United Nations (UN)

UN structure and activities for June 2015

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2024: Opening an account with a Russian bank for settlements in rubles

The United Nations (UN) has opened an account in one of the Russian banks not under Western sanctions for settlements in rubles. This was Sovcombank told on January 22, 2024.

To pay membership fees to various international nonprofits, including UNEP FI, Sovcombank applied to the U.S. Treasury (OFAC) for a license that would allow it to pay in dollars. Before obtaining a UN license, at the request of Sovcombank, she opened an account with one of the Russian banks and for the first time began to make settlements in rubles, Sovcombank said in a statement.

United Nations Headquarters

It also follows from it that Sovcombank is one of the most active participants in the UN Environment Finance Initiative (UNEP FI). By the beginning of 2024, the bank is one of the ten largest Russian credit institutions of banks in terms of assets.

In 2023, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Sovcombank Mikhail Avtukhov, in a conversation with Reuters, noted that Western sanctions do not allow the bank to make payments to the UN, as well as other Russian participants in the program. Sovcombank has been a member of the UN program since 2019, and it fell under the sanctions of the United States, Britain and the EU in 2022.

In December 2023, Petr Ilyichev, director of the department of international organizations of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said in an interview with RIA Novosti that Russia had developed a mechanism for transferring membership fees to UN institutions and other international organizations in dollars and euros after the country faced difficulties in transferring these funds to the budgets of international organizations due to sanctions restrictions. According to Ilyichev, the ruble contribution to the UN Population Fund, transferred in 2022, "rather remains an exception to general practice."^[1]

2023: Record number of deaths of the organization's employees: 88 people died in Palestine under Israeli bombs

From October 7 to November 5, 2023, the UN lost 88 employees working in the Gaza Strip in Palestine. These are the organization's biggest losses ever recorded in a single conflict.

2022

Why UN peacekeeping operations in Africa are useless

By the end of 2022, peacekeeping operations that have existed in certain countries Africa for more than two decades have hardly progressed to their goals. On the contrary, the inability of peacekeepers to stabilize the situation in unsafe areas, and often direct collusion with various armed groups, caused hatred from the local population.

What do UN peacekeepers do in Africa?

At the end of 2022, UN peacekeeping forces with a total budget of more than $5 billion per year and a military contingent of more than 60 thousand people. represented in four countries and in two disputed territories of Africa.

United Nations Mission in Western Sahara - MINURSO

In 1991, 15 years after the declaration by the Polisario Front of the independence of Western Sahara from Morocco, a UN peacekeeping mission was established in the region. Its goal was to ensure a referendum on independence or integration with Morocco.

The so-called "transition period," which was supposed to end with a referendum - has been going on for 31 years. At the same time, more than $60 million is spent on the maintenance of peacekeepers annually.

The presence of MINURSO did not prevent Moroccan troops at the end of 2020 from trying to open the road in the Gergerat buffer zone, which in turn forced Polisario to announce the end of the 30-year truce and the resumption of armed conflict.

The clear failure of the mission amid the increasing risk of war between Morocco and Algeria, which supports the independence of Western Zahara, did not prevent the UN Security Council from extending its mandate until October 31, 2023.

UN Mission in CAR - MINUSCA

UN peacekeepers appeared in the CAR in April 2014 at the height of the civil war between the Christian Anti-Balaka movement and the Muslim Seleka.

Despite an impressive budget of $1.1 billion per year and a military contingent, the peacekeepers could not achieve any stabilization in the region. Only with the assistance of Russia in 2018, within the framework of the Khartoum agreements, did the militants agree to conclude a truce and begin the disarmament process.

The war flared up again at the end of 2020, when former President Francois Bozize decided to return power. MINUSCA could not prevent the militants from uniting and attacking Bangui on January 13, 2021. And after that, it was removed from the anti-terrorist operation of the national army and did not take part in the protection of civilians.

As a result, the war ended without the UN. PMC Wagner units and the local army are cleaning up the remnants of the militants.

UN Mission in Mali - MINUSMA

MINUSMA is actually the only UN mission in Africa that was created at the request and initiative of the host government. The reason was the constant clashes with the Tuareg tribes, which resulted in a major uprising in 2012.

In the war-torn region, new armed groups were rapidly forming, including those linked to radical Islamists. Over the next 10 years, the militants managed to expand the zone of influence in the north and east of Mali and settle in the border with neighboring countries.

