Tag: Secretary General
So, as the busiest week in international diplomacy is over now, here is what I thought of the general debate this year. The 72nd session of the UN General Assembly is well underway and of course keeps going on until next fall. Its most prominent week though with high level officials representing their countries on the GA floor is over now, with the closing of the general debate on Monday. The general debate must seem boring for many. I don’t think there is any one person who sits down and listens to almost 200 speeches in a row for days….
The general debate of the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly starts on Tuesday, but there were plenty of meetings and events on Monday already. Just a couple of highlights from Monday: A High-Level Event on UN Reform was held as one of the first meetings of the day chaired by none other than US President Donald Trump who participates in his first UNGA as POTUS this week. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres delivered remarks before the High Level Stakeholder Dialogue on Climate Change which is of course now a recurring topic of the UNGA. The Dialogue was attended by…
un-dpa: Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (right) with Espen Barth Eide (left) Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Cyprus during Cyprus talks. 30 June 2017. UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré There was much anticipation in the run up to the resumed Conference on Cyprus in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, at the end of June 2017. The feeling among many observers of the long-running “Cyprus problem” was that this latest phase of negotiations was the closest the parties – the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots – had come in at least a decade to reaching a settlement. These renewed hopes quickly turned to disappointment, however. In the…
Happy 2017 everybody! I hope this finds you happy and healthy. As is now sort of my habit around the New Year, I present you with a round-up of round-ups in the first Sunday Smack of 2017. Enjoy! UN’s 2016 Year in Review: Challenges and milestones for the international community This is the UN’s video round-up of the most important issues in 2016. 2016 in Review: Another Violent Year, But With Hope of Improved Prevention This one is from the UN’s Department of Political Affairs, a bit longer and in pdf format for easy reading. After reviewing 2016, let’s see…
Happy Sunday! Christmas is approaching more quickly than I would be comfortable with. At this point, I don’t even know how am I going to finish off everything on my to do list in just six days. In world affairs, this week was mostly about very disturbing news from Aleppo. Clicking here you can find ways to help, if you can, please do. In other news, António Guterres took the oath of office this week to be the 9th Secretary General of the United Nations from January 1. In anticipation of his term we shouldn’t forget about the merits of…
united-nations: “In the end, it comes down to values. We want the world our children inherit to be defined by the values enshrined in the UN Charter: peace, justice, respect, human rights, tolerance and solidarity. All major religions embrace them, and we strive to reflect them in our daily lives. The threats to these values are most often based on fear. Our duty to the peoples we serve is to work together to move from fear of each other, to trust in each other. Trust in the values that bind us, and trust in the institutions that serve and protect…
Happy Sunday! Antonio Guterres was officially appointed by the General Assembly as the 9th Secretary General of the UN this week. I honestly think he is well suited for the role and great things can be expected in his tenure. On a completely different note, Bob Dylan got a Nobel Prize in Literature and although I am only slightly aquainted with his work, I am not at all one of those literature snobs who can’t understand this one. I have always considered song lyrics in the league of poetry (well, the better ones anyway), so congrats is definitely in order…
united-nations: Delegates applaud as history was made this morning. The United Nations General Assembly has officially selected António Guterres as 9th Secretary-General of the United Nations! “I have long valued his advice, and long admired his spirit of service. He is a wonderful choice to steer this Organization as we build on the progress of the past decade while addressing the insecurity and uncertainties of today’s world,” the 8th UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said this morning. Mr. Guterres will take office on 1 January 2017 for an initial term of five years. Read more here: tp://bit.ly/2evGbjT via UN Web TV:…
Happy Fall, everybody! Summer is undeniably over now. As much as I love the summer weather, there are a lot of things to be excited about during autumn too. And I said autumn, let’s not jump ahead, believe it or not, yesterday I heard Christmas music playing in a drugstore! Isn’t it way too early for that?! Anyway, I hope you are having a great time with your choices of fall activities, and cut out some time to do our weekly reading too. Colombia’s Brexit Vote Very interesting, particularly comparing this vote to some others. I shall add that I…
Happy Sunday, everybody! Today, there is a referendum held in Hungary, where Hungarians are asked to answer with yes or no to the following question. “Do you want the European Union to be able to mandate the obligatory resettlement of non-Hungarian citizens into Hungary without the approval of Parliament?” Well,first of all, the EU can do that now, whether citizens of member states want it or not, simply based on the EU Treaty. So a “No” answer doesn’t make any sense. A “Yes” answer doesn’t make sense either, no-one really “wants” this, not even the EU, although the quotas are off the table…
