TIMOTHY E. WIRTH
President, United Nations Foundation
Letter to the Editor, Washington Post
"Contrary to the Jan. 9 editorial "Globalization's Deficit," efforts to reform the United Nations have progressed significantly since last year's World Summit. The United Nations has created a Peacebuilding Commission to guide and support nation-building efforts in post-conflict areas, and a Democracy Fund that had been advocated by the Bush administration. Negotiations for a Human Rights Council are proceeding. Management reforms have been implemented, including the creation of an Ethics Office to administer new whistleblower and financial disclosure policies for U.N. staff.
Other changes include a more transparent hiring process and creation of an independent audit board to oversee management practices. Finally, the 2006-07 U.N. budget is tied to the completion of reform initiatives.
"Unidentified assailants ambushed United Nations peacekeepers from Guatemala in the restive eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Monday, sparking an hours-long gun battle that left eight UN troops dead, officials said.
Fourteen UN peacekeepers were wounded in the attack in Garamba National Park, near Congo's borders with Sudan and Uganda in the region of Ituri, UN spokesperson Kemal Saiki said. He had no information the attackers' identities, but said rebels from Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army are known to operate in the region." [More]
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Demagogue: "As I mentioned last week, the AU says it will run out of fund for its mission in Darfur in March. Given the Security Council's reluctance to deal with Darfur, any eventual hand-over to UN troops probably wouldn't even happen this year. So Annan is basically asking member nations to start fully-funding the AU mission so that they can hang on long enough to transfer the mission over to the UN."
Feministing: "The UN says that too many countries are failing women by conducting subpar census reports. "The World's Women 2005, Progress in Statistics" reports that many developing countries are not keeping track of the the sex of those who are born, work and die: "The whole goal of the improvement of the quality of life worldwide is dependent on knowing the situation of women, men, the elderly, infants," said Mary Chamie, chief of the U.N. demographics and social statistics branch. "We need it for questions on globalization, for questions on trade, on understanding of economic production, education, ... getting vaccinated and for that matter, reproduction," she said in an interview. "It's like going to the doctor, but the doctor never examines us." Read the report here."
Belmont Club: "When's a death a death? Yahoo News carries this report on deaths in East Timor caused by Indonesian occupation: "Indonesia killed up to 180,000 East Timorese through massacres, torture and starvation during its 24-year occupation, a report to be handed to the United Nations has found, an Australian daily said on Thursday." The Third World is place where deaths are accounted with altogether different arithmetic than the First World. Events there happen as on another planet. Democracy Rising in a post called Hate Radio Returns As Ivory Coast Teeters On The Brink Of War talks about the implosion of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in the Ivory Coast."
Huffington Post (Nathan Gardels): "In the debate raging across the West about taking Iran to the UN Security Council over its nuclear program, little is understood about internal Iranian public opinion. How can human rights activists who oppose theocratic rule at the same time support Iran's right to a nuclear program and resist the idea of punitive sanctions by the rest of the world? Is there a better way for the West to neutralize a potential nuclear threat from Iran? Here is an insight from Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian human rights activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 and a scientific colleague, Muhammaed Sahimi..."
CNN: "The United Nations resumed crucial relief flights to earthquake-devastated areas of Pakistan on Wednesday, but the race to save hungry and freezing victims was stymied by new landslides."