The inability of MINUSMA and the French contingent to effectively resist the expansion of militants led to a coup in Mali in 2021.

UN DR Congo Mission - MONUSCO

The permanent presence of UN representatives in the DRC began in 1999 to monitor the peace process after the conclusion of the Second Congolese War. The format of the mission has changed several times due to the emergence of new conflicts, the last of which, in the northeast, continues in 2023.

The failure of the military contingent in opposing individual rebel groups in the country results in the creation in 2012 in the eastern part of the DRC of a large military formation "M23" ("March 23 Movement"), consisting mainly of ethnic Tutsis.

After years of unsuccessful negotiations with the DRC government, the rebels resume fighting in late 2021.

Despite the talks in November, the situation in the eastern regions of the country continues to deteriorate. By the end of 2022, during military offensives, more than 180 thousand people became refugees.

UN Mission in Abyei - UNISFA

Long-term territorial disputes between the Dinka and Messiria tribes in the disputed territory between South Sudan and Sudan only by 2011 attracted attention from the UN.

The peacekeeping mission in Abyei established after the declaration of independence of South Sudan was supposed to guarantee the safety of civilians from military attacks by both countries, as well as ensure a referendum to determine the permanent status of the territory.

The military contingent, consisting in fact only of peacekeepers from Ethiopia, showed itself not wealthy in ensuring the security of 124 thousand people. In the period from April to May 2022 alone, 4 separate attacks were recorded, during which 36 people were killed and wounded.

UN Mission in South Sudan - UNMISS

The UN peacekeeping mission formally appeared the day before South Sudan declared independence in 2011. Her goal was to maintain stability and law and order during the transition period.

However, the presence of a significant contingent of peacekeeping forces in the region did not prevent the outbreak of civil war between the Nuer and Dinka tribes, which lasted from 2013 to 2020.

During this time, more than 17,000 children took part in the conflict; the level of sexual violence increased to 80%, including with the participation of the peacekeepers themselves. More than 4 million refugees left the country.

Since the signing of the peace agreement, the situation in South Sudan has not changed much, and again entered the stage of escalation in August 2022 after the announcement of the interim government to extend its powers for another 2 years.

From August to December, at least 222 civilians were killed in tribal clashes.

Corruption is the reason for the poor effectiveness of UN peacekeepers

First of all, widespread corruption is to blame, both among the peacekeeping contingent and among the authorities of the host country, the authors of the Rybar channel noted.

A good example of such cooperation is the situation in Western Sahara, where many years of sabotage in holding a referendum on the independence of the SADR is beneficial to both peacekeepers and the Moroccan administration.

In the controlled Morocco part of the country, the Boo-Kraa fields are being mined. minerals These territories have 75% of the world's phosphate reserves, thanks to which Morocco is the world leader in exporting this resource and in third place in its production.

In turn, peacekeepers, justifying their inaction by the lack of relevant mandates from the UN, turn a blind eye to the illegal actions of Moroccans against local residents.

Confirmed facts of arms smuggling between peacekeepers and military groups in at least two of the six countries of the UN presence: the DRC and the CAR.

At the end of 2021, the UN Security Council changed the terms of sanctions against the CAR, lifting the embargo on the supply of weapons to the armed forces of the CAR, which further contributed to the illegal trafficking of weapons in the country.

At the same time, it is not beneficial for the authorities of African countries to refuse humanitarian assistance supplied to the UN by peacekeeping missions. Overseas aid helps feed the poorest to reduce social tensions, as well as fill the pockets of loyal officials and the same peacekeepers.

Peacekeepers lack motivation to risk life in a foreign land

The main "suppliers" of peacekeepers to African countries are the same poor or densely populated countries: Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Egypt, Indonesia.

For some immigrants from there, joining the UN is the only chance to earn decent money, acquire acquired property and return to their families. Death while protecting the population of a foreign country does not fit into this concept.

This manifests itself especially well in armed clashes on the territory of the DRC.

• On 5 November 2008, 150 people were brutally killed in the village of Kiwanja in the DRC. Literally 1.5 km from the village, 100 Indian peacekeepers said they were not aware of the massacre next door.

• On November 20, 2012, peacekeepers were inactive when the movement seized the M23 city of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province in the DRC.

