This is Colombe Cahen-Salvador's UN campaign newsletter 

Dear friends, 

Massive crimes are happening, and we can do something about it. I’m serious, we can force our governments to cut support with genocidal maniacs!  

Let’s make things easy: Countries are killing people, and our governments are supporting them, this must stop. Do you need examples? 

❌ Russia is invading and waging war on Ukraine. Belarus, China, Iran, and Myanmar are supporting it (amongst others).

❌ Israel has murdered over 44,000 people in Gaza, is continuing to kill Palestinians, invading Lebanon and bombing so many peoples and countries. The US, Germany & others are still sending weapons! 

We must make our cities, countries and institutions disentangled from regimes that commit grave crimes‼️

👉 PUSH YOUR GOVERNMENT TO DECLARE A FREEDOM EMERGENCY 👈

More on this later, but let’s first talk about what we must do to stand with women & girls in Afghanistan, the ceasefire deal, what happened at COP29, and how you can join the fight! 

Event 💬 | Speak with a former Afghan Peace Negotiator tomorrow! 

Since the Taliban regime regained control of Afghanistan in 2021, they have sought to erase women & girls from public life. Women can’t be heard in public. Study. Work. Go to a salon. Or the Gym. Yet, lately, "Taliban officials have scored a series of diplomatic victories this year that have started a subtle shift toward normalizing their government."

What should we, our countries and the United Nations 🇺🇳 do to stand with Afghan women & girls? Join us online tomorrow to find out: 

🗓️December 4th, 12pm NYC / 6 pm Paris / 8 pm Nairobi / 10.30 pm Delhi

💻 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87345927939 

🎤 Special Guest: Dr. Habiba Sarabi

➡️ First female governor in Afghanistan

➡️ Former member of the Afghan Peace Negotiation Team

➡️ Tireless advocate for women's rights

👉 Share this event and invite your networks!

The political corner 🗳️ | Is the ceasefire deal already gone?! 

On November 27, 2024, the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah was finalised, a necessary step in halting the violence that has ravaged Lebanon. I almost felt relief. Then, “Hezbollah on Monday fired two projectiles toward Israeli-occupied territory, responding to repeated Israeli strikes that have hit Lebanon daily since Thursday, the day after the ceasefire came into force.”

Since Israel’s war on Gaza began, Israel's attacks and invasion have killed at least 3,823 people, wounded 15,859 and displaced over 1.2 million people. That’s without even mentioning all the destruction. The hope was that finally, civilians could be put first. But this ceasefire was flawed from the beginning. As always, all those supporting Israel must use every ounce of power they have to stop it from violating the ceasefire. Same goes for Hezbollah.

What about Palestine? 

Regardless, this deal should not be used to justify inaction elsewhere. Israel continues to ravage Palestine. In the last 24 hours, “Israeli strikes have killed 36 Palestinians and wounded 96 others”. The same commitment to peace and protection of civilians in Lebanon must urgently extend to Palestine.

What should countries and the UN do? 

We cannot continue to leave Palestinians behind, accepting genocide, apartheid, and occupation. Justice and lasting peace demand action. All countries and the United Nations must:

• impose a total arms embargo on Israel
• pressure Israel economically, politically and diplomatically,
• implement a permanent ceasefire,
• pursue justice by supporting South Africa’s case in front of the International Court of Justice & the International Criminal Court’s work,
• support those displaced,
• return hostages and political prisoners,
• then, end the occupation and apartheid!

What can you do? 

Help us get your city & country to adopt the Freedom Emergency Declarations. As part of my campaign for UN Secretary-General, I’m pushing the United Nations General Assembly to stop its hypocrisy and systematically stand with freedom struggles. I need your help: send an email to the president of the UNGA to push him to introduce the Freedom Emergency Declaration. 

SEND AN EMAIL TO THE UNGA PRESIDENT 🇺🇳

These declarations will trigger targeted actions - such as arms embargo, sanctions, boycotts, and divestment - from states and institutions complicit in grave crimes such as genocide, apartheid, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and aggression.

