Latest Updates
For daily updates on the political activities of the United Nations please consult our news ticker and follow the Department of Political Affairs on Twitter:
Follow @UN_DPAYear in Review 2011: UN Peace Operations
11 April 2011 - The Year in Review publication highlights the work of the over two dozen UN political and peacekeeping missions around the globe in 2011. It includes an interview with Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, B. Lynn Pascoe, as well as profiles of missions. Among the political missions covered are the UN Office for West Africa, the UN Political Office for Somalia and many others.
Year in Review 2011: UN Peace OperationsGuidance for Mediators: Conflict-Related Sexual Violence
9 March 2012 - The United Nations is enlisting its peace envoys in stepped-up efforts by the organization to combat the scourge of sexual violence in warfare, unveiling new guidelines to help mediators address the problem in peace agreements and cease-fires.
Syria: Special Envoy working towards political solution
1 March 2012 - The United Nations and the League of Arab States appointed Kofi Annan as their Joint Special Envoy to help resolve the conflict in Syria. The former UN Secretary-General will work towards a peaceful, political solution to end the ongoing violence. One of his immediate objectives will be to find solutions to ease the human suffering in the conflict-ridden country.
DPA E-News puts spotlight on changing Arab world
10 February 2012 - A new issue of DPA E-News, the e-mail newsletter of the Department of Political Affairs (DPA), puts the spotlight on the UN's political response to the changing Arab world. The issue includes a feature on the recently established political mission in Libya and its support to the country in a range of fields from electoral assistance to public security, human rights and fighting the illicit spread of weapons. Video reports from Libya provide a first-hand look at the mission’s work.The e-newsletter also includes an interview with Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, B. Lynn Pascoe and covers how the United Nations is providing electoral assistance to various countries in the region.
UN Political Office for Somalia relocates to Mogadishu
27 January 2012 - Stepping up the UN’s political support to the Somali transition, the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) relocated to Mogadishu from its current base in Nairobi, Kenya, at the end of January 2012. The relocation demonstrates the strong commitment of the UN to work alongside the Somali people and their leaders to build peace, political stability and a hopeful future.
Return of UN political presence to Mogadishu ‘historic’ step 26.01.2012
UN calls for support to disarmament in Central African Republic
15 December 2011 - The head of the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the Central African Republic (BINUCA) urged the international community to support the ongoing disarmament of former fighters in the country. Lack of funding for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) as well as Security Sector Reform (SSR) could put the Central African Republic “at the brink of disaster”, Special Representative Margaret Vogt told the Security Council in a briefing on 14 December 2011.
Accord paves way for political transition in Yemen
On 28 November, the UN Special Adviser on Yemen, Jamal Benomar, briefed the Security Council with regard to the settlement on the country’s future, whose signature had been facilitated by Benomar only days before. The Special Adviser said that the accord paved the way for a credible political transition and provided a detailed roadmap for change through the broad participation of citizens.
Under the settlement, President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to hand over his powers to Vice-President Abed Rabbo Mansour al-Hadi and presidential elections are to be held within three months.
Video: Remarks of Special Adviser Benomar to the press
Article: Welcoming accord in Yemen, Security Council urges timely implementation
Review of Political Missions 2011
3 November 2011 - The UN's top political official has welcomed the publication of a new report, underscoring the importance of UN political missions in promoting peace and security. "The relatively low cost, discreet profile and adaptability to circumstances will continue to make political missions an attractive option for UN Member States and the international community", writes B. Lynn Pascoe, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, in his foreword to the Review of Political Missions 2011. The report by the Center on International Cooperation (CIC) tracks strategic trends and deployments for more than sixty political missions by the UN and regional organizations, including the EU, OSCE, OAS, and the AU.
2012 Appeal to Donors
UN electoral support more than technical
25 October 2011 - The political nature of elections means that United Nations assistance must involve more than just technical advice and include mediation and the use of good offices, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs said on 25 October. In a speech presenting the Secretary-General's recent report on electoral assistance to a committee of the General Assembly, Mr. Pascoe underlined that elections could not be dealt with on a purely technical basis, as they often ran the risk of triggering violence.
UN urges Political Solution to Crisis in Yemen
21 October 2011 - Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has repeatedly expressed his concern about the escalation of violence in Yemen in recent months and continues, through the efforts of the UN Special Adviser on Yemen, Jamal Benomar, to support talks between Yemenis aimed at a peaceful political transition in the country.
