New pandemic treaty is a landmark, but flawed
23/5/2025: World Health Organization member countries have adopted a new treaty to improve international coordination and cooperation on the response to future pandemics. The agreement has the potential to reduce rising global health inequalities but it still falls far short of addressing the human rights violations that occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Source: Human Rights Warch
Guterres calls on Israel to accept UN’s plan for Gaza
23/5/2025: The UN Secretary-General had called once again for a permanent ceasefire to end the fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and full humanitarian access. The UN will not take part in any scheme that fails to respect international law.
Source: UN News
China’s new pledge to curb illegal fishing
23/5/2025: China has joined the legally binding UN Agreement on Port State Measures and will be required to deny entry to vessels suspected of illegal activity. West Africa's fishing sector has been taken over by foreign-controlled vessels.
Source: Dialogue Earth
Africa’s cost of capital crisis is a test for G20
20/5/2025: Three presidential candidates for the African Development Bank believe that African nations are being punished by a global financial system that systematically overprices the cost of borrowing. Twenty low-income African countries are already in or near debt distress.
Source: Devex
Judge rules against Trump’s seizure of US Institute of Peace
19/5/2025: In early April, all but four of USIP’s 300 board members and staff were terminated and a 28-year-old staffer affiliated with DOGE had taken over as president. Now a federal judge has ruled that Trump’s action violated constitutional law.
Source: Devex
Acute food insecurity and malnutrition rise for sixth consecutive year
16/5/2025: In 2024, over 295 million people across 53 countries and territories faced acute hunger, according to the Global Report on Food Crises. The number of people facing catastrophic hunger more than doubled over the same period to reach 1.9 million, the highest on record since 2016.
Source: Reliefweb
Famine stalks Gaza as Israel blocks aid at the border
14/5/2025: The entire population of Gaza, or 2.1 million people, is facing severe and prolonged food shortages, with 1 in 5 now on the brink of starvation, as Israel blocks aid from entering the territory. Gaza already meets the first threshold to trigger a formal declaration of famine, and humanitarian officials warn it is on the edge of the two others.
Source: Devex
Broad backing for UN peacekeeping as global threats mount
14/5/2025: More than 130 countries have pledged military, technical and political support to UN peacekeeping at a high-level ministerial summit in Berlin. Peacekeeping remains one of the UN’s most visible activities, with over 61,000 uniformed personnel from 119 countries currently deployed across 11 missions.
Source: UN News
UN chief outlines ‘painful’ survival plan for world body
12/5/2025: UN Secretary-General António Guterres proposes steep cuts in the agency's spending, staff, and programs, in response to the Trump administration’s campaign to cut up to 87% of its contributions to UN activities. Guterres outlined a series of measures, from layoffs to the relocation of staff to less expensive countries.
Source: Devex
Israel’s Gaza aid plan crosses red lines for UN
9/5/2025: Participating in Israeli plans to enforce a military-controlled aid system in Gaza could implicate the UN in ongoing atrocity crimes, just one of the warnings in an internal UN briefing. The UN and many humanitarian NGOs have refused to participate, but face pressure from the US to get in line.
Source: The New Humanitarian