunity to empower yourself and make a difference: become a member today!
2024 Congressional Briefing Book
Exciting news! Each year, the Better World Campaign publishes a comprehensive guide highlighting America’s crucial role on the global stage through its engagement with the United Nations. This guide equips supporters, policymakers, and inquiring minds with insights to understand the value of U.S. involvement in the UN. It spotlights the value of UN funds and programs in advancing U.S. interests, explains constructive engagement on UN reforms, advocates for full U.S. engagement with key UN bodies, and more.
Ask Your Members of Congress to Fully Fund the United Nations!
Ensuring we meet our financial commitments to the UN is essential for global peace and security. Now that President Biden has unveiled his budget plan, it’s time to make our voices heard on what’s important for FY’25. A recent poll showed that 73% of voters, regardless of political affiliation, support America’s involvement with the UN. Urge your elected officials to back an appropriations bill for FY’25 that adequately funds multilateral diplomacy, including full funding for the UN.
Shot@Life
This spring, we’re excited to #AdvocatetoVaccinate with @ShotAtLife to protect vaccine progress around the world. Sign their new petition to urge strong U.S. support for lifesaving global childhood immunization programs in 2025: Together, we can make an impact! #VaccinesForAll
Climate& Environmental Action Affinity Group Event!
Calling all UNA-USA members! The climate and Environment Action Affinity Group is thrilled to announce our first virtual event, which will be held on Friday, April 5 at 12:30pm ET. The event will focus on the forthcoming UN Plastics Treaty, and we will be joined by Rafael Peralta and Hilary French from the United Nations Environment Programme.
Join Our Movement
UNA Today aims to inform Americans interested in global affairs and the UN about important updates, events, opportunities, and campaigns. As the largest group of UN advocates in the U.S., UNA-USA members are the leaders fighting to protect and promote the vital work of the United Nations. UNA-USA’s membership finds strength in numbers. Join UNA-USA today to gain exclusive access to learning, leadership and networking opportunities, and our closed online community to connect and network with fellow members across the country! (Those under 26 join free!)
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Help UNA-USA continue to provide world class programming, customer service for more than 20,000 members, and support to more than 200+ chapters by making a contribution before the end of the year. There’s also a chance to donate to the Delegate Fund, which will help to offer financial assistance to members to attend UN and UNA conferences and convenings.
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TREATIES
The Premises of the Diplomatic Mission Shall Be Inviolable: The Fifteenth Newsletter (2024)
Vijay Prashad <vijay@thetricontinental.org>
The Premises of the Diplomatic Mission Shall Be Inviolable: The Fifteenth Newsletter (2024)
Afshin Pirhashemi (Iran), Untitled, 2017.
Dear friends,
Greetings from the desk of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.
We live in dishonest times, where certainties have crumbled, and malevolence stalks the landscape. There is Gaza, of course. Gaza above all else is on our minds. Over 33,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since 7 October, with more than 7,000 people missing (5,000 of them children). The Israeli government has brutally disregarded the global public opinion mounted against them. Billions of people are outraged by the stark fact of their violence and yet we are unable to force a ceasefire from an army that has decided to raze an entire people. Global North governments speak from two sides of their mouths: clichéd phrases of concern to ameliorate their own disheartened populations, and then vetoes at the United Nations and arms transfers to the Israeli army. It is this two-faced behaviour that bolsters the confidence of people like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and enables their impunity.
That same impunity allowed Israel to violate the UN Charter (1945) and Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961) on 1 April 2024 when it bombed the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria, killing sixteen people – including senior Iranian military officers. This impunity is infectious, spreading amongst leaders who feel emboldened by Washington’s arrogance. Among them is Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa, who sent his paramilitary forces into the Mexican embassy in Quito on 5 April to seize the country’s former Vice President Jorge Glas, who had been granted political asylum by the Mexican authorities. Noboa’s government, like Netanyahu’s, set aside the long history of international respect for diplomatic relations with scant regard for the dangerous implications of this kind of action. There is a feeling amongst leaders such as Netanyahu and Noboa that they can get away with anything because they are protected by the Global North, which anyway gets away with everything.
Lucía Chiriboga (Ecuador), Untitled from the series ‘Del fondo de la memoria, vengo’ (‘I Come from the Depths of Memory’), 1993.