This will cut off lifelines to oppressors, making solidarity a tool for real change across borders!

Campaign Update 🇺🇳 | COP29, teaching & global governance 

We need the UN 🇺🇳 & other multilateral organisations to save us from hell (and ideally lead the way to heaven). Still, they fail to tackle survival-level threats such as Israel's genocide of Palestinians, Russia's invasion of Ukraine & the climate crisis. 

As a quick recap, I’m running to become United Nations Secretary-General for climate change, artificial intelligence, wars, dictatorships, pandemics, and poverty to finally be tackled. Through this campaign, by mobilizing people across the world, raising awareness, getting support and shaking up the system, I aim to: 

• Get our political programme implemented to quell survival threats, 
• Start a reform of the United Nations for it to have the competencies, legitimacy and leadership to act and preserve peace and security,
• Bring the people’s voice to this institution by giving you a vote! 

For this, I actually really need your support: endorse my campaign!

Now, the last few weeks have been busy. At COP29, I saw an authoritarian regime hosting a summit that achieved nothing substantial. The climate crisis marches on, yet our leaders are more interested in photo ops than real solutions. At Cornell, I taught a class with Thomas Garretton how broken systems like the UN could defend democracy and rights—if we fix them. At the Berggruen Institute's Planetary Summit, I listened to ideas for radical shifts in governance to tackle planetary challenges. Online, I hosted a townhall with Gina Romero - the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association - and regained hope when learning how people worldwide are rising for their rights, regardless of swiping restrictions. 

On each of those occasions, I had the same takeaway than over the last few years: the systems we’ve built to manage the biggest threats the world faces are failing us, and it’s time to stop pretending otherwise. Here’s where I think we need to start:

1️⃣ Apply the rule of law without excuses: If we want people to trust in democracy, we have to play by the rules. You can't support justice for Ukraine, yet sell weapons to Israel! Hypocrisy like this is why people laugh when we talk about “democratic values.”

2️⃣ Fix the UN’s broken system: The veto is a relic of a time when a handful of countries got to call all the shots. Today, it’s a weapon that blocks action on anything that matters. It’s time to scrap it. Let’s make international law enforceable and international courts’ jurisdiction mandatory for everyone. No exceptions, no loopholes.

3️⃣ Create a Democracy Caucus: Unite countries that hold free and fair elections to push back against authoritarian regimes. This caucus would coordinate sanctions, promote standards to protect democracy and respond together to crackdowns like those in Myanmar or Belarus.

4️⃣ Support democracies with real incentives: Establish trade preferences, economic partnerships, and even migration opportunities for democracies. Show that democratic governance isn’t just morally right—it comes with tangible benefits

These aren’t abstract ideas. They’re steps we can take right now to start rebuilding trust in governance, democracy, and global cooperation. But it won’t happen unless we demand it. At Atlas, we’re working on bold reforms and innovative strategies to make these changes a reality. Those ideas above come from the work of our policy team, and our part of our programme for the UN Secretary-General selection process.

I’m challenging this process, running for the role, because the UN needs to be opened up and not held hostage by 5 superpowers. But we need others to join the fight.

What ideas do you have for fixing this mess? Let’s talk, because the future depends on it ⤵️

ENDORSE MY CAMPAIGN!

Next steps✊

1. Live Q&A: We received a LOT of questions. So following requests, I'm holding weekly live Q&As on different social media. Feel free to send me all your questions in advance and check out the next one here 
2. Join the team: This campaign is big, it's disruptive, but it's also complicated. I'm building a team of dedicated volunteers to support strategy, implementation, events, and communication. If you have ideas and time, please reply to this email with your thoughts!
3. Sign my campaign here. 

I hope you’ll join this campaign! Because together, united, we cannot be defeated. 

So #Unite4Survival 🌏🔥

Colombe

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Colombe Cahen-Salvador (she/her)

Co-Founder & Candidate for United Nations Secretary-General

Atlas

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