Yahya Jammeh, Gambia’s former leader, ruled the tiny West African country with an iron fist for 22 years after seizing power in a 1994 military coup. His regime was marked by widespread human rights abuses, including enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial killings. Despite being voted out in 2016 and soon exiled to Equatorial Guinea after refusing to accept the election results, his legacy continues to haunt Gambia as victims and their families wait for elusive justice and reparation...
Apr 04, 2025•30 min
Samuel Zbogar, ambassador of Slovenia to the UN, leads the rotating presidency of the Security Council this month. In an interview, he tells PassBlue that his country will use its signature debate, on Sept. 25, to ask Council members to reflect on how their countries can work more for peace rather than war. A daunting challenge, he admits. The country is back in the Council for the first time since 1999. Tweet at us @pass_blue GC tv link: www.globalconnectionstelevision.com/
Sep 04, 2024•12 min
Dr. Michael Imran Kanu, Sierra Leone's envoy to the UN, says his country's presidency of the Security Council this August will focus on Council reform and making the case for a permanent seat for the African continent. Tweet at us @pass_blue GC tv link: www.globalconnectionstelevision.com/
Aug 02, 2024•16 min
As UN Security Council rotating president for July, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia says that the West is using the "Kyiv regime" as "puppets" to fight the war in Ukraine and that there will be "certain political consequences" for doing so. Nebenzia was speaking to the media on July 1 as he detailed his country's agenda in the Council for the next four weeks. Besides the topic of Ukraine, he fielded questions on the budding closeness between North Korea and Russia, including the gift of a lu...
Jul 04, 2024•13 min
Joonkook Hwang, the ambassador of South Korea to the UN, says his country will highlight the threats of cyberspace to global peace and security. This is a new topic for the Security Council agenda, so why does it matter to the East Asian nation? Find out in this month's episode of UNSCripted. Tweet at us @pass_blue GC tv link: www.globalconnectionstelevision.com/
Jun 03, 2024•14 min
Welcome to a special episode of PassBlue podcast series UNSCripted. I’m Jessica Le Masurier, and I’m joined by Hala Rharrit, the Arabic language spokesperson for the Mideast-North Africa region for the United States State Department who recently resigned in protest over US policy on the war in Gaza. (The text part of the interview has been edited for clarity.)
May 09, 2024•17 min
Mozambique's permanent representative to the Security Council, Pedro Comissário, says that vetoes, divergent priorities and other imperfections can severely limit the productive work of the UN's crucial peacemaking body. On this episode of UNScripted, we find out what Comissário plans to do as rotating president in May, despite these challenges, such as reinforcing international law on protecting civilians. Tweet at us @pass_blue GC tv link: www.globalconnectionstelevision.com/
May 01, 2024•11 min
Vanessa Frazier, Malta’s envoy to the UN, explains why the new Ramadan ceasefire isn't holding in Gaza and says that her country is counting on the ICC to hurry up its inquiry into whether war crimes are being carried out in the enclave. GC tv link: www.globalconnectionstelevision.com/
Apr 02, 2024•14 min
Japan's dual focus for its UN Security Council presidency – preventing conflicts as well as nuclear disarmament – align with its foreign policy and history of nuclear disasters but as it leads the Council for this month, Ambassador Yamazaki says the Security Council is struggling with its main job of building peace and preventing violent disputes. Seton Hull link: www.shu.edu/diplomacy/visiting.html GC tv link: www.globalconnectionstelevision.com/
Mar 12, 2024•12 min
The UN CHARTER: A Question of Faith “The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” SAN FRANCISCO -- Our third and final episode of the podcast series “Act of Creation” is ready for your ears. It’s a fitting end to a great journey. Episode 1 looks at the years leading up to the famous San Francisco Conference of 1945, when the Charter was signed and the United Nations was born; the episode then moves up to the Conference’s opening day on April 24. Episode 2 dives into the C...
Feb 17, 2024•36 min
Guyana may not not want a permanent seat in the UN Security Council but it definitely wants a ceasefire in Gaza "as soon as possible." As rotating president for February, the country's ambassador to the UN, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, tells PassBlue that another top priority for the month is impressing on the world how climate change affects food security and, ultimately, global peace. She also touches on Guyana's territorial disputes with Venezuela. Seton Hull link: www.shu.edu/diplomacy/visitin...