Diplomatic customs go back hundreds of thousands of years and across cultures and continents. Ancient texts written by Zhuang Zhou in China and his contemporary in India, Kautilya, in the fourth century BCE set the terms for honourable relationships between states through their emissaries. These terms appear in almost every region of the world, with evidence of conflicts resulting in agreements that include the exchange of envoys to maintain peace. These ideas from the ancient world, including Roman law, influenced the early European writers of customary international law: Hugo Grotius (1583–1645), Cornelis van Bijnkershoek (1673–1743), and Emer de Vattel (1714–1767). It was this global understanding of the necessity of diplomatic courtesy that formed the idea of diplomatic immunity.
In 1952, the government of Yugoslavia proposed that the International Law Commission (ILC), set up by the UN, codify diplomatic relations. To assist the ILC, the UN appointed Emil Sandström, a Swedish lawyer who had chaired the UN Special Committee on Palestine (1947), as special rapporteur. The ILC, with Sandström’s assistance, drafted articles on diplomatic relations, which were studied and amended by the 81 member states of the UN. At a month-long meeting in Vienna in 1961, all the member states participated in the Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Amongst the 61 states that became signatories were Ecuador and Israel, as well as the United States. All three countries are, therefore, among the founding states of the 1961 Vienna Convention.
Article 22.1 of the Vienna Convention says: ‘The premises of the mission shall be inviolable. The agents of the receiving State may not enter them, except with the consent of the head of the mission’.
Safwan Dahoul (Syria), Dream 77, 2014.
At a briefing in the UN Security Council about Israel’s recent strike on the Iranian embassy in Syria, Deputy Ambassador Geng Shuang of China reminded his colleagues that 25 years ago, the US-led NATO bombing of Yugoslavia resulted in an attack on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. At the time, US President Bill Clinton apologised for the attack, calling it an ‘isolated, tragic event’. No such apology has come from Israel or Ecuador for their violations of the Iranian and Mexican embassies. Geng Shuang told the chamber, ‘The red line of international law and the basic norms of international relations have been breached time and again. And the moral bottom line of human conscience has also been crushed time and again’. At that briefing, Ecuador’s Ambassador José De la Gasca condemned the attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus. ‘Nothing justifies these types of attacks’, he said. A few days later, his government violated the 1961 Vienna Convention and the 1954 Organisation of American States’ Convention on Diplomatic Asylum when it arrested Jorge Glas in the Mexican embassy, an act that was swiftly condemned by the UN secretary-general.
Such violations of embassy protections are not new. There are many examples of radical groups – from the left and the right – attacking embassies to make a political point. This includes the 1979 takeover of the US embassy in Tehran, when students held 53 staff hostage for 444 days. But there are also several examples of governments forcibly entering the premises of foreign embassies, such as in 1985 when the South African apartheid regime sent its forces to the Dutch embassy to arrest a Dutch national who had assisted the African National Congress and in 1989 when the invading US army searched the residence of the Nicaraguan ambassador in Panama City. None of these interventions went by without sanction and a demand for an apology. Neither Israel nor Ecuador, however – both signatories of the 1961 Vienna Convention – have made any gesture towards an apology. Neither Iran nor Syria had any diplomatic relations with Israel, and Mexico broke diplomatic ties with Ecuador in the wake of recent events.
Graciela Iturbide (Mexico), Mujer Ángel, Desierto de Sonora, México (‘Angel Woman, Sonoran Desert, Mexico’), 1979.
Violence traverses the world like a new pandemic not only in Gaza, but spreading outward to this brewing conflict around Ecuador and the ugliness of the wars in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and the continuing stalemate in Ukraine. War breaks the human spirit, but it also invokes an enormous instinct to go the streets and stop the trigger from being pulled. Again and again, this great anti-war feeling is met with the wrath of powers that arrest the peacemakers and treat them – and not the merchants of death – as the criminals.
Parviz Tanavoli (Iran), Last Poet of Iran, 1968.
Iran has a glorious tradition of poetry that goes back to Abu Abdallah Rudaki (858–941) and then shines in the Diwan of Khwaja Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafiz Shirazi (1320–1390), who gave us this bitter thought: in the world of dust, no human being shines; it is necessary to build another world, to make a new Adam.