Outgoing Special Coordinator on Southern Lebanon
E-Newsletter puts spotlight on conflict prevention
12 October 2011 - The latest e-newsletter of the Department of Political Affairs puts the spotlight on the UN's efforts to prevent conflict around the world through diplomacy. It includes video interviews with senior UN envoys who facilitated dialogue in Guinea, Iraq, Kenya and Sierra Leone. The recently established UN mission in Libya, a boost for policing in Guinea-Bissau and political progress in Somalia are among other subjects covered.
Preventive Diplomacy: Delivering Results
22 September 2011 - In the first UN report on the use of preventive diplomacy to resolve tensions and crises before they escalate, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon describes the growing importance of this practice by the United Nations and its partners, underscoring its potential to save lives and protect development gains at a low cost to the international community. The report speaks to recent advances and accomplishments in the field and proposes a forward agenda for strengthening the use of preventive diplomacy as a means of diminishing conflicts and their devastating toll. Successful preventive diplomacy is not easy, however building up the world’s collective capacities in this area is “without doubt, one of the smartest investments we can make,” the Secretary-General says in his report.
Learn more about preventive diplomacy and watch video interviews with UN envoys
DPA bulletin highlights UN's response to Arab Spring
2 September 2011 - A new issue of Politically Speaking, the bi-annual bulletin of the Department of Political Affairs, puts the spotlight on the UN's political response to the upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa, including the Organization’s post-conflict planning for Libya.Other topics featured in the Summer/Fall 2011 issue include: Building Lebanon’s Peace; Iraq ’s Disputed Internal Boundaries; Pursuing Peace in Cyprus; Conflict Prevention in Central Africa; UNPOS: On the Ground inside Somalia; Guinea-Bissau: Progress towards reconciliation?; Elections and Conflict; UN Counter-Terrorism: Interview with Assistant Secretary-General Robert Orr
Subscribe to DPA's E-Newsletter
3 August 2011 - DPA's E-Newsletter highlights the work of the Department of Political Affairs and UN political missions to prevent and resolve conflict around the world.
The first issue
of July 2011 puts the spotlight on the UN's political response to the upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa.
Interview with the UN's top official in Iraq
27 July 2011 - "For many Iraqis life is still very troublesome," says the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Iraq, Ad Melkert, in an interview with UN Radio. Highlighting the challenges the country faces, Melkert talks about the high poverty rate in a resource-rich nation and the fragile security situation in some parts of Iraq.
Under-Secretary-General Pascoe visits Iraq
14 June 2011 - Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, B. Lynn Pascoe, today returned from a three-day visit to Iraq, where he reiterated the United Nations’ commitment to assist the country in building a stable and thriving democracy. Mr. Pascoe met with Prime Minister Nouri-Al-Maliki and other Iraqi officials in Baghdad, Kirkuk and Erbil.
Somalia: UN envoy welcomes deal ending political stalemate
9 June 2011 - The United Nations envoy for Somalia, Augustine P. Mahiga, welcomed the agreement reached to extend the terms of the country’s President and the Speaker of Parliament for another year as a breakthrough in ending the political impasse over the current transition period.
Increasing use of preventive diplomacy
17 May 2011 - In an interview featured in the annual report on UN peace operations, B. Lynn Pascoe reflects on the role of preventive diplomacy in resolving disputes, the operational challenges of overseeing UN political missions, and the ongoing strengthening of his Department.
Read the interview with the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs (PDF)
Read the full report on UN peacekeeping and political missions in 2010 (PDF, 6MB)
Annual Progress Report 2010
13 May 2011 - The Department of Political Affairs (DPA) is pleased to present its first Annual Progress Report for activities funded by extra-budgetary contributions under the 2010 Annual Appeal. Sudan’s peaceful independence referendum, Guinea’s transition from coup to the first democratic elections since independence and the defusing of violence in Kyrgyzstan were examples where preventive diplomacy by the United Nations and others helped to prevent or stop conflict and spur progress. DPA relied on voluntary funding to make important contributions to all three efforts.
Somalia: Political progress must match military gains
2 May 2011 - Following military gains against insurgents in Somalia, the Secretary-General urges the Somali authorities and its partners to address the political future of the country. In his latest report on Somalia of 28. April 2011, Mr. Ban also underlines the growing importance of development assistance in order to consolidate the military gains.
Briefing to the Security Council on Syria
27 April 2011 - "Repression is not the solution", Under-Secretary-General B. Lynn Pascoe said in a briefing on Syria to the Security Council on 27 April 2011. Mr. Pascoe stressed that an inclusive dialogue and genuine reforms should address the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people, restore confidence and ensure social peace and order.
Watch the final remarks of the briefing or read the full text.