Monthly Archives: October 2007
UNCLOS passes SFRC
The UN Convention on Law of the Sea was just voted out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee 17 to 4, with Sens. Vitter, Coleman, Isakson, and DeMint opposing. Supporters were hoping for only 2 no votes. The next battle will be convincing the Democratic leadership to bring it to a vote on the Senate floor. Read more
Forced Eviction of IDP Camp in Darfur
More disturbing news out of Darfur today. From the BBC:
An un-named UN official on Sunday saw the forced relocation of refugees at gunpoint from Otash camp to Amakassara. The UN says this “dangerous precedent” could jeopardise Darfur peace talks…
UN emergency relief coordinator Sir John Holmes said a UN official witnessed Sudanese security forces with sticks and rubber hoses coercing hundreds of refugees, including women and children, to leave Otash refugee camp on the outskirts of Nyala.
Other witnesses told the BBC they saw 10 vehicles with heavy machine guns surrounding people, while eight trucks were loaded with their belongings.
The refugees have been moved into an area where the UN says it is known that the Janjaweed militia operate.
Read more. Also, see daily updates from the Passion of the Present.
Finally, I’d like to thank blogger KM at the Coalition For Darfur, who has posted important updates on Darfur for the past three years. You have been an invaluable resource to me, and I’m sure countless others who have tried to keep up with the conflict in Darfur. Thanks for all your hard work over the years.
Read more
Ban travels to Turkey for meeting on Iraq
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will attend a high-level diplomatic meeting on Iraq in Turkey this week.
The Istanbul Expanded Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Neighbouring Countries of Iraq will focus on ways to promote greater regional dialogue.
“The Secretary-General hopes the Istanbul meeting will be an important opportunity for the participants to find mutually acceptable solutions on issues of common concern,” spokesperson Marie Okabe said.
Uh, Fred?
As we’ve said before, the UN usually takes a beating during campaign season. The latest candidate to get in on the action is Fred Thompson, who in an ‘exlusive email’ to the Gun Nut blog of Field and Stream, rails against a UN plot to take guns away from law abiding Americans.
Says Thompson, “Last year, the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights declared that international human rights law requires all nations to adopt strict gun control laws. These “minimum” provisions are much more restrictive than any of those on the books anywhere in the U.S. and would almost certainly violate the Second Amendment of our Constitution.”
I’m no fancy big city lawyer — and I certainly don’t play one on TV — so I am hard-pressed to find something in this document that would violate Americans’ second amendment rights. But, like I said, I’m no lawyer. Decide for yourself. Here are the offending paragraphs from the very brief August 2006 declaration of the Human Rights Council Sub-commission to which Thompson refers:
Urges States to adopt laws and policies regarding the manufacture, possession, transfer and use of small arms that comply with principles of international human rights and international humanitarian law;
Also urges States to provide training on the use of firearms by armed forces and law enforcement personnel consistent with basic principles of international human rights and humanitarian law with special attention to the promotion and protection of human rights as a primary duty of all State officials;
Further urges States to take effective measures to minimize violence carried out by armed private actors, including using due diligence to prevent small arms from getting into the hands of those who are likely to misuse them;
As you can see, these are pretty broad directives. And as you can see, no country is required to do anything. In fact, the only UN body that can require something of a member state is the Security Council, on which the United States has a veto. Read more
New Blogging Heads
After a brief hiatus, Matthew Lee and I are back on Blogging Heads. Topics discussed include: the UN Day Grinches, Darfur, the UN in Iraq, Libya on the Security Council and the dilemmas of peacekeeper accountability. Enjoy. Read more
‘The Melancholy Destiny of the UN’
On October 22, the New York Times Magazine‘s James Traub published a report on the likelihood of an expanded UN role in Iraq for the Stanley Foundation. Traub speaks to UN Dispatch about the report, the inevitability of greater UN involvement in Iraq, and the troubling prospect that Iraq’s last best hope may still fail.
In your report, you argue that it is inevitable that the UN take on a more robust political role in Iraq. How do you come to that conclusion?