Feb 02, 2024•13 min
France, a permanent member of the Security Council, is president of the body in January. Ambassador Nicolas de de Rivière says his country will headline Gaza this month, where the number of civilian casualties incurred by Israel's "broad and massive military operation" is "way way too high." Tweet at us @pass_blue Seton Hull link: www.shu.edu/diplomacy/visiting.html GC tv link: www.globalconnectionstelevision.com/
Jan 04, 2024•10 min
As Ecuador’ assumes the leadership of the United Nations Security Council this month, the country wants to focus on the broader peace and security issues in the Mideast rather than the Israel-Hamas war, even as it devastates civilians in the Gaza strip. Listen to our podcast to find out what it hopes to do about transnational organized crimes in Latin America and UN peacekeeping in the Central Africa region. Tweet at us @pass_blue Seton Hull link: www.shu.edu/diplomacy/visiting.html GC tv link: ...
Dec 06, 2023•9 min
In this episode, we meet a family who fled Xinjiang Province, or what they prefer to call East Turkestan, to the US and are now teaching a new generation in the diaspora about Uyghur language and culture. We also meet a New York City restaurateur who is keeping Uyghur cuisine alive. Tweet at us @pass_blue Seton Hull link: https://www.shu.edu/diplomacy/visiting.html GC tv link: https://www.globalconnectionstelevision.com/
Nov 15, 2023•12 min
Brazil recently won a sixth term in the Human Rights Council. Before the election, we spoke to the country’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Norberto Moretti, on the country’s candidacy. We also talked about the reversal of deforestation in the Amazon and the lack of debate on migration in the UN Security Council. With context provided by Prof. Gustavo Macedo at Ibmec in Sao Paulo. Seton Hall: https://www.shu.edu/ Global Connection Television: https://www.globalconnectionstelevision.c...
Oct 13, 2023•21 min
If you want to join the European Union, make sure you are at peace with Athens. But Ferit Hoxha, Albania’s envoy to the UN and rotating president of the UN Security Council for September, is unperturbed about possible obstacles Greece may put in Albania's way, regardless of certain disputes. PassBlue interviewed Hoxha and Engjellushe Morina, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, for this month's episode of UN-Scripted. We discuss how Russia's invasion of Ukraine ha...
Sep 04, 2023•23 min
As the US takes over the Security Council, famine and human rights are the banner themes for August. We chat with foreign affairs analyst Jeffrey Laurenti about the Black Sea Grain deal, perennial Israel and Palestine fracas and Afghanistan’s foreign reserves. Laurenti, who is American, says Israel’s extreme right-wing government is alienating its Jewish support in the US. Would that be enough to push the Biden camp to be firm with its longtime ally in the Mideast? Tweet us at Pass_Blue to share...
Aug 01, 2023•15 min
Our latest episode of “Act of Creation” takes listeners deep into conversation with Stephen Schlesinger, author of the book of the same name, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this September and chronicles the birth of the United Nations through the signing of the UN Charter. That is arguably the moment when the UN was born, at the end of a two-month conclave that began on April 25, 1945, most famously referred to as the San Francisco Conference. The second episode of our three-part series m...
Jul 27, 2023•34 min
With UK’s presidency of the Security Council underway, PassBlue used its interview with Ambassador James Kariuki, the country’s deputy permanent representative, to ask about one of the most controversial pieces of UK foreign policy – a bill that could allow British government ministers to ignore injunctions from the European Court of Human Rights to suspend deportation of illegal migrants. We also heard directly from the ambassador why the UK and the United States blocked the airing of Russia’s ...
Jul 05, 2023•19 min
In March, the Taliban opened a consul in the UAE. There are two possible results proffered by Dr. Mira Al Hussein, a Mideast expert, on the move: the militants gain international legitimacy or the US could be tempted to bolster the Taliban to attack Iran. Both parties have clashed over water rights this year. On this episode of UN-Scripted, we also reflect on how well the UAE has been at building economic relationships globally, as it leaves its military interventionist policy of the post-Arab S...
Jun 04, 2023•13 min
On April 26, the Security Council held a historic meeting on the use of Veto power. At that meeting, an initiative by France and Mexico to stop Council members from using veto in cases of atrocities was re-echoed. Ambassador Pascale Baeriswyl, Switzerland’s first Security Council president, told PassBlue her country is actively pushing for the motion to become a resolution. Will it happen? So far, only two permanent council members support the initiative, which will be ten years in the making by...
