3rd July 2023 Vienna
On 28 June, 71 countries agreed a joint call to action urging the removal of online Child Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM). We agreed that we need three things…
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23rd March 2022
Last week, I had the honour of attending the 66th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the United Nations, New York. CSW is the biggest annual forum for defending and promoting women and girls’ rights around the world. The UK was well represented at CSW, with a delegation of inspirational women including the […]
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23rd October 2020 London, UK
Pub quiz question: where was the first meeting of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly held? Answer: London, in the Methodist Central Hall on 10 January 1946. London features heavily in early UN history. The Security Council met for the first time in Church House, Westminster, the following week. Church House was also the location for […]
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29th May 2019 Vienna, Austria
One of Vienna’s key international organisations is the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the UNODC. But how exactly do countries work with UNODC to combat the illegal use of drugs? Every March, the UK and other countries send experts to the UNODC in Vienna for the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, known as the […]
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9th December 2018 Vienna, Austria
A corrupt politician in a country far away wears an expensive watch and owns a car costing many times his annual salary. Why should we care? Corruption matters because it undermines the rules-based international system; slows economic growth; and generates instability. All this harms countries, and peoples, around the world. Every year, corruption costs a […]
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22nd November 2018 New York, USA
The Syrian conflict has dragged on for seven long awful years. Over 400,000 people have been killed and half Syria’s population displaced. A terrible price has been paid by the Syrian people for the failure to make the Geneva Agreement of 2012 stick. This agreement identified steps for an immediate cessation of hostilities and a […]
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