Colum Lynch

1 month ago | devex.com | Colum Lynch

Black humor is in the air in Geneva, the Swiss birthplace of international humanitarian law, the modern human rights movement, and, until recently, the “Greatest Road Show in Europe.”The Palais des Nations, the United Nations’ grand Geneva headquarters that once housed the short-lived and long-deceased League of Nations, is facing what amounts to another existential reckoning.

1 month ago | devex.com | Vince Chadwick |Colum Lynch

The head of the United Nations’ chief sexual and reproductive health agency told her staff she planned to step down on July 15, months before her term was scheduled to end in early October. Dr. Natalia Kanem, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund, UNFPA, informed U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and the agency’s executive board president of her plans to step down this summer. “It’s time to pass on the baton,” she said in a videotaped address to staff, obtained by Devex.

1 month ago | devex.com | Colum Lynch

Palestinian United Nations Ambassador Riyad Mansour is mounting a bid to serve as the next president of the U.N. General Assembly, setting the stage for a likely clash with the Trump administration that risks destabilizing the world body at a time it is seeking to reset its relations with the United States.

1 month ago | devex.com | Colum Lynch

​​Presented by African Center for Economic TransformationThe Trump administration hardly got a mention in scores of public speeches by foreign delegations at the 69th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, or CSW, at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York. But Washington was on everyone’s mind, reflecting heightened anxiety that it is not only rolling back the rights of womenand other historically discriminated groups, but dismantling the entire multilateral system.

1 month ago | devex.com | Colum Lynch

The head of the UN Refugee Agency warned staff on Thursday that he is preparing to implement a “significant reduction in the size of our workforce,” noting that there is “important work that we simply cannot afford to continue.” The 75-year-old UNHCR is contemplating cuts of as many as 5,000 to 6,000 workers, according to a separate United Nations official. “Let me be frank,” Filippo Grandi, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, wrote in an email to staff, which was seen by Devex.