The United Nations Foundation (UN Foundation) and Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, released today "Confronting Climate Change: Avoiding the Unmanageable and Managing the Unavoidable," the final report of the Scientific Expert Group on Climate Change and Sustainable Development. The report, prepared as input for the upcoming meeting of the UN's Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), outlines a roadmap for preventing unmanageable climate changes and adapting to the degree of change that can no longer be avoided.More
Diplomats from the U.S., Britain, China, Russia, Germany and France have agreed to start working on new resolution in order to pressure Iran to rein in its nuclear program.
The State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said the United States was willing to join in talks between the Europeans and Iran over the nuclear program, provided that Iran suspended its uranium enrichment activity.More
"I am quite confident that with your help we can maintain a peaceful, stable and violence-free environment in Liberia," Mr. Doss told the unit made up 105 female officers with 20 male supporting staff - the first largely female Formed Police Unit to be deployed to a UN peacekeeping operation.More
Two weeks ago, several hundred Brazilian peacekeepers raided the gang-infested sea side slum of Cite Soleil, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (You can read about the offensive here and here.) So far, the raids have successfully rooted out some of the major organized criminal elements of Cite Soleil. In yet another sign of progress, UN Peacekeepers have transformed the headquarters of the most notorious gang leaders into a free medical clinic for the long suffering residents of the neighborhood.
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In The New York Times op-ed page, Abbas Milani, director of Iranian studies at Stanford and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, writes that the week-old UN sanctions on Iran are beginning to have its intended effect.
"Top leaders of the Islamic Republic, from Ayatollah Khamenei to Mr. Rafsanjani, have made it clear that they consider sanctions a serious threat -- more serious, according to Mr. Rafsanjani, than the possibility of an invasion. "In other words, what the unilateral and increasingly quixotic American embargo could not do in more than a decade, a limited United Nations resolution has accomplished in less than a month. And the resolution succeeded because few things frighten the mullahs more than the prospect of confronting a united front made up of the European Union, Russia, China and the United States. The resolution was a manifestation of just such a united front."Milani also states that the powerful insiders like Ali Larjani, the top Iranian nuclear negotiator, are in damage-control mode right now. Incidentally, this includes a series of high-level repudiations of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad confrontational rhetoric about the Holocaust. But more to the point, the sanctions seem to have inspired the Iranian regime to contemplate what previously they had not. As Milani writes, the Ayatollah's foreign policy advisor stated forthrightly "that suspending Uranium enrichment is not a red line for the regime." So despite President Ahmadinejad's blustery proclamations to the contrary, the real power players behind Iranian foreign policy are willing to agree to some sort of compromise that includes suspension.
"I urge again that the Iranian Government fully comply with the Security Council as soon as possible" to engage in continued negotiation "with the international community so that we will be able to address and peacefully resolve this issue," he told reporters in Vienna, Austria, where he is on an official visit.More
In March 2005, the Security Council granted the International Criminal Court jurisdiction to investigate suspected war crimes in Darfur. According to a just-released notice to the press, the results of the investigation will soon be revealed. The ICC announced today that early next week, Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno O'Campo will release evidence that connects named individuals to suspected cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged Iran's government to full comply with the SG and answer to the international community concerning their pursuit for nuclear technology.
Last December the 15-member Council imposed sanctions on Tehran, maintaining that Iran's nuclear programme was aimed at weapons production, a claim the Government consistently denies. "Again, taking this opportunity, I would strongly urge the Iranian authorities to comply, first of all fully with the Security Council resolution, and continue to negotiate with the international community."But Iran's leaders say they plan to press ahead:
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today that Iran had a right to pursue nuclear technology and "will continue our work to reach our right in the shortest possible time," according to the ISNA news agency. Speaking in Siahkal in northern Iran, Mr. Ahmadinejad said, "Obtaining this technology is very important for our country's development and honour."More
In a report to the Security Council on Tuesday, the Secretary General outlined two possible peacekeeping options for eastern Chad, where the spillover from the conflict in Darfur is threatening the lives of refugees and civilians caught in the crossfire.
From Edith Lederer of the Associated Press:
"Ban proposed two possible military options for Chad - a 6,000-strong force backed by 20 helicopters and an observation aircraft and a 10,900-strong force backed by 11 helicopters and two observation aircraft. He also proposed that some 800 Chadian police be loaned to a U.N. peacekeeping operation to help protect a dozen refugee camps and key towns where Chadians have fled, along with 260 international police."
Ban did not request outright that the Security Council approve such a mission. But if the Council does decide to send peacekeepers to Chad, one would have to worry about over-taxing UN peacekeeping. As was written in the most recent installment of the UNF Insights essay series, the demand for peacekeeping is outpacing the availability of resources to implement Security Council dictates. Without the requisite financial and logistical support from member states, the United Nations would be hard-pressed to find peacekeepers to form a new force in Chad.