Tag: Secretary General

Sunday Smack

Again, I had a very busy week at work, and it seems it’s been a busy week in world affairs too, my Feedly wasn’t this overflooded in months. Next week will be eventful and exciting in terms of international relations, and it is going to be eventful and exciting for me too, especially the weekend. On Friday I am traveling to The Hague to participate in the Just Peace Festival events. I am overly excited, as this is going to be my first time in the city of jusitce. For the International Open Day on Sunday I am registered to…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday, everybody! As of today, I am off to vacation, so this is a pre-scheduled post. I had an unexpectedly busy week with lots of work to do and so little time remaining for other important things. Among the latter: taking the final exam of the International Law in Action: A Guide to the International Courts and Tribunals in The Hague course I participated in recently on Coursera. I managed to finish the course Saturday night. Midnight, to be exact, after a tiresome day of touristing around (with a real tourist) in Budapest, and, uhm, also a glass of wine….

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Update on the election of the new UN Secretary General

When I last posted about the selection of the next UN Secretary General, there were nine candidates for the post, now there is twelve. Thanks to an NGO initiative, there were already several public hearings and debates of the candidates. All these seemed – and it still does! – really hopeful compared to the regular procedure of the election when the result is decided solely through diplomatic channels and behind closed doors. Read more about the appointment process here. Since a candidate can be appointed up to one month prior to the end of the current term (which is December…

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united-nations: We are here to shape a different future. Today we declare: We are one humanity, with a shared responsibility. Let us resolve here and now not only to keep people alive, but to give people a chance at life in dignity. – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, Turkey. Follow the action as the Summit continues on Tuesday at: http://webtv.un.org/

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What would you ask the next UN Secretary General?

The election of the next Secretary General of the United Nations is under way. This year, for the first time in the history of the UN, it starts out as a very transparent process, the candidates go public, and all citizens of the world can follow along, even ask them questions. This is indeed a very positive change and raises hope that after all the UN is capable of renewing and adapting to the new circumstances of the 21st century. The UN General Assembly has already held a public hearing of the then nine candidates this April in New York…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday! Despite all promises, I am not being very active here these days. I am having a very intense, as well as very exciting time profession-wise. Once I settle with at least a fairly consistent workload, I hope to transfer all I have learned and gained there to here, this blog that I still want to build as a creative outlet of my professional self. I don’t make any promises anymore, but I really do hope it is going to be soon. Until then, let’s move on to the next one of our regular Sunday reading sessions. The EU-Turkey…

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Sunday Smack

I hope you all had a great weekend! This one is a short Sunday Smack… Can the Government Compel Apple to Speak? This is a though one, right? I mean the “should” and not the “can”. Is one party “righter” than the other? Probably not. It will be tremendously exciting to see how courts would decide it solely on the grounds of law. And even then, how to “compel” a company like Apple to come up with something they don’t want to come up with? Boutros Boutros-Ghali and the 2016 Presidential Elections This is about how much US politics matter when electing a UN…

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united-nations: #ThrowbackThursday Today we remember Boutros Boutros-Ghali.  The Egyptian diplomat served as sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations (1992-1996). He guided the organisation through a tumultuous early 1990’s and helped shape the UN response to post-Cold War realities, drafting a seminal report on preventative diplomacy, peacemaking and peacekeeping.  Boutros Boutros-Ghali died in Cairo on 16th February 2016, aged 93. See his tenure in this UN Photo gallery.   

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Four important topics from Davos 2016

The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland took place from 20 to 23 January under the theme “Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution”. I am a regular follower of the World Economic Forum’s website, which – regardless of this one week per year in Davos – is a constant resource of informative and inspirational articles for not just economists, but all types of modern professionals. It is also on my bucket list to one day be an attendee of this one week buzz in the life of Davos, Switzerland. Now that I have put it in writing, the…

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Sunday Smack

Happy weekend, people! I hope everybody is safe, whether you are affected by severe weather or other dangerous conditions wherever you are. As you might have noticed, this blog might as well be dead if it wasn’t for these Sunday round-ups. But I am bringing it back, I promise, I have at least two posts scheduled for this next week, which according to my favorite boss is going to be “an important week”… So, stay tuned. And thank you for sticking with me through this long hiatus, I hope at least you enjoyed the weekly readings. Let’s see what we…

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