Selected summary of United Nations related news and events
Powers Split Over Iran Talks Bid
Two U.N. Peacekeepers Killed in Haiti
Landslides Strand Quake Survivors
Condemning Violence in Afghanistan,
Security Council Backs New Development Plan
Lebanon Wants UN Force in South for Another Year
UNICEF Brings Community Health Care to Quake-hit Pakistan
Nabarro Begs Richest Nations as Millions Face Bird Flu Death
Bird Flu: Interview With UN Food and Agriculture
Organization's Erwin Northoff
United Nations Holds Informal Session on Space Technology
for Sustainable Development and Disaster Management
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Education Experts: "The United Nations Fulbright Fellowship Program, now in its third year, was created to build new sources of UN leadership and further the ability of the Fulbright Program to educate leaders and lay the foundation for global problem solving. It is funded by a grant from the United Nations Foundation/Better World Fund. This year, 10 UN Fulbright Fellows served in various United Nations departments, offices and funds both in New York City and worldwide, after completing their graduate degrees in the U.S. under Fulbright sponsorship. From June through December 2005, these UN Fulbright fellows had an opportunity to contribute to the advancement of the work of the United Nations, learn from United Nations staff, and gain valuable professional experience to cap off their Fulbright Fellowship in the United States."
Uncooperative Blogger: "Iran Better Consider the Possibilities - You know I have been doing some thinking, and Iran should be concerned that Iran might face Security Council action in February, the very month John Bolton, U.S. Ambassador to the UN, assumes the Council's Presidency. This would certainly make it more likely that significant sanction would be imposed upon them."
Phil Gomes: "Eric Margolis gives us another view of the possibilities as he anticipates a showdown [with Iran]. Iran must also face the very real threat of punishing UN-imposed sanctions, unless they are vetoed by China or Russia or even a US naval blockade. The EU is proposing sanctions as a way of trying to divert the US from military action, which would damage Europe more than the United States."
Democracy Arsenal: "The latest disturbing news out of Iran is that the government now plans a conference on the Holocaust. Having already judged the Nazi genocide a myth and called for Israel's destruction, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seems bent on making a name for himself as this century's leading violent anti-Semitic megalomaniac, this time with nukes.... With Ahmadinejad openly advocating Israel's destruction and cutting the UN seals on its nuclear installations, there would seem adequate grounds today for preventive action to stop Iran from acquiring the means to carry out its destructive aims against Israel. But the principle of preventive war is even more controversial than preemptive war, since its not predicated on a threat that's close at hand."
Counterterrorism Blog: "Norway issued a startling declaration earlier this month. Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store announced January 4th that his country would no longer follow the EU lead concerning the designation of terrorist organizations not included in the UN designated terrorist list. A Copy of the Foreign Ministry Statement is here. Norway had previously aligned itself with the EU's list of persons, organisations and entities set out in the Common Position on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism. The decision to now deviate from the EU means that organizations such as al aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Hamas, and some 45 other designated terrorist organizations around the world may no longer be subjected in Norway to the same restrictions other EU countries have placed on them."
Michelle Malkin: "IRAN: PREPARING FOR THE WORST - We are on the brink. Via AP: "Iran's president on Saturday denounced Western nations threatening to refer his country to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions over its nuclear program, saying the international community has no legal basis for restricting Tehran's right to research."
"Experts meeting at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva today begin discussions on racism and the Internet and other related issues.
During their two-week session, an intergovernmental working group set up to follow-up on decisions made at the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban, South Africa." [More]
WaPo: "Iran threatened on Friday to block U.N. inspections of its nuclear facilities and end all voluntary cooperation with the nuclear watchdog if it is referred to the U.N. Security Council as the long confrontation over Iran's nuclear program moved closer to crisis level."
More from the NYT: "For two years, the United States has repeatedly declared that after many instances of Iran failing to disclose its nuclear activities to international inspectors, its conduct should be subject to condemnation or sanctions at the Security Council. But until this week, the United States' major European allies have declined to endorse that step. Only after allowing the Europeans to negotiate with Iran and to offer possible incentives for suspending its activities, and encouraging Russia to make a separate offer to operate a joint uranium enrichment program on Russian soil, has the United States brought these partners around to more overt pressure."
UPDATE - From Alertnet: "U.S. President George W. Bush said on Friday he would not prejudge what the U.N. Security Council would do with Iran, asked about whether he expected sanctions to be imposed if Iran is brought before the Council over its nuclear program."