In this tradition of Farsi poetry comes Garous Abdolmalekian (b. 1980), whose poems are saturated with war and its impact. But, even amidst the bullets and the tanks sits the powerful desire for peace and love, as in his ‘Poem for Stillness’ (2020):
He stirs his tea with a gun barrel
He solves the puzzle with a gun barrel
He scratches his thoughts with a gun barrel
And sometimes
he sits facing himself
and pulls bullet-memories
out of his brain
He’s fought in many wars
but is no match for his own despair
These white pills
have left him so colourless
his shadow must stand up
to fetch him water
We ought to accept
that no soldier
has ever returned
from war
alive
Warmly, Vijay
| March 14, 2023Dear Dick,I am delighted to let you know that UNA-USA is launching a new initiative which assigns each member with a unique ID number associated only with that member. Your number is below, and should be used for all member-related activities, including as a reference when you have inquiries with the UNA-USA National Office.Your unique Member ID number is: UNA-0214810 Please note that this change in process eliminates the need to identify a member based only on email addresses, which is why there have been instances of duplicate profiles for the same member. If you receive an email with two Member ID numbers, please email membership@unausa.org as soon as possible to alert our team, so that we can merge the duplicates and ensure that your membership status is up to date in our database.This is truly an exciting time for our movement, as we are now able to provide cleaner, more reliable information and data about our most important part of our organization: YOU, our members!In Solidarity, Farah Salim EckSenior Director, Programs and PoliciesUnited Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA)part of the United Nations Foundation |
UN Reform
Shouldn’t The United Kingdom And France Relinquish Their Permanent Seats At The United Nations?
By Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Popular Resistance.org (9-30-23). At its fifteenth summit in August 2023, the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) group adopted the Johannesburg II Declaration, which, amongst other issues, raised the question of reforming the United Nations, particularly its security council. To make the UN Security Council (UNSC) ‘more democratic, representative, effective, and efficient, and to increase the representation of developing countries’, BRICS urged the expansion of the council’s membership to include countries from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. – more –
Official: Africa, Latin America need permanent UNSC representation Anadolu Agency (Turkey) (8/30) https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkiye/turkiye-holds-panel-on-security-council-reform-in-cape-town/2673005
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UN BUDGET AND USA 2022
Support Full Funding of the UN in the Fiscal Year 2023
| UNA-USA <info@unausa.org> 4-14-22 | Apr 13, 2022, 5:00 PM (2 days ago) | ||
| to me | |||
| Fully Fund the UN and UN Peacekeeping in FY’23 Dear Dick, I wanted to alert you as quickly as possible – President Biden recently released his budget request for FY’23. For the second year in a row, the Administration has included paying our dues in full to the UN and UN peacekeeping. But this is only the first step in the process! Will you tell Congress they must commit to supporting the UN, too? YES, I SUPPORT THE UN You may already know the U.S. owes more than $1 billion to UN peacekeeping due to years of underpayments. President Biden’s budget would allocate a sizable down payment towards our debts, helping restore our credibility and position on the world’s stage. I applaud the Administration for its commitment to supporting multilateral institutions proven to save lives, including the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the ACT-Accelerator partnership that delivers vaccines globally and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). While President Biden’s budget is headed in the right direction, much more needs to be done to push Congress to deliver the essential resources we owe to the UN. Now is the time for the U.S. to lead by the power of our example, work with our allies, and build a world that works for all people. Most importantly, this is your moment to urge your elected officials to support the UN. Can I count on you to ask your Members of Congress to fully support the work of the UN in FY’23? Sincerely, Rachel Bowen Pittman Executive Director, UNA-USA United Nations Association of the United States of America 1750 Pennsylvania Ave NW #300 Washington, DC, DC 20006 | |||
United Nations
1 MARCH 2022 GENERAL ASSEMBLY
ELEVENTH EMERGENCY SPECIAL SESSION, 3RD & 4TH MEETINGS (AM & PM)
https://www.un.org/press/en/2022/ga12406.doc.htm
As Russian Federation’s Invasion of Ukraine Creates New Global Era, Member States Must Take Sides, Choose between Peace, Aggression, General Assembly Hears
Delegates Urge All Parties to Respect Principles of United Nations Charter, Speakers Representing Small, Developing States Decry ‘Might Makes Right’ Concept
At the dawn of a new era forced upon the world by the Russian Federation’s war in Ukraine, Member States must now take sides and choose between peace and aggression, delegates said today as the General Assembly moved into the second day of its emergency special session.
[The emergency special session — the eleventh called since the founding of the United Nations — opened on 28 February, meeting less than 24 hours after being mandated to do so by a vote in the Security Council, following its failure to adopt a resolution condemning the Russian Federation’s recent actions in Ukraine. See Press Releases SC/14808 and SC/14809 for details.]