Key UN sponsors, represented by Western countries, retain another instrument of control over local governments. Donor states, supplying personnel for missions, receive the right to reduce annual contributions to the UN.

As long as the territory of Africa does not run out of useful deposits that minerals allow both local authorities and Western companies to "quietly" enrich themselves, military conflicts in these territories, as well as funded missions to end them, will not stop.

Budget $3.15 billion

As of June 22, 2022

Countries that pay/do not pay contributions to the UN regular budget.

- pay on time;

- pay late;

- do not pay in full;

• are not members of the UN.

2020

The volume of Russian contributions to the UN for humanitarian assistance increased by 60%

In 2020, the amount of funding provided by Russia through UN humanitarian agencies amounted to more than $80 million - such data are provided on its official website by the Russian Permanent Mission to the UN in New York. The funds were used for payment:

• regular donor contributions to the budgets of UN humanitarian agencies,
• supplies of humanitarian supplies and directions of Russian rescuers to regions with the most acute humanitarian needs,
• efforts to combat the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Compared to 2019, the Russian contribution to international humanitarian assistance through the UN increased by 60%, which in fact confirms Russia's commitment to increase assistance against the background of an unprecedented aggravation of international humanitarian crises.

In general, in December 2020, UN structures received from Russia, in particular:

$66 million to the UN regular budget;

$24 million to the budgets of the UN Multidisciplinary Integrated Stabilization Mission in the CAR, the UN Interim Security Force in Abyei and the UN Referendum Mission in Western Sahara;

$10 million - in the "Youth Window" of the Trust Fund Russia-UN Development Program for the implementation of socio-economic projects;

$1.5 million - to the UN Central Emergency Response Fund.

US largest UN debtor

The United States is the largest debtor in the UN, Gennady Gatilov, Russia's permanent representative to the UN office and other international organizations in Geneva, said in an interview with Izvestia in February 2020.

He said that Washington did not pay more than $1 billion in contributions. According to him, due to the fact that the United States does not fulfill its financial obligations, the organization is experiencing great difficulties in its daily work, in particular, holding events.

In mid-October 2019, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Washington was trying to undermine the organization's work by non-payment of contributions to the UN. The diplomatic service noted that more than 50 countries did not pay to its budget.

In January 2020, the UN leadership decided to deprive the right to vote in the General Assembly of countries that have debts on contributions and have not paid for the past two years. As a result, Venezuela, Yemen, Lebanon, Gambia, CAR, Tonga and Lesotho were punished. According to UN spokesman Stefan Dujarric, out of 193 members of the organization, 146 states have no debts.

2017: Concept of the new UN Convention on Internet Governance from the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation

Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media developed in early 2017 the concept of a new convention UN, which deals with governance, Internet as well as its safety and development. The ministry announced this on its website. The agency notes that the concept should contribute to development, Internet increase its security and guarantee network users their rights and freedoms. In addition, the document stipulates equal international cooperation in Internet governance and proposes a number of principles on which this governance should be based by the^[2] and Mass^[3]

2000

UN Security Council, 2000

1975: UN proclaimed March 8 as International Women's Day at the suggestion of the USSR delegation

In 1975, when the International Year of Women was held, the United Nations, at the suggestion of the USSR delegation, proclaimed March 8 as International Women's Day.

1971: Reagan calls Africans "monkeys" over Taiwan independence vote

Ronald Reagan in 1971 called African delegates to the UN "monkeys." He was then Governor of California, and was later elected President of the United States.

Reagan said this in a phone call with then-President Richard Nixon, whose calls were being recorded.

Reagan was outraged that African delegates at the UN opposed Taiwan's independence from China. After the vote, members of the Tanzanian delegation began dancing in the General Assembly.

Reagan asked Nixon if he watched the vote on TV, continuing:... " to see these monkeys from African countries... damn them, they still didn't learn to wear shoes!. " Nixon laughed.

The phone record was discovered in 2019 by history professor Tim Naftali, who ran the Nixon Presidential Library, where all the records of the 37th head of the United States were stored.

Naftali says the recording sheds light on how Reagan "defended" apartheid states in Rhodesia and South Africa in the late 1970s.

1964: Che Guevara speaks at the UN

Che Guevara speaks at the UN, December 11, 1964, USA.

1960: Nikita Khrushchev's legendary performance

N.S. Khrushchev shows Kuzkin's Mother at the UN General Assembly. September 23, 1960

Notes