19th June 2015
London, UK
Florence Ayot was kidnapped by the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda when she was nine years old. “I was given to a Major and forced to be his slave. If I didn’t do what they ordered, they beat me,” says Florence in the documentary The War Against Women. “The most painful thing was that the girls […]
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4th June 2015
Geneva, Switzerland
With our televisions screens filled by images of seemingly endless civil wars, spiralling sectarian horror, and rising humanitarian misery, many have concluded that the international system is failing, even broken. Yet on 25 May an event took place that tells a different story. One that gives hope to all those who believe that the United […]
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25th May 2015
Istanbul, Turkey
Three years ago today, a massacre took place in the Syrian village of Taldou in Houla, in northern Syria. According to the UN, 108 civilians were brutally murdered, including 34 women and 49 children. More even than the death toll, the clear sectarian nature of the killings sparked an international outcry. The UN and twelve other […]
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23rd March 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Pope Francis is a powerful campaigner against corruption; the exploitation by the powerful of the vulnerable, the poor and the weak. He returned to this theme again on his recent visit to Naples, a city blighted by the corrupting influence of organised crime. “Corruption stinks”, he said, “corrupt society stinks and a Christian who lets […]
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27th January 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
International #HolocaustRemembranceDay (#HRD) is observed on 27 January to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. On this day we remember the genocide that resulted in the death of an estimated six million Jews; one million Roma; 250,000 mentally and physically disabled people; and 9000 homosexual men by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. When the […]
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23rd November 2014
Chennai, India
I’ve spent most of my career working on Africa and its issues. It’s a beautiful, resilient, inspiring continent. The people are simply extraordinary. But I’ve also seen first-hand the prevalence of violence against women there. That’s true in conflict – in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and most recently as Ambassador to the Central […]
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16th September 2014
Brasilia, Brazil
The 69th session of the UN General Assembly starts today in New York. The commonly referred to Ministerial Week – when the high level meetings occur – will take place next week. For most people the UN General Assembly (UNGA) will conjure up newspaper images of that huge hall familiar from television, with rows of […]
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3rd September 2014
Beirut, Lebanon
With a formidable to-do list for the world’s leaders, the 2014 NATO Summit takes place in Wales on 4/5 September. This will be the largest ever gathering of international leaders in Britain. In preparation, some diplomats have even been learning Welsh (Matthew Barzun clip). Having been to a few, I’ve sometimes been sceptical about the […]
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20th August 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
As I write, I am representing the #UK in an open session of the Africa Union’s #(AU) Peace and Security Council #PSC in Addis Ababa to commemorate World Humanitarian Day #WHD2014 – a date which marks, of course, the horrific bombing of #UN Headquarters in Baghdad in 2003. It seems today that the humanitarian system is being stretched […]
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25th June 2014
Washington DC, USA
“What do British people hate?” A straightforward question – but context is everything. When posed by an earnest thirteen-year-old North Korean schoolboy, in a Q&A discussion with British diplomatic visitors, it took me by surprise. But then much of what my colleagues and I experienced during a week-long familiarisation visit to the Democratic People’s Republic […]
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