Early this morning, suicide bombers coordinated an assault on five offices in northern Somalia. Among the offices attacked was the United Nations Development Program headquarters. There were causalities. The official UN statement is here. The New York Times' Jeffrey Gettleman is on the story.
Al Qaeda's leadership has been explicit with its disdain for the United Nations and its desire to see the UN attacked. In Somalia, al Qaeda is backing a hard line militant group in its struggle against the weak Somali government and urging that group to resist United Nations mediation efforts. Today's attack is added to the sad list of terrorist attacks on the UN, including the bombing of UNDP offices in Algiers in December 2007 which killed 11 and the suicide bombing of the UN compound in Iraq in 2003, killing Sergio Vieiro de Mello and 23 others.
Terrorists target the United Nations because they are so threatened by it. In places like Somalia, the United Nations is the only viable path toward peace and reconciliation, good governance, rule of law, and economic development. These are clearly the conditions under which al Qeada could not thrive, so they and their affiliates attack UN humanitarian workers so as to intimidate the UN out of the country. How should the world respond? It seems that the first thing we need to do is make the protection of humanitarian workers a higher priority. On the fifth anniversary of the Iraq bombing Samantha Power said it best. "We cannot return to a pre-8/19 world any more than we can return to a pre-9/11 one. Neither the blue flag nor the red cross is enough to protect humanitarians in an age of terror. But five years after August 19 we owe it to those who died -- and to those whom humanitarians have saved -- to do far more to protect the protectors."
Bad news on multiple fronts out of the Democratic Republic of Congo:
Hundreds of furious protesters hurled rocks at a United Nations compound in eastern Congo on Monday in frustration that peacekeepers have not halted the rebel advance that is sweeping the countryside.If it wasn't clear before -- and since rebel leader Laurent Nkunda started launching attacks in August, it has been -- then the demise of January's ceasefire (widely misreported as a "peace agreement") is now fully transparent. The eruption of violence has exposed the difficulties -- and contradictions -- faced by the UN peacekeeping mission there (MONUC), which Refugees International articulated in a press release today.
Deployed with the challenging mandate to protect civilians and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance, MONUC has also been charged with the supervision and enforcement of the buffer zones between the Congolese national army (the FARDC) and the rebel group CNDP led by self-proclaimed 'General' Laurent Nkunda. Contradicting this role as neutral intermediary is MONUC's responsibility for working alongside the FARDC in operations against the FDLR, the rebel movement led by the remnants of the Rwanda genocidaires who fled into DRC in 1994. These conflicting roles, coupled with a lack of military and civilian resources, and a shameful lack of political support, have placed MONUC in an impossible situation.The alphabet soup of armed elements is testament enough to the tensions in the region, but the real problems hamstringing MONUC have been the international community's insufficient investment -- in both resources and negotiations -- and the excessive expectations laid on a peacekeeping mission that was given a nearly impossible mandate. Out of this, along with all sides' continued interest in a military solution, some frustrated and suffering eastern Congolese have begun to scapegoat blue helmets. And if the situation weren't bad enough, the rebels have also taken the "unprecedented" step of seizing a national park full of critically endangered gorillas.
In case you missed it, Sunday's New York Times Travel section featured the announcement of the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria, a partnership between tourism industries launched by, among others, the UN Foundation. Participating businesses will now have to meet at least these standards, ensuring that the economic, social, and cultural weight of tourism is brought to bear for important environmental and anti-poverty initiatives. Check out the criteria here.
by Adele Waugaman
Abundance and scarcity -- this dichotomy is increasingly framing the most important global challenges of the day, particularly in the midst of the ongoing global financial crisis. So, it was with great interest that I attended the Pop!Tech conference last week bringing technology to bear on that theme.
Pop!Tech was packed with mobile innovators with cool projects. For instance, Erik Hersman is working on Ushahidi.com, a project using "crowd-sourced" data to populate maps of violent outbreaks in volatile environments. Ushