IPS UN: Inside the Glasshouse Archives

‘Leave No one Behind’: How Inclusive is World Leaders’ Call to Climate Action?

Wrapping up Climate Week at the United Nations General Assembly, global leaders called for climate action that may be “ambitious but achievable” and called for climate measures that would “leave no one behind”. But some climate activists remain concerned about how this can be achieved.

#TurnItAround: One Week to Mobilize for the Future

By Pénélope Hubert

The year 2020 will most certainly mark a critical moment for the planet and future mobilizations. In a society shaken by Covid-19, people are gathering, regrouping and acting collectively for a sustainable world, an egalitarian future, and for global awareness on the climate emergency.

Pushing the Reset Button will not Change the Game

By Jens Martens

Governments have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with unprecedented intensity. They have taken far-reaching regulatory measures to contain the pandemic and mobilized financial resources on an enormous scale.

What UN Needs is a Cease-Fire Inside its own Security Council

By Thalif Deen

With more than 20,000 civilians killed last year in conflicts in 10 countries — including Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen-- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated his call for a “global cease-fire”: a proposal which failed to generate a positive response since he first announced it last March.

The Future We Want, The UN We Need

By Robert W. Sandford

As we reflect on this week and celebrate the United Nations’ rise in the war-ravaged world some 75 years ago, humanity is again being asked to lay the foundation for a new world.

Trump Pitched his Vision of a Global Order — at Odds with the UN Charter

By Abby Maxman

President Trump took the UN stage to settle scores and shift blame as he sought to spin an alternate version of his administration’s response to the pandemic.

Scientists Draw up Guidelines to Help Agri-food Companies Align with 2030 Agenda

By Isaiah Esipisu

In Amuru district, 47 kilometres from Gulu town in northwestern Uganda, the Omer Farming Company has proven that it is possible to farm on thousands of acres of land using methods that conserve the environment and its biodiversity.

A Third World War – Which so Many Had Feared — Has Been Avoided, Says UN Chief

By Antonio Guterres

The ideals of the United Nations – peace, justice, equality and dignity — are beacons to a better world. But the Organization we celebrate today emerged only after immense suffering. It took two world wars, millions of deaths and the horrors of the Holocaust for world leaders to commit to international cooperation and the rule of law.

Helping Make Education a Reality for the 75 million Children in Conflict Zones

By IPS Correspondents

Aryan is a 15-year-old girl from Afghanistan who lives with her family in a shelter in an undisclosed country in Europe. She doesn’t go to school. But she is hugely creative. And it shows in how she occupies her time during the day — writing poetry and making bracelets and earrings that she hopes to sell online one day.

After 75 Years, UN Claims 50:50 Gender Parity, But Falls Short of its Ultimate Goals

By Thalif Deen

When the United Nations was dominated by men, holding some of the highest positions in the staff hierarchy, women staffers were overwhelmingly administrative secretaries seen pounding on their Remington typewriters seated outside their bosses’ enclosed offices.

Philanthropy’s Role in the Missing Global Architecture

By Marcel Arsenault

The promise of the United Nations, as articulated 75 years ago, is a global system capable of managing global issues. As UN leadership knows, that promise is needed now more than ever in a multipolar world with increasingly complex challenges. This mission must be fulfilled, but is not possible without the collaboration of broad-based coalitions made up of innovative thinkers from all sectors of society working together.

The Culture of Peace: Change our World for the Better in the Age of COVID 19

By Nihal Saad

Last year, we paid tribute to the 20th Anniversary of the 1999 Declaration of the Program of Action on a Culture of Peace. Today, we need to ask ourselves if we had genuinely carried out our moral responsibilities to transition from a culture of hatred and violence to a culture of tolerance and peace.

Accessibility of Vaccines & Commitment to Ceasefire – Priority Focuses for 75th UNGA

By Samira Sadeque

Key focuses of the upcoming 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) High Level Week will be the accessibility of vaccines and a renewed plea for a global ceasefire. “I will make a strong appeal to the international community to mobilise all efforts for the global ceasefire to become a reality by the end of the year,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday.

At 75, is the UN Still Fit for Purpose?

By Mandeep Tiwana

This September, New Yorkers will be a lot less annoyed. They’ve been spared the annual disruptions from road closures, sirens and movement of security forces accompanying world leaders who attend the UN General Assembly. By largely moving online due to COVID-19, the world’s most significant gathering will be missing some of its excitement even as the UN celebrates an important 75th anniversary in 2020.

INTERVIEW: the top diplomat shepherding the General Assembly through its 75th year

The Turkish diplomat elected to be the president of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly, Volkan Bozkir, is taking on the role as the Organization grapples with an unprecedented pandemic, and questions surrounding the future direction it should take.

Will Trump Threaten to Pullout or De-fund the United Nations?

By Thalif Deen

Back in 1998, Senator Jesse Helms, a rightwing Republican from the US state of North Carolina, carried out a virulent one-man hate-campaign against the UN-- and its very presence in New York.

A Marathon, Not a Sprint: Peru Needs Fiscal Reforms to Quell High COVID-19 Death Rate

By Laura Adriaensens and Sergio Chaparro Hernández

“It’s a major paradox, no?” asks Hugo Ñopo, a researcher at the Peruvian think tank Group for the Analysis of Development (GRADE). Since the beginning of the pandemic, Peru has presented itself as an example for the region: it quickly implemented drastic prevention measures, followed scientific recommendations and prepared an economic support plan for the most vulnerable segments of the population.

Re-inventing Multilateral Solidarity: Rhetoric, Reaction or Realignment of Power?

By Barbara Adams

Multilateral solidarity is gaining traction as the slogan for mobilizing support for international cooperation and for the UN. Is it replacing or merely renaming cross-border obligations, many of which have been enshrined over decades in UN treaties, conventions and agreements, and the principle of common but differentiated responsibility in their implementation?

Hopes and Challenges for the First-Ever Food Systems Summit

By Samira Sadeque

Building inclusive and healthier food systems, and safeguarding the health of the planet will be some of the key priorities at the first-ever Food Systems Summit next year.

UN Women Calls for Accelerating its Unfinished Business

By Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

Twenty-five years ago, the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing set a path-breaking agenda for women’s rights. As a result of the two-week gathering with more than 30,000 activists, representatives from 189 nations unanimously adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

World Risks Losing Entire Generation of Children, Nobel Laureates Warn

By Thalif Deen

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the lives of millions of people worldwide, accounted for over 869,000 deaths, destabilised the global economy and triggered a marked rise in poverty and hunger in the developing world. But the fallout from one of the most devastating consequences of the spreading virus is on the lives of a growing new generation: children.