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Mozambique's permanent representative to the Security Council, Pedro Comissário, says that vetoes, divergent priorities and other imperfections can severely limit the productive work of the UN's crucial peacemaking body. On this episode of UNScripted, we find out what Comissário plans to do as rotating president in May, despite these challenges, such as reinforcing international law on protecting civilians.

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Vanessa Frazier, Malta’s envoy to the UN, explains why the new Ramadan ceasefire isn't holding in Gaza and says that her country is counting on the ICC to hurry up its inquiry into whether war crimes are being carried out in the enclave.
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Japan's dual focus for its UN Security Council presidency – preventing conflicts as well as nuclear disarmament – align with its foreign policy and history of nuclear disasters but as it leads the Council for this month, Ambassador Yamazaki says the Security Council is struggling with its main job of building peace and preventing violent disputes.

Seton Hull link: www.shu.edu/diplomacy/visiting.html
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The UN CHARTER: A Question of Faith

“The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

SAN FRANCISCO -- Our third and final episode of the podcast series “Act of Creation” is ready for your ears. It’s a fitting end to a great journey. Episode 1 looks at the years leading up to the famous San Francisco Conference of 1945, when the Charter was signed and the United Nations was born; the episode then moves up to the Conference’s opening day on April 24. Episode 2 dives into the Conference itself, showing the intense diplomatic maneuvering as well as the ambitious intentions that were needed to turn the Charter into a reality. Now, in Episode 3, we start on the day the Charter was signed and celebrated, June 26, 1945, and then take listeners decade by decade into the Charter’s future.

In this episode, Stephen Schlesinger, the American historian and author of the book “Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations,” does a stellar job of telling that story, spinning through the decades. We see more examples of international drama and exceptional leadership as well as their opposite. You’ll hear the ideas and voices of such figures as Eleanor Roosevelt, Kofi Annan, Harry Truman and Dag Hammarskjold. They weave and bob in the large, deep mental space created by Schlesinger’s brilliant point of view, both wickedly intelligent and often surprisingly poignant. Perhaps most movingly for me, and at first unexpected, is hearing the aural unfolding of humanity’s profoundest values.

The story of the founding of the UN, besides being riveting, entertaining and filled with vivid personalities, parades these values at the only moment in time –arguably-- where the entire world was paying attention: the end of World War II. These values and ideals may seem naïve to some listeners now, but when you hear them echoing loudly from the past, the words by St. Paul in our title may seem stubbornly wise and solidly reasonable. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Our hope is that this final episode provides resonance to these words and demonstrates the persistent power of ideals not yet realized: a clarion call for all of us to get to work.

Many thanks to Schlesinger for sharing these tales with such good will and tremendous smarts, and to Dulcie Leimbach, a founder, with Barbara Crossette, of PassBlue and the executive producer of this series, for her insights, encouragement and patience! Two truth warriors fighting the fight every day, it’s been my honor and great pleasure to have been able to work alongside them for these last couple years.

Thanks to all for listening. We look forward to your feedback: info@passblue.com.

DAN BECKER, producer and composer

Guyana may not not want a permanent seat in the UN Security Council but it definitely wants a ceasefire in Gaza "as soon as possible." As rotating president for February, the country's ambassador to the UN, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, tells PassBlue that another top priority for the month is impressing on the world how climate change affects food security and, ultimately, global peace. She also touches on Guyana's territorial disputes with Venezuela.

Seton Hull link: www.shu.edu/diplomacy/visiting.html
GC tv link: www.globalconnectionstelevision.com/

France, a permanent member of the Security Council, is president of the body in January. Ambassador Nicolas de de Rivière says his country will headline Gaza this month, where the number of civilian casualties incurred by Israel's "broad and massive military operation" is "way way too high."

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Seton Hull link: www.shu.edu/diplomacy/visiting.html
GC tv link: www.globalconnectionstelevision.com/