Germany and Namibia as co-leads for the United Nations: chances and challenges on the road to the 2024 UN Summit of the Future

The President of the United Nations General Assembly has appointed the German and Namibian permanent representatives as co-facilitators for the Summit of the Future. The summit is scheduled for September 2024. Its aim is to reinforce the UN and global governance structures to better address old and new challenges. That includes making progress on implementing the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030. Given the current geopolitical tensions, this will be no easy task. At this juncture it is im­por­tant to get the process off to a good start in order to gather support, generate atten­tion and engender confidence. (author's abstract

Potenzial noch nicht ausgeschöpft: Bilanz der Kommission für Friedenskonsolidierung nach zwei Jahren

The article takes stock of the Peacebuilding Commission two years after it took up its work. As expected, the record is mixed. The Commission got off to a slow start; in its first year which was mostly dedicated to procedural issues, the Commission risked losing sight of its crucial task of making a difference on the ground. Once it achieved more clarity with regard to its working procedures and mandate, its engagement with the countries on its agenda became more productive. It developed integrated peacebuilding strategies for Sierra Leone and Burundi and has begun to apply some of the lessons already learned there to its involvement with Guinea-Bissau and the Central African Republic. Despite many obstacles, the Commission has begun to make some modest, positive impact on the ground. Its unprecedented effort to bring all relevant peacebuilding actors to one table is promising but has not yet yielded any visible coordination breakthroughs. So far, then, the Peacebuilding Commission has not yet exploited its full potential

"Summit of the Future" - Deutschland im Co-lead für die Vereinten Nationen

Der Präsident der UN-Generalversammlung hat Deutschlands Botschafterin und Nami­bias Botschafter zu Verhandlungsführern für den "Summit of the Future" ernannt. Dieser für September 2024 geplante Reformgipfel soll die UN und mithin Strukturen des Weltregierens besser für alte und neue Herausforderungen aufstellen. Dazu zählt, die Umsetzung der internationalen Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung (SDGs) bis 2030 voranzubringen. Wegen der angespannten Weltlage ist dies kein leichtes Unterfangen. Wichtig ist jetzt, den Prozess gut aufzugleisen, um Unterstützung zu gewinnen sowie öffentliche Aufmerksamkeit für und Vertrauen in ihn zu schaffen. (Autorenreferat

Molecular mechanisms of cell death: recommendations of the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death 2018.

Over the past decade, the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death (NCCD) has formulated guidelines for the definition and interpretation of cell death from morphological, biochemical, and functional perspectives. Since the field continues to expand and novel mechanisms that orchestrate multiple cell death pathways are unveiled, we propose an updated classification of cell death subroutines focusing on mechanistic and essential (as opposed to correlative and dispensable) aspects of the process. As we provide molecularly oriented definitions of terms including intrinsic apoptosis, extrinsic apoptosis, mitochondrial permeability transition (MPT)-driven necrosis, necroptosis, ferroptosis, pyroptosis, parthanatos, entotic cell death, NETotic cell death, lysosome-dependent cell death, autophagy-dependent cell death, immunogenic cell death, cellular senescence, and mitotic catastrophe, we discuss the utility of neologisms that refer to highly specialized instances of these processes. The mission of the NCCD is to provide a widely accepted nomenclature on cell death in support of the continued development of the field