It is probably inevitable that the UN’s role will be expanded, but it is by no means inevitable what that role will be. It will be expanded in part because the dimensions of catastrophe there call on some of the abilities that the UN uniquely has. For example, the whole question of what will be done with the over two million refugees — perhaps an equal number of IDPs — is the kind of work the UN does. There is also another sense in which the expansion of the UN’s role is inevitable, namely that there is a wish both on the part of the United States and of the United Nations for an expanded UN role.
The question is, what can the UN usefully contribute to Iraq? Read more
UNCHR: More than 4.4 million Iraqis have been displaced
UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, reports that violence in Iraq has displaced more than 4.4 million people.
The agency estimates that 60,000 people are forced to leave their homes every month.
Of these, some 2.2 million Iraqis are displaced internally, while more than 2.2 million have fled to neighbouring states, particularly Syria and Jordan. Many were displaced prior to 2003, but an increasing number are fleeing now. In 2006, Iraqis had become the leading nationality seeking asylum in Europe.
US Softening its Position on Climate Change?
Via Jurist, I see that the UN’s top climate change negotiator, Yvo de Boer, told reporters yesterday that the United States and Australia — the only two western industrial nations not to ratify the Kyoto Accords — have agreed to participate in the Bali conference to negotiate a successor climate change agreement. de Boer’s announcement came after informal meetings with member states in Indonesia yesterday. From the AP:
“The United States came to this meeting with a very constructive position, saying they want to see a launch of negotiations” to be concluded by 2009, he said…”The United States and Australia indicated in this meeting they are willing to begin negotiations,” de Boer told reporters Thursday. “They are willing take on commitment on the future climate change regime.”
[snip]
U.S. Undersecretary of State Paula J. Dobriansky said the Indonesian talks were the “kind of discussion that needs to take place to move us forward.” Dobriansky could not say if the United States would drop its long-standing opposition to forced emission reductions, but noted that a combination of mandatory measures and financial incentives was part of domestic environmental policy.
Baby steps, perhaps. But a step in the right direction nonetheless! It was unclear just a few months ago, for example, if the United States would even participate the Bali negotiations, which will take place in early December.
Read more
UN agencies work together to help Somali rape victims
United Nations agencies are working together to address the problem of sexual violence in Somalia.
“After years of war, rape has become a threat to women in Somalia when they move along roads, due to the presence of militia at illegal roadblocks. They are also at risk in IDP settlements located on the outskirts of towns such as Galkayo, which are too isolated to be secure,” United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a news release.
Worst than the Grinch
As Mark mentioned, not everyone got into the spirit of UN Day yesterday. Niles Gardiner, from the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, published this:
As overpaid and under worked United Nations bureaucrats quaff champagne and feast on canapés and shrimp in Turtle Bay to celebrate U.N. Day, it is important for the world to remember those who have been failed by the organization, or have suffered at its hands.
He goes on to blame the UN for the Rwanda genocide, the Darfur genocide, and the suffering of “millions of Iraqis…under the brutal boot of the Baathist regime while Saddam Hussein plundered the U.N.’s Oil-for-Food Program,” among a list of other things.
The most disappointing part of Gardiner’s post is its single-minded view of world events. Nobody who is serious about foreign policy actually believes in reductions like his. Obviously there are other factors that, one would hope, should speak to his hypotheses. UN troops are “peacekeepers” and are not intended to be an invasionary force or successfully operate in areas where there is no peace to keep. Rwanda and Darfur were (and are being) failed by all of humanity, not specifically the UN. Those “millions of Iraqis” he mentions, 80 percent of the population, were actually supplied critical medical supplies and food through the Oil-for-Food program, not to mention the fact that Saddam Hussein was unable to develop a WMD program during that time. These were the stated goals of the program. The majority of the resources that flowed to Hussein during this period were due to “sanctions violations outside the Programme’s framework,” oil smuggling to the tune of $11 billion as compared to the estimated $1.8 billion in revenues from OFF manipulation. Read more
-
The top United Nations refugee official today voiced his alarm at new inflows of refugees into Rwanda and Uganda, fleeing fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). More than 8,200 refugees have crossed from DRC into Rwanda since 27 April, according to staff of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). These are in addition to the 55,000 Congolese refugees that Rwanda is already hosting.
