At the United Nations commemoration of International Women’s Day, technically March 8, 10-year-old Ishani Desai, a student at the UN International School, read her essay in the General Assembly Hall on behalf of girls everywhere, saying, in part, “I hope for a world where every girl” is “not limited by outdated stereotypes that tell them what they can and cannot do,” March 7, 2025. With her is Patricia Licuanan, chair of the Commission on the Status of Women in 1995. MANUEL ELIAS/UN PHOTO
This Week @UN: Countering authoritarianism; Denmark’s push for peace; anti-nukers; nuke-power fallacies; MAGA hits the UN. Plus: Gaza; Arab summit; Syria; Central African Republic; Afghanistan; International Women’s Day.
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• Our #1 story this week:The Top US Seat May Be Empty, but Trump’s Agenda Moves Ahead at the UN, byDulcie Leimbach
• #1 this month:Why Panamanians Love Their Canal: A Long Struggle for National Identity, by Mariana Hernández Ampudia
!!ALERT!! The annual event on women’s rights starts on March 10 and ends March 21. Our staff reporter, Damilola Banjo, called it a women’s UNGA, and this is her first time covering it. Wish her luck! Which brings us to our pitch for donations to enhance our editorial budget for top-notch reporting on the Commission on the Status of Women, CSW, this year. — Many thanks for your generosity, Dulcie Leimbach, editor, and the PassBlue team
Dept. of Outrage (DOO): Unicef “warned that millions of children in Sudan are at risk of rape and other forms of sexual violence, which is being used as a tactic of war.” Armed men are raping and sexually assaulting children, including infants, amid the country’s civil war. (The report does not assign blame for the violence.) No area “is immune from these horrendous crimes,” Unicef says.
• The US State Department held its first press briefing, on March 6, under Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The UN was mentioned (31:30) regarding the Security Council resolution on “ending the conflict” in Ukraine on Feb. 24, approved “without opposition” in the UN chamber, said Tammy Bruce, US spokesperson. (10 countries voted yes on the text; 5 abstained.)
Additionally, the US delegation pushed the MAGA agenda in the UN General Assembly this week, furthering the country’s isolation in the world and censoring UN language:
• Voted no on the International Day of Peaceful Coexistence resolution (with Argentina and Israel), saying: “Put simply, globalist endeavors like Agenda 2030 and the SDGs lost at the ballot box. Therefore, the United States rejects and denounces the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals, and it will no longer reaffirm them as a matter of course.”
• The only country to vote no on the International Day for Judicial Well-Being resolution, saying, in part, “this resolution represents internationalization of Self Care movement and migration of it into domains where it does not belong.”
• The only country to vote no on the Education for Democracy resolution, saying, in part: “The discussion of misinformation and disinformation in OP 9 [operative paragraph 9] is an unequivocal redline for the United States. These terms are intentionally nebulous and ill-defined so that they can be wielded as tools of censorship.”
• The only country to vote no on the International Day of Hope resolution, saying, in part, it “contains references to diversity, equity and inclusion that conflict with US policies that seek to eliminate all forms of discrimination and create equal opportunities for all.”
The US was the only country to vote against a General Assembly resolution designating an International Day of Hope, led by Kiribati.
From PassBlue this week:
• Why the Generational Struggle to Counter Authoritarianism Must Be Nurtured, op-ed by Peter Hoffman
• Denmark Aims to Promote Peace Amid Radical Power Shifts Globally, by Damilola Banjo
• Activists Seize the ‘Momentum’ to Finally Eliminate Nukes, by Arshi Qureshi
• Global Stockpiles of Nukes Are Decreasing, but the World Is Not Safer, by Damilola Banjo
Top UN news:
Monday, March 3
• Spokesperson’s briefing: With talks between Hamas andIsrael on the second phase of the ceasefire inching along, the closing of the Kerem Shalom, Erez and Zikim crossings intoGaza by Israel since March 2 has left humanitarian aid undelivered, increasing vegetable and flour prices more than 100-fold and risking “devastating consequences for children and families who are struggling to survive,” Unicef says. Since the ceasefire began on Jan. 19, almost 1,000 aid trucks carrying food, water, shelter and medical aid had crossed into the enclave, allowing nearly everyone in Gaza to receive food parcels, per the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), while 1,500 water distribution points began operating and over 100 reopened schools accommodated around 100,000 students.
