United Nations
COVIDcast Episode 8: Covid-19 and the World Health Organisation
In this episode of COVIDcast, Natasha Kassam, Lowy Institute Research Fellow, sat down with Joel Negin to discuss the current controversy surrounding the World Health Organization…
WHO and China: Compounding politics and policy
This should be the greatest hour for the World Health Organisation, the UN’s Geneva-based body dedicated to fighting just such a global threat as Covid-19.
Instead, WHO is…
Coronavirus in conflict: The fight has hardly begun
The War on Covid-19
In the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, the mobilising language of war is being used by leaders from UN Secretary-General António Guterres and World Health…
The future ain’t what it used to be
What do the East Timorese defence force, “clean coal”, women’s empowerment, and Kevin Rudd’s first-term government have in common?
The answer is the year 2020.
Back when 2020…
Syria: What the UN can do, and must do
As the Syrian Government intensifies its offensive against Syria’s Idlib province, the final opposition stronghold in the nine-year old war, diplomats and UN officials are running…
For Rohingya, the long distance between law and justice
One would think that, after 100 years, the International Court of Justice would know about administering international justice. To the extent that the “world court” does or doesn…
At the UN, paying dues and having a say
The recent news that Tonga was among seven countries that had lost their right to vote in the United Nations General Assembly over unpaid dues has brought an additional element to…
With a UN Human Rights Council seat, Indonesia has a choice
Indonesia won a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council this month, elected for a 2020–22 term, having received the backing of 174 countries in a secret ballot, the most…
Can the ICC bring justice to Myanmar?
More than 700,000 men, women, and children, many identifying as Rohingya, crossed the border from Myanmar’s Rakhine State into Bangladesh in 2017, fleeing violence at the hands of…
An educated idealist is still a believer
Book review: The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir, by Samantha Power (Harper Collins 2019)
Samantha Power, an Irish immigrant whose tenacity and intellect earned her a place at…