Mark Lagon, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, has teamed with the Stanley Foundation's David Shorr in a paper that addresses American expectations of the United Nations. The joint report, titled How to Keep from Overselling or Underestimating the United Nations is part of the Stanley Foundation's new series Bridging the Foreign Policy Divide. You can read the pdf here.
A new United Nations human rights report on Liberia says that violence against women persists in the country.
Covering the period between August and October 2006, the report pays particular attention to the fact that the Rape Amendment Act is not yet adequately implemented by the national authorities charged with the investigation, prosecution and trial of suspects, despite clear legislative provisions.
The report says that "the very small number of cases indicted and tried to date is an indicator that far more needs to be done to ensure that the various institutions of justice coordinate to address rape as a crime and as a human rights violation."
The report also notes that women and girls in some areas of Liberia remain at risk of female genital mutilation.
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Secretary General Ban Ki-moon traveled to Iraq today to discuss ways to expand the UN's on-the-ground presence there. In Baghdad, a joint press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was interrupted when a rocket struck an adjacent building. No one was hurt, but the video is fairly compelling.
Following up on Cordell's post below, the scarcity of water in western Sudan is often cited as a catalyst of the conflict there. Over the past twenty years, desertification in western Sudan had increasingly pitted historically nomadic Arab tribes in competition for water and arable land with the so-called "black African" tribes of Dafur. The ruling elite in Khartoum used this underlying tension to its advantage when it hired militias from the ethnic Arab tribes to crush rebellious "black African" militias in Darfur.
Even today, as the UN plans for a possible peacekeeping force in Darfur, the scarcity of water sources in western Sudan presents a huge logistical problem. If the force ever gets off the ground, water must either be imported, or else a number of water bores must be drilled to sustain the peacekeepers.
Today the world observes World Water Day, a moment dedicated to a widespread, but often-overlooked issue. The UN's 2007 World Water Day website delivers some sobering statistics:
In an industrialized city with plenty of water, flushing the toilet in an average household can send up to 50 litres of water down the drain every day. Yet more than one in six people worldwide -- 1.1 billion -- don't have access to 20-50 litres of safe freshwater daily, the minimum range suggested by the UN to ensure each person's basic needs for drinking, cooking and cleaning. Two people in five lack proper sanitation facilities, and every day, 3,800 children die from diseases associated with a lack of safe drinking water and proper sanitation.
Both water use and the world population are growing, which means that water will only grow more scarce. And, the implications of that scarcity are not limited to humanitarian concerns, though those concerns are great (guaranteeing water security is central to achieving the Millennium Development Goals).
For those of you who are interested, our sister site, The People Speak, is hosting a video contest, asking for submissions focusing on water conservation.
Yesterday marked the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, commemorating March 21, 1960 when police in apartheid South Africa fired on peaceful demonstrators.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted that while the world has made strides in fighting against racial discrimination, there is still work to be done.
"Racist practices hurt their victims, but they also limit the promise of entire societies where they are tolerated...They prevent individuals from realizing their potential and stop them from contributing fully to national progress. They perpetuate deeply embedded social and economic inequalities. Where unaddressed, they can cause social unrest and conflict, undermining stability and economic growth."
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In the new issue of the World Policy Journal, Ian Williams offers the final word on the often discussed, but little understood, Oil For Food program. The article is a study in how a small number of determined right-wing pundits in the United States turned their vendetta against Kofi Annan into an easily swallowed media narrative about rampant corruption at the UN.
You can read the entire piece (as a pdf) here. Some highlights are below the fold. And as always, for more information on the program, visit Oil for Food Facts.
The UN has started to seek sites for new camps for displaced persons in Darfur after UNICEF reported that the existing camps were filled to capacity.
The most recent UN humanitarian update from Darfur noted the need to locate a site for a new camp in the vicinity of El Fasher, capital of North Darfur province. A new site has been identified near Zam Zam camp, which is nearing maximum capacity.
Last week, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported that IDP camps were sheltering 50,000 to 100,000 people apiece. "We simply cannot absorb any more displaced," UNICEF country representative Ted Chaiban said on his return from a visit to Darfur.