With 115 of the United Nations 193 Member States scheduled to address the emergency session, held from 28 February to 2 March, delegates today sounded calls to end the ongoing bombings and attacks on civilians in Ukraine and for all parties to respect the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, especially provisions on security and peace among countries. (See Press Release GA/12404 for details on the session’s opening day.)
“The fate of Ukraine is our fate; today, we are all Ukrainians,” said Luxembourg’s representative, mirroring a thread of solidarity woven throughout the day-long meeting amid numerous calls for Member States to support the Assembly’s draft resolution calling for an end to the conflict. Supporting the proposed resolution means voting to save lives, he said, noting Luxembourg’s co-sponsorship of the draft that, among other things, calls for peace talks and the full withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine.
Many other delegates also announced their co-sponsorship of the draft, with Spain’s representative saying that its subject centres on the sovereignty of Ukraine, the defence of peace and the diplomatic resolution of conflict, as well as “the very reason the United Nations exists”. Echoing broad condemnations of the invasion of Ukraine, he said: “Every minute of resistance makes the attackers’ self-justification vanish into thin air.”
Germany’s delegate said the Russian Federation’s war marks the dawn of a new era, and today, there is a new reality that President Vladimir Putin has forced upon the world, requiring all States to make firm decisions and take a side. Germany will always be committed to diplomacy, but when peaceful approaches come under attack, she said “we must act responsibly and unite for peace”. As the Assembly prepares to vote on the draft resolution, she stated that: “Now, we all have to choose between peace and aggression, between justice and the will of the strongest, between taking action and turning a blind eye.” While Germany is providing food, aid and shelter for refugees, she said it has decided to support Ukraine militarily to protect itself, in line with Article 51 of the Charter.
Speakers roundly called for an end to violence and a start to constructive peace talks. Some drew attention to the conflict’s origin. The representative of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea said the root cause of the current situation rests with the United States and other Western countries. These States have systematically undermined the European security environment by defying the Russian Federation’s reasonable demand for legal security guarantees and pursuing the eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Recalling the violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya by the United States and the West under the pretext of international peace and security, he said that it is “absurd” for such countries to mention respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity in the context of the Ukrainian situation….continued: https://www.un.org/press/en/2022/ga12406.doc.htm
We have a name for our yearning: the UNITED NATIONS
We’ve Got to Work Together — For People, For Planet 10-28-21
United Nations Foundation mailings@unfoundation.org via uark.onmicrosoft.com
This October, we are reminded of what’s possible when we work together — and all that’s at stake if we don’t.
We saw a historic breakthrough with the World Health Organization’s recommendation of a malaria vaccine for children. We joined millions in the global celebration of International Day of the Girl, reflecting on progress and obstacles in the push for girls to be equal everywhere. We are also on the eve of the G20 Summit in Rome, and the beginning of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow. Will governments and leaders show the resolve and follow-through to make good on the Paris Agreement?
Keep reading to see what our experts have to say, and find out how you can get involved.
GO DEEPER ON THE ISSUES YOU CARE ABOUT
What’s on the agenda at COP26: Our experts Ryan Hobert and Evelin Tóth break down what you need to know about the highly anticipated COP26, and what comes next. Get the lowdown>>
State of polio progress: This World Polio Day, our global health team looked back on the progress we’ve made to combat polio and what still needs to be done to protect populations against the disease. Take a look>>
Pittsburgh powers ahead through the SDGs: Every day, Americans are using the Sustainable Development Goals to strengthen their communities. Pittsburgh is just one example of how the Goals can improve lives and enhance opportunity. Learn more>>
Youth speak out on uncertain future: Faced with a slew of challenges they did not create, young people ask, “How can we not be angry?” Read one 20-year-old’s plea to the world>>
Reflecting on the power of girls and women: Our Vice President for Girls and Women Strategy Michelle Milford Morse spoke with 17-year-old Girl Up leader Rocío Mejía about the issues facing girls and women today. Check out the interview>>
AROUND THE FOUNDATION
Progress in controlling malaria: Executive Director of Nothing But Nets Margaret McDonnell shared her perspectives on the significance of the malaria vaccine on the Global Dispatches podcast. Take a listen>>
UN Foundation congratulates Nobel Peace Prize Winner: Journalist and +SocialGood community Advisor and Connector Emeritus Maria Ressa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work advancing press freedom. Read our statement>>
UNA-USA fêtes the UN’s 76th: In a virtual program featuring guests such as U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield, UNA-USA celebrated UN Day and shared how we can build a blueprint for a better future. President Biden had a special message to mark the day>>