Colum Lynch

New York, United Nations Headquarters

Senior Global Reporter at Devex

Senior global reporter at @Devex. Priors: @foreignpolicy & @washingtonpost. Mastodon @[email protected] Signal: 917-439-4531; Recovering blue check.

Articles

Scoop: Cyprus takes on Palestine in bid for UN General Assembly presidency

1 week ago | devex.com | Colum Lynch

The island nation of Cyprus is challenging Palestine in the race for the presidency of the U.N. General Assembly in 2026-2027, setting the stage for a competition that risks roiling U.S. relations with the United Nations. The annual presidential election of the U.N.’s 193-member state body is typically a low-key affair, elevating a former head of state or foreign minister to an often ceremonial job with little real power.
Scoop: Cyprus takes on Palestine for UN General Assembly presidency

1 week ago | devex.com | Colum Lynch

The island nation of Cyprus is challenging Palestine in the race for the presidency of the U.N. General Assembly in 2026-2027, setting the stage for a competition that risks roiling U.S. relations with the United Nations. The annual presidential election of the U.N.’s 193-member state body is typically a low-key affair, elevating a former head of state or foreign minister to an often ceremonial job with little real power.
Europe's peace capital feels sting of Trump funding cuts

1 week 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.
UNFPA chief to step down months before term ends

2 weeks 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.
Exclusive: Palestinians launch bid for UN General Assembly presidency

4 weeks 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.
CSW69 special edition: The ‘elephants in the room’ at the UN women’s rights talks

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.
Exclusive: UN Refugee Agency braces for thousands of job cuts

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.
Scoop: UN migration agency cuts more jobs, shutters lifesaving programs

1 month ago | devex.com | Colum Lynch

The United Nations’ principal migration agency has launched a new round of job cuts, with plans to lay off at least 20% of its staff at the agency’s Geneva headquarters and an unspecified number of dismissals in its overseas field offices, according to humanitarian sources. The news of fresh cuts come just weeks after the International Organization for Migration dismissed some 3,000 workers, decimating the agency’s U.S. refugee resettlement program.
Trump's new 'loyalty test' for UN and aid groups

1 month ago | devex.com | Colum Lynch

The Trump administration has issued what amounts to a loyalty test to private charities, nonprofits, and multiple United Nations’ agencies, asking that they declare whether they have ever worked with “entities associated with communist, socialist, or totalitarian parties, or any parties that espouses anti-American beliefs.”The request is included in a list of some 23 questions posed to recipients of United States funding as part of the State Department’s review of foreign aid.
Is the world ready for a woman at helm of the United Nations?

1 month ago | devex.com | Colum Lynch

A survey of women’s roles in international organizations from the IMF to the U.N. shows mixed picture of progress and backsliding. With International Women’s Day in the rear view mirror, it might be an appropriate time to consider how much progress has been made in closing the gender gap at the United Nations and other international organizations.