May 04, 2023•17 min
This is the first part of our three part podcast series about the founding of the United Nations, featuring Stephen Schlesinger, author of the book "Act of Creation." The series was created by Dan Becker, a composer, educator and board member of UNA-USA in San Francisco. It is focused through the prism of the San Francisco Conference, where for two months beginning on April 25, 1945, the UN Charter was hammered out and signed on June 26 1945. It's important to emphasize that this historical stor...
Apr 17, 2023•33 min
Stephen Schlesinger, Fellow at the Century Foundation New York, author, International Affairs analyst, and a few other caps, told PassBlue why the multilateral system is best served with Russian in it. At the end, dealing with erring Permanent council members, a position all five have occupied in history, comes down to moral suasion.
Apr 04, 2023•27 min
Sitting president of the Security Council, Pedro Comissario chatted with PassBlue on Feb. 24, 24 hours after abstaining again on a UN resolution demanding Russia's withdrawal from Ukraine. He said that certain Western countries, including the US and UK, did the same on Resolution 1514, outlawing colonialism, but he denied that historic ties with the Soviet Union have any bearing on Mozambique's foreign policy today. Ryan Cummings at the Center for Strategic and International Studies differs. And...
Mar 03, 2023•26 min
Remember Atlantis? The mythical city gobbled up by the ocean? This is happening to islands and villages in the Pacific. Ambassador Vanessa Frazier, Malta's emissary to the UN and president of the UN Security Council for February, tells PassBlue that international law has no cover for the rights of islanders who could lose their home to the water in our lifetime. Malta will raise the matter of rising sea levels to the Council on Feb. 14. We also discuss with the ambassador the tetchy topic of irr...
Feb 06, 2023•16 min
North Korea pushed pacifist Japan to the edge in 2022, launching over 90 cruise and ballistic missiles, several of them landing in Japanese waters. Tokyo responded in kind, announcing a security strategy that would see it become the ninth-most militarized economy in half a decade. The Japanese are also wary of possible Chinese threats. Journalists at Japan’s press briefing earlier in the month wanted to know if Japan would discuss North Korea in the Council. One reporter was concerned about Japa...
Jan 16, 2023•20 min
India has raised its oil purchases from Russia from about 0% at the beginning OF THE Year to an estimated 22% in October. As a large consumer, its buying from Russia is freeing up the market for other buyers, keeping oil prices down. On the 60th episode of UN-Scripted, we speak to the country’s first female permanent representative, Ruchira Kamboj. She says India has the sovereign right to meet the energy needs of its 1.34 billion citizens. We also speak to Shyama Venkateswar, a public policy ex...
Dec 06, 2022•28 min
Ghana takes the presidency of the UN Security Council at a deep time of uncertainty. Russia has just suspended its role in the only concession it has offered since Putin invaded Ukraine, the Black Sea grain deal, upsetting the UN and the rest of the diplomatic community. Ambassador Harold Agyeman talks about whether Western sanctions on Russia have hurt Global South economies, but he says it's the war itself that is affecting individuals globally. Agyeman also discusses the future of Ecowas, the...
Nov 01, 2022•34 min
Gabon is in Central Africa, one of the few places in the world that absorbs more carbon than it emits. One month to COP27, in Egypt, we speak to the country’s ambassador to the UN, Michel Xavier Biang. Africa, he says, needs outside financing to adapt to the hot earth, which is 0.4 degrees from the "at least" 1.5 degrees target agreed in the Paris climate pact. In this episode, we are also joined by Abdoulaye Ndiaye, an economics professor at New York University. Ndiaye wants African leaders to ...
Oct 04, 2022•24 min
France leads the presidency of the Council this month, while down the hall at the UN, world leaders will gather for the General Assembly's annual high-level debate. We talk with French Ambassador Nicolas de Rivière about Western sanctions on Russia, global fixation on Africa and enduring problems with the Council's "P5" veto power. We are also joined by Ashish Pradhan, the International Crisis Group’s senior UN analyst. Links: PassBlue's website: www.passblue.com Twitter: @pass_blue Facebook: @P...
Sep 05, 2022•26 min
