If the TV show Pointless asked contestants to name countries with UN peacekeeping missions then the Central African Republic would almost certainly be a ‘pointless’ answer: one that no-one was able to guess. Yet, in this country with a population smaller than Scotland (4.6 million) thousands were murdered, raped and mutilated at the end of…
I attended a moving and powerful Holocaust Memorial Day Ceremony yesterday. This annual event provides a focal point around the world to remember the horrors of Auschwitz, Kristallnacht and the March of Death. Holocaust Memorial Day events also recall the genocides since: Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur. Survivors spoke of their losses, and of their…
Our event this week in Bujumbura (introduced in my previous blog) is split into two parts. Special UN Envoy Mary Robinson’s consultation and mobilisation in support of the Framework of Hope will be followed by a Great Lakes Regional Conference on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 –…
The apparently never ending cycles of violence in and around the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo have been followed (always ‘followed’ unfortunately) by cycles of international interest that have failed to deliver change and build a permanent peace. Can the latest international effort really be different? Can we dare to hope for…
There has been focus on UNESCO recently. It admitted Palestine as a full member (although I am not sure whether Palestine has signed up to the constitution of the UNESCO, which is a condition of membership) and in consequence the United States has withdrawn its funding. In 1985 the United Kingdom withdrew from UNESCO for…
