Mukesh Kapila

The rocky road to peace between Ethiopia and Tigray

The brutal civil war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region is nearly two years old. South Africa is hosting African Union mediated peace talks in Pretoria this week. What progress can be expected?

Why it is important to recognise the genocide in Tigray

My witness statement to the Canadian Parliament’s Human rights Committee in relation to the situation in Tigray, Ethiopia.

Legitimacy, morality, and effectiveness of sanctions

World peace may have a better chance if sanctions were de-weaponised in our time of multi-dimensional war-making.

The UN Security Council needs fixing – but is it possible?

The only UN organ that can legitimately shape the well-being of humanity has been floundering for years. Is it worth salvaging?

Why the UN General Assembly still matters in 2022

Global powers have become more intransigent, but they are still willing to talk.

Peace is not the absence of war

To get peace, we must first understand the causes and logic of war.

Can the UN save itself by downsizing?

Is the United Nations doing too much? No wonder it is always disappointing us. De-cluttering the organisation will rebuild trust and restore its original mandate. A smaller UN will be a better UN.

International Literacy Day: Learning is our most powerful weapon

9 September 2022 – Mukesh Kapila This article first appeared on 8th September 2022 as a TRTWorld Opinion 8th September was International Literacy Day. Millions of people worldwide still can’t read and write. We must do much better. Growing up in India, my earliest memory is of my grandmother learning to chalk her name inContinue reading “International Literacy Day: Learning is our most powerful weapon“

Is the UNOPS reform glass half-full or half-empty?

29 August 2022 – Mukesh Kapila In exposing misconduct and mismanagement at UNOPS through a dozen or so articles in this series, some common themes have emerged to explain how egregious misdeeds including profiteering, fraud, and corruption got embedded at the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), enabled by an unaccountable leadership that enjoyedContinue reading “Is the UNOPS reform glass half-full or half-empty?“

Reviving borderless humanitarianism

24 August 2022 – Mukesh Kapila This article was first released in The National on 22 August; see original here. I ducked under the thin blue string across the dirt track that demarcated Sudan and South Sudan. It was 2013 and I was there to examine the humanitarian situation in the Nuba Mountains. TheContinue reading “Reviving borderless humanitarianism“