With the United Nations COP 27 Climate Change Conference set to take place in the Egyptian city of Sharm El-Sheikh beginning on Nov. 6, many observers have raised concerns about the country’s human rights and environmental records and what this will mean for the conference as well as climate justice more broadly.
Two gatherings of international institutions this week—the IMF and World Bank’s annual meeting and a U.N. dialogue with the African Union—have been dominated by the global economic crisis. But many African governments and citizens regard multilateral organizations like these as missing in action regarding their major challenges.
Russia’s annexation of four partially occupied areas in Ukraine would appear to turn the U.N. Charter on its head, prompting some observers to wonder whether it has outlived its usefulness. In fact, however, the charter is working exactly as was envisioned, and perhaps even better than its framers hoped, for three reasons.
During his speech to the U.N. General Assembly, President Joe Biden declared that the U.S. is open to U.N. Security Council reform. Though major reforms are unlikely, Washington still needs to demonstrate that it is at least serious about the effort. That could mean looking for fairly quick wins to show it means business.