A ground pass granting access to United Nations buildings in Geneva. (Geneva Solutions/Paula Dupraz-Dobias)

The obscure UN committee in New York that can freeze out NGOs. An obscure body in New York holds outsized power over which NGOs can enter the United Nations. Campaigners say states hostile to scrutiny have turned it into a tool to keep critics out, and many are running this week to maintain their seats there for the next four years.

🌿HEALTH AND EARTH. Hosted by France, the One Health Summit, aimed at focusing on health issues emerging from the relation between humans, animals and the environment in the context of climate change, will take place today in Lyon.

Workload. Six years after the Covid-19 pandemic was declared, the conference will see heads of state, international organisations, scientists and civil society discuss how to address risks such as emergent zoonotic diseases, antimicrobial resistance and pollution, as well as how to build sustainable food systems.

Dual-track health diplomacy. Meanwhile, with many countries frustrated at the lack of multilateral consensus on key issues such as pathogen access and benefits sharing (Pabs), needed to lock in the pandemic agreement, and climate change, some are calling for “coalitions of the willing” to join forces to move the agenda forward.

Colombia, for one, will be hosting an international conference for the phase-out of fossil fuels in Santa Marta on 28 to 29 April, in the hope of laying out a clear roadmap to reduce carbon emissions, outside the UN climate process.

🕯️REMEMBERING. On 7 April 1994, a planned campaign of mass murder began against members of the Tutsi minority, conceived by the Hutu extremist-led government.

Within just over 100 days, more than one million Tutsi were systematically murdered. Moderate Hutu and others who opposed the massacres were also killed during this period. According to the UN, the genocide claimed some 800,000 lives.

— Paula Dupraz-Dobias and Kasmira Jefford