Amnesty International Calls for Rights-Focused Leadership as UN Faces Critical Junction

Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard will travel to New York City for the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly, running from September 22 to 26, where she will press member states on multilateral accountability, artificial intelligence regulation, and international justice.

Callamard’s high-level meetings arrive as the organization warns that the United Nations faces one of its most critical junctures since its foundation over eighty years ago. According to Amnesty International, the UN Security Council remains hobbled by paralysis while powerful states subject the international body to severe political, financial, and diplomatic pressures.

The Succession of the UN Secretary-General

With incumbent UN leader António Guterres set to conclude his second term on December 31, the question of succession dominates diplomatic corridors in New York. Six candidates have lined up to replace Guterres, navigating a narrow selection pathway where the General Assembly votes upon the recommendation of the Security Council’s five permanent members: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The crowded field includes former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, who aims to become the first female UN Secretary-General; International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, who emphasizes his nuclear sector background and organizational restructuring plans; and former Ecuadorian Foreign Minister and UN General Assembly President Maria Fernanda Espinosa, who stresses the acute financial challenges facing the organization.

Amnesty International has laid down strict criteria for the next occupant of the office. Callamard noted that whoever takes over must be more than a mere consensus figure chosen through backroom deals among influential nations.

"The next UN Secretary-General must be a staunch defender of international law," Callamard said. "They must be willing to confront the powerful bullies and predators that stalk the international stage. They need to stand firm against political leverage, call out human rights violations regardless of the perpetrator, and actively cooperate with civil society."

Crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

On September 24, Callamard is scheduled to speak at a side event examining international responsibility and the situation in the Palestinian territories. Co-hosted by Amnesty International, the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, and the Committee to Protect Journalists, the panel is titled When Atrocities Persist: International Responsibility and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

The discussion takes place at the Japan Society on East 47th Street in Manhattan from 5:00 to 6:30 pm. The session is open to media and focuses heavily on international and multilateral responses to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, alongside ongoing concerns regarding US-Israeli unlawful attacks on Iran.

Minerals, Supply Chains, and Human Rights

Ahead of her UN schedule, Amnesty International will publish a briefing on September 21 detailing human rights abuses against artisanal gold and cobalt miners in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Photo: dw.com

According to the organization’s findings, these violations are perpetrated by the M23 armed group with the support of Rwanda. Callamard will be available throughout her New York visit to discuss the findings and unpack the implications these supply chain violations hold for global trade and supply chains.

Beyond African flashpoints and the Middle East, Callamard’s General Assembly agenda also includes pressing member states on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, internal repression and crimes against humanity inside Iran, and the conflict in Sudan involving the role of the UAE and the international community.

Furthermore, Amnesty International will urge world leaders to establish a global, binding, transparent, and effective regulatory model for Artificial Intelligence, pointing to what the organization describes as a reckless, unrestrained and extractive race to develop ever-more advanced AI.