-
Syria: U.N.-Arab League mediator Kofi Annan is urging Syria’s government to accept U.N. conditions for expanding the distribution of humanitarian aid to roughly 1 million Syrians in need of assistance, the United Nations said today. Meanwhile, three vehicles belonging to … Read more
-
Sustainable Future Symposium; ICT for Development; IAEA/Iran; Global Financial Transaction Tax; and more
Partnerships and development cooperation among countries will play a key role in accelerating sustainable development, the Secretary-General of the UN Sustainable Development Conference (Rio+20), Sha Zukang said today, stressing that assistance will need to focus on helping developing countries find longer-term solutions to eradicate poverty and transition into a green economy.The two-day Australia High-Level Symposium, “Shaping a Sustainable Future – Partners in Development Cooperation,” which began today, seeks to facilitate an informal dialogue on development cooperation among high-level policymakers, multilateral and civil society organizations, philanthropic foundations and the private sector.
-
DR Congo; South Sudan; UNHCR and OIC; and more
Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Ivan Šimonovic, today voiced concern over the human rights situation in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has experienced a recent upsurge in violence. Mr. Šimonovic said he was “appalled” by the heightened levels of recent violence triggered by defections in the Congolese armed forces, including former members of certain militia groups, and welcomed joint efforts between the peacekeepers of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DR Congo (MONUSCO), humanitarian actors and the authorities to protect civilians and respond to human rights violations.
-
Asia-Pacific Human Development Report; Syria; Horn of Africa; UNRWA
Countries in the Asia-Pacific region must find ways to continue to grow economically and lift millions out of poverty while also responding to climate change and environmental concerns, according to UN report released today, which stresses that new methods of production are needed to meet this goal.UNDP’s Asia-Pacific Human Development Report 2012 argues that policies and actions in the region will have a global impact as it is home to more than half of the world’s population and half of the planet’s megacities.
-
SG on Rio/Post-2015 Development; Syria; Middle East; Global Fund; and more
Appealing for flexibility in reaching agreement on a final outcome document, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon today, emphasized the need for Member States to agree on launching a process to establish Sustainable Development Goals ahead of the Rio+20 conference while also announcing the appointment of three co-chairs to his High-Level Panel on Post-2015 Development Planning. We should agree on launching a process to establish Sustainable Development Goals that build on the Millennium Development Goals … find better ways to measure progress that goes beyond Gross Domestic Product …and advance action to improve people’s lives through decent work, social protection and the empowerment of women and young people,” the UN chief said in his address to the UN General Assembly.
-
Syria; Guinea-Bissau; UNAIDS; Afghanistan; and more
Amid concerns from the international community over the prospects of a “full civil war” in Syria, the Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan, said today that the ongoing levels of violence and human rights abuses in the Middle Eastern country are unacceptable and the UN observer mission is possibly the only remaining chance to stabilize it.
-
Peacebuilding; South Sudan; Indigenous Issues; Rwanda
The United Nations is determined to do everything possible to assist societies torn by war from sliding back into conflict, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told an audience in the United States capital today, adding that while there have been setbacks, peacebuilding remains a crucial element of the world body’s efforts.In a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D. C., Mr. Ban highlighted the work of the UN’s 16 peacekeeping operations and 15 political missions in the area of peacebuilding – a core mandate of the Organization.
-
Counter-terrorism; South Sudan; Iran; Rights of Indigenous Peoples; and more
At the Security Council’s high-level debate on Counter-terrorism today, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today he hoped Member States will decide to create the position of a UN Counter-Terrorism Coordinator to promote better coordination, collaboration and cooperation among all players.Mr. Ban told the Security Council, during its debate on threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts, that terrorism is a significant threat to peace and security, prosperity and people, and the global community continues to pursue a robust and comprehensive response.
-
Sudan/South Sudan; North Korea; Afghanistan; “Born too Soon” report; and more
The Security Council today adopted a unanimous resolution calling on Sudan and South Sudan to immediately end hostilities and resume negotiations within two weeksto resolve all outstanding issues, and voiced its intention to take appropriate measures if the parties do not comply. The Council decided that the two countries shall, among other measures, “immediately cease all hostilities; unconditionally withdraw all of their armed forces to their side of the border; activate, within one week, the necessary border security mechanisms; and immediately cease hostile propaganda and inflammatory statements in the media”.
