Mourners at a ceremony in the region marking the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, July 2007. A UN General Assembly draft resolution to designate July 11 as an international day commemorating the genocide is not welcomed by Serbia or Republika Srpska, the entity in Bosnia-Herzogovina. ADAM JONES/CREATIVE COMMONS Less than a week after the Rwandan genocide of 1994 was marked in a somber, candelit ceremony in the United Nations General Assembly Hall, the creation of an international day to commemorate a genocide that happened in Europe in 1995 — Srebrenica — is going to be considered by countries at the ..read more

It took three years for 15-year-old Aly, above, to begin facing the personal trauma he experienced from the massive displacement going on in his country, Burkina Faso. At the Lazaré medical center in Ouahigouya, Aly started taking art therapy through programs backed by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Now he expresses his anxieties better “because I was able to free myself.” ICRC  This Week @UN: Pro-Gaza Egyptian activists; Congo’s “miracle doctor.” Plus: Saving Palestine’s statehood quest; Colombia; US-led Gaza pier; Ecuador/Mexico problemas. Follow us on Twitter (X), Facebo ..read more

Dr. Denis Mukwege, the founder of Panzi Hospital in South Kivu, Congo, which has been treating women for more than two decades for gynecological needs, include rape by fighters in the region. Until recently, he and the hospital were provided limited security by United Nations peacekeepers, but that may end as they exit Congo this year. PANZI HOSPITAL/INSTAGRAM For nearly 26 years, Dr. Denis Mukwege, a politically outspoken gynecologist from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has been running a renowned hospital in a turbulent war zone over mineral resources in the country’s east to heal tho ..read more

The aftermath of the recent Israeli military siege of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza in a search for Hamas and other militants that Israel contended were encamped in the premises. Twenty-one patients died in the military operation. The UN has tried to send an assessment mission to Al-Shifa but is awaiting a security clearance from Israel. At least 100 patients are apparently still in the compound, the World Health Organization tweeted on April 1, 2024. Attacks on hospitals are deemed a war crime. WHO/TWITTER/X Welcome to This Week @UN: A woman SG?; Rafah; Gambian victims; Malta’s ICC push on Palest ..read more

The top three winners of PassBlue’s informal survey on which woman should lead the UN next, in order, from left, Michelle Bachelet, a former president of Chile; Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbardos; and María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, an ex-president of the UN General Assembly. PHOTO MONTAGE BY JOHN PENNEY Michelle Bachelet, a two-time president of Chile and ex-UN high commissioner for human rights, is the winner of our informal survey on which woman should be the next United Nations secretary-general, starting in the five-year term on Jan. 1, 2027. Following Bachelet is Mia Mottley, prime ..read more

Habbie Bojang, a victim of a witch hunt in 2009 by Yahhya Jammeh, when he was the longtime president of Gambia. Older residents of the town of Jambur, believed to oppose Jammeh’s rule, had been rounded up by an army general, taken to an undisclosed site and forced to drink an herbal concoction that produced hallucinogenic effects and left some permanently sick. Jammeh has been in exile in Equatorial Guinea since 2016, when he was booted out by regional states, but his legacy in Gambia remains palpable. As the UN provides financing to various government projects to help instill reconciliation n ..read more

UN Secretary-General António Guterres went to Rafah, at the Egyptian side of the border with Gaza, on March 23, in a show of solidarity for Palestinians during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting. Two days later, the Security Council approved a resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza for the Muslim holiday. MARK GARTEN/UN PHOTO RAFAH, Egypt — Like a little boy heading home from a carnival, a child with shaggy black hair, carrying a bobbing blue balloon, walked alone on Saturday through the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing into Gaza. Whether he was returning home was unclear, b ..read more

The Russian interpreter during the Security Council session on Sudan and South Sudan, March 19, 2024. The Council heard the latest information from the UN panel of experts on the increasing violence in Sudan’s war, including “widespread” cases of rape in Darfur. MANUEL ELIAS/UN PHOTO Welcome to This Week @UN: Japan’s no-nukes effort; Palestine statehood; Haiti’s survival; UNRWA cash. Plus: Famine in Gaza; forced labor; AI; a “shitshow.”  Follow us on Twitter (X), Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.  We are pausing the weekly summary on March 29 for the holidays. Our top story of the we ..read more

More than 362,000 Haitians are displaced in their country as violence by armed gangs convulses the Caribbean island nation amid a government collapse, lack of a strong police force and an intervention force being long delayed to the country. A new transitional council, proposed by the Caribbean intergovernmental bloc, could stem the chaos. UNOCHA/HAITI The United Nations Security Council endorsed an international police mission last fall to try to regain control of Haiti from the powerful armed gangs dominating parts of the country. Yet violence is now convulsing more regions of Haiti as the m ..read more

At the United Nations, the 13th conference on facilitating the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, Sept. 22, 2023. The essayist, the foreign minister of Japan, will preside over a UN Security Council session on March 18, concentrating on working toward a nuclear-free world by building on the momentum from the G7 Hiroshima Summit in 2023. UN PHOTO Prospects for a world without nuclear weapons are becoming more severe. Divisions are growing not only between nuclear weapon States and non-nuclear weapon States but also among nuclear weapon States and among non-nuclear we ..read more