Tuesday, March 4
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Speaking at the Extraordinary Arab Summit in Cairo on plans to rebuild postwar Gaza, Secretary-General António Guterres called for a political framework that “lays the foundation for Gaza’s recovery. . . reconstruction and lasting stability.” The UN also released areadout of Guterres’s meeting withSyria’s interim PresidentAhmad al-Sharaa, in which Guterres stressed the need for an inclusive transition aligned with key principles inSecurity Council resolution 2254. UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Guterres believes that member states need to lower “the pressure on the Syrian economy by removing a number of sanctions.”
[Update, March 5:** Dujarric said Guterres and the UN support the $53 billionproposal presented at the Arab summit. The five-year reconstruction plan draft byEgypt**, seeks to provide essential humanitarian services to Gaza withIsrael’s cooperation and organize temporary transfers of Palestinians across the enclave to rebuild its infrastructure and buildings. President Trump has rejected the plan, and in a March 7 report, Anadolu said the US and Israel are discussing ways to create a fund to finance the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza]
Jiro Hamasumi, Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor
At the weeklong Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons conference at the UN, the mother of Jiro Hamasumi, above, was three months pregnant with him and living in Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, when America dropped the atomic bomb. He is now acting secretary-general of Nihon Hidankyo, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2024. JOHN PENNEY/PASSBLUE
Wednesday, March 5
• Spokesperson’s briefing: The UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) and its human rights experts issued a report documenting breaches in the country, detailing two waves of attacks in October 2024 and January this year in which “grave human rights violations” were committed, mainly against Muslim communities, Sudanese refugees and asylum-seekers, killing 24 people in the southeast. The report also documents cases of conflict-related sexual violence against women and girls, including gang rape, forced labour, torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
Thursday, March 6
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Dujarric addressed OCHA’s decision to allocate $110 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) in light of “global humanitarian funding being scaled back ‘precipitously'” while facing the “largest humanitarian needs ever.” As an example of the effects of the crisis in Afghanistan, more than 200 health facilities have closed in the past month as the country experiences a “severe humanitarian crisis defined by decades of conflict, entrenched poverty, climate-induced shocks and rising ‘protection risks,'” especially for women and girls. More than half the Afghan population — 23 million people, the second-highest afterSudan — needs humanitarian help.
Friday, March 7
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Guterres marked International Women’s Day — technically March 8 — by highlighting the new threats against women worsening “centuries of discrimination,” including the “mainstreaming of chauvinism and misogyny.” Guterres introduced the Gender Equality Clarion Call’s four priorities for action: “unified leadership” to champion women’s rights in every forum; “action against pushbacks” backlash and rollbacks to create “spaces where women’s rights can thrive”; coordinated work across all sectors and levels to dismantle systemic inequalities; and protecting women human rights defenders. “We must never accept a world where women and girls live in fear, where their safety is a privilege rather than a non-negotiable right,” Guterres said.
• Relatedly, UN Women released a report, “Women’s Rights in Review 30 Years After Beijing.” It shows that in 2024 nearly a quarter of governments reported a backlash on women’s rights. Despite progress, only 87 countries have ever been led by a woman, and a woman or girl is killed every 10 minutes by a partner or member of her own family. Digital technology and artificial intelligence spread damaging stereotypes, while the digital gender gap limits women’s opportunities.
• Today, an UNMISS helicopter was attacked as it tried to evacuate South Sudanese military personnel in Upper Nile State, killing a UN crew member and injuring two others seriously. Several members of the South Sudanese military force were also killed.
ICYMI:
• The Case for Partition in Western Sahara (by Hannah Rae Armstrong in Foreign Affairs)
• Elise Stefanik, US envoy-designate to the UN, was booed amid walkouts during her speech at an Anti-Defamation League event on March 3 after backing “Trump’s claim that, had he won the 2020 election, Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack would never have happened,” according to The Jerusalem Post.
• DOGE-UN announced its mission as an “independent advisory” to “X-size the waste & rogue behavior of the United Nations bureaucracy.” Hugh Dugan, a former US career diplomat, leads the group. It is unclear who is funding it.
Arthur Bassas
Arthur Bassas is a researcher and writer who graduated from St. Andrews in Scotland, majoring in international relations and terrorism. He lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., and speaks English and French.