Joseph A. Klein, CFP United Nations Columnist

UN Continues to Promote Palestinian Victimhood Narrative Against Israel

In a message commemorating November 29th as the “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People,” United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that he was “deeply saddened by the growing number of Palestinian civilians who have lost their lives in the spiral of violence engulfing the occupied West Bank.” The Secretary General failed at the same time to acknowledge the growing number of Israeli civilians killed and injured by Palestinian terrorists. Perhaps he did not want to ruin the Palestinians’ special day, although that is no excuse for obscuring the truth. At the very least, however, Secretary General Guterres should have acknowledged the fact that this November 29th is important for an entirely different reason. It is the 75th anniversary of the UN General Assembly’s adoption of Resolution 181 – the original two-state solution.

UN Climate Conference Approves Climate Change Reparations Fund

The 27th session of the Conference of the Parties on climate change organized by the United Nations (COP27) has wrapped up its two-week proceedings at Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. The conference parties are the nearly two hundred countries that agreed to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. COP27 culminated in the parties’ approval of an agreement to establish a climate change “loss and damage” fund for developing countries, in what amounts to reparations for the havoc from natural disasters these countries allegedly suffered as a result of climate change.

High-Level UN Officials Advise Elon Musk to Limit Free Speech on Twitter

Elon Musk purchased Twitter with the avowed purpose of restoring free speech because, he said, it is “important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner without resorting to violence.” Twitter is still in a transition period under Mr. Musk’s new leadership. Nevertheless, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk decided that he could not wait before strongly urging Mr. Musk, in an open letter he wrote earlier this month, “to ensure human rights are central to the management of Twitter under your leadership.” Mr. Türk then laid out in his letter six fundamental principles from a human rights perspective that he believes Twitter must follow.

Russia Suspends Participation in Life-Saving Black Sea Grain Initiative

The United Nations and Turkey brokered the Black Sea Grain Initiative last summer between Ukraine and Russia, which has allowed grain shipments to leave Ukraine's ports and pass through a "humanitarian" corridor safely. Russia has now jeopardized this life-saving arrangement by suspending its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative for an "indefinite period." The Black Sea Grain Initiative freed up Ukrainian agricultural products for export that had been blocked from reaching global markets following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The increased exports brought more stability to the global food market, which helped to lower prices. Wheat purchased by the World Food Program was able to reach vulnerable people in food insecure areas. In short, this Initiative has helped to relieve the food crisis, which had been exacerbated by Russia's war in Ukraine. Now all that progress is at risk because Russia once again is trying to use vitally needed food as a weapon of war.

UN Watch Files Complaint with UNSG Guterres Alleging Censorship and Discrimination

UN Watch, a non-governmental organization (NGO) accredited by the Economic and Social Council that monitors the United Nations’ adherence to its stated human rights principles, filed a complaint on October 6th with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. The complaint charges that Eric Tistounet, chief of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) staff, has systematically harassed, censored, and discriminated against UN Watch over a course of at least 15 years. Mr. Tistounet’s conduct, UN Watch alleges, is in violation of the United Nations Charter and the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, as well as of UN staff rules, procedures, and practices.

China and Russia Headline Another Day at the UN’s High-Level Debate

On September 24th, the next-to-last day of the world leaders’ annual gathering at United Nations headquarters in New York, the headline speakers addressing the General Assembly were the foreign ministers of China and Russia. Foreign Ministers Wang Yi of China and Sergey Lavrov of Russia excused their autocratic regimes’ aggressive behavior and condemned anyone who would try to meddle in what they consider to be their own internal affairs.

President Biden’s UN Speech: Tough on Russia but Feckless Otherwise

President Joe Biden delivered his second speech on September 21st at the annual high-level session of the United Nations General Assembly. Normally the President of the United States speaks to the General Assembly on the first day of the high-level session but President Biden’s trip to Great Britain to attend Queen Elizabeth’s funeral caused him to postpone the speech by a day.

UN Secretary General Guterres’ Press Conference

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres held one of his rare press conferences on September 14th ahead of the gathering of world leaders next week in New York for the annual General Assembly high level debate. He delivered an extremely stark message about the state of the world today. The Secretary General’s opening remarks focused on climate change. He painted a “future of permanent and ubiquitous climate chaos on an unimaginable scale” unless “action is taken now, unless funds are disbursed now.” The gloom and doom message went on from there:

The UN Continues Its Outrageous Campaign to Delegitimize the Jewish State of Israel

The United Nations has yet again singled out the democratic Jewish State of Israel for condemnation over alleged human rights abuses while letting UN member states with atrocious human rights records off the hook. On July 22, 2022, the UN’s 54-nation Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), one of the three principal bodies of the United Nations, passed a resolution accusing only Israel of violating the human rights of women and girls. The resolution, adopted by a vote of 40 to 6 with 4 abstentions, might as well have been drafted by Palestinian propagandists.

UN Says That Mexico-U.S. Border is the World’s Deadliest Land Crossing

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), which is part of the United Nations, concluded in a report it issued on July 1st that the United States-Mexico border crossing is "the deadliest land crossing in the world.” At least 728 lives were lost in 2021. IOM said that this total was 53 per cent higher than in 2020, the last full year of the Trump administration, and was the highest since at least 2014 during the Obama-Biden administration. According to Edwin Viales, author of the new IOM report on migrants in the Americas in 2021, “this number remains an undercount due to the diverse challenges for data collection.”

UN Secretary General Denounces New Fossil Fuel Funding as “Delusional”

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned on June 14th that the window to prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis is closing. While the Secretary General has issued such warnings multiple times before over the last several years, he is now upping his war of words against the fossil fuel industry. He added that new funding for fossil fuel exploration and production infrastructure is “delusional” and called upon all financial actors to abandon fossil fuel finance.

World Health Organization’s Advancing Intrusion on U.S. Sovereignty

The World Health Assembly re-elected Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on May 24th to a second 5-year term as the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General. Tedros was the Chinese Communist regime’s stooge as the coronavirus began to spread from China, where it originated, to other countries. Tedros praised China’s self-serving response to the coronavirus, during the early days of the coronavirus’s spread when it could have been stopped. Indeed, Tedros helped promote China’s initial lie that the virus was not transmissible from human to human. He has stood by while the Chinese regime continues to block an independent, comprehensive, and transparent investigation of the coronavirus’s origin in its country, including an unfettered inspection by credible outside experts of China’s virology labs.

UN Helps Save Civilians in Ukraine but Still Purchases From Russia

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres returned from his recent trip to Europe and Africa, which included crucial stops in Russia and Ukraine to meet in person with their leaders on a critical humanitarian mission. The Secretary General appealed to both Russian President Putin and Ukrainian President Zelensky to work cooperatively with the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross in evacuating trapped civilians, especially from the devastated city of Mariupol that has continued to endure heavy Russian bombardment.

UN Security Council Refuses to Allow Israel to Present Videos of Palestinian Violence

Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, addressed the United Nations Security Council on April 25th during a meeting regarding the Middle East. The meeting focused on the situation in Jerusalem and recent violence erupting at and around the Temple Mount. Ambassador Erdan separated fact from fiction in taking apart the tiresome Palestinian victimhood narrative, which always claims that the Israelis are at fault for responding to violence instigated by Palestinian thugs.

UN General Assembly Votes to Suspend Russia from UN Human Rights Council

The United Nations General Assembly took the extraordinary step on Thursday of suspending Russia from the UN Human Rights Council because of its horrendous human rights violations following the invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces. The resolution expressed “grave concern at the ongoing human rights and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, particularly at the reports of violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law by the Russian Federation, including gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights.”

Ukraine’s President Addresses the UN Security Council and Recites Russia’s War Crimes

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres addressed the UN Security Council on April 5th to kick off the Security Council’s meeting on Ukraine. He took Russia to task for what he condemned as “the full-fledged invasion, on several fronts, of one Member State of the United Nations, Ukraine, by another, the Russian Federation – a Permanent Member of the Security Council – in violation of the United Nations Charter, and with several aims, including redrawing the internationally-recognized borders between the two countries.” The Secretary General said that he would “never forget the horrifying images of civilians killed in Bucha.” Those images included scenes of civilian bodies, some with their hands bound, lying in the streets of Bucha. Russia’s military forces had occupied Bucha before withdrawing and leaving their killing field behind. Secretary General Guterres then pulled his punches. He called for “an independent investigation to guarantee effective accountability” and left it at that.

UN General Assembly Passes Strong Resolution Condemning Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

The United Nations General Assembly finally got something right. On Wednesday, it voted overwhelmingly to approve a resolution entitled “Aggression against Ukraine.” The resolution strongly condemned Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine and demanded that Russia withdraw all of its military forces from all of Ukraine's territory. The vote was 141 votes yes, 5 no, and 35 abstentions, exceeding the two-third majority needed to approve the resolution. Siding with Russia in voting against the resolution were North Korea, Syria, Belarus, and Eritrea. China abstained.

Kick Russia Out of the UN and Prosecute the Putin Cadre for War Crimes

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his henchmen are war criminals. They launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, a sovereign member state of the United Nations, and are deliberately targeting civilian populations and facilities in urban centers with deadly rocket barrages and massive bombing. In a rare show of revulsion at a blatant violation of the UN Charter and fundamental norms of civilized behavior in the 21st century, member state delegates attending the United Nations Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva on Tuesday walked out en masse as Russia's Foreign Minister Sergio Lavrov began to deliver his virtual address.

The United Nations Stands By Helplessly As Russia Invades Ukraine

Early in the morning of February 24th (Ukrainian time), Putin broadened the theater of war in Ukraine. He declared a “special military operation” in the country on the pretext of helping the people of Donbass. It was the equivalent of a declaration of war on all of Ukraine, punctuated by explosions that were heard in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and other Ukrainian cities, in the aftermath of Putin’s “special military operation” order. Russia has launched missile attacks, targeting air bases and military infrastructure in multiple cities. The land invasion has also begun from several directions, spearheaded by Russian special forces. There have been reports of civilian fatalities, including of at least one child.

Trudeau Gets a Pass From the UN on his Trucker Protest Crackdown

In December of 2020, Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the UN Secretary General, was asked about a farmers' protest in India. Thousands of demonstrators were protesting at the borders of Delhi against three farm laws they regarded as anti-farmer. The protesting farmers were allegedly met with “repressive measures” by the government. When it comes to how governments should handle peaceful protests, the United Nations bureaucracy from the very top has a double standard. So does Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who lectures other countries about how they should handle peaceful protests but does precisely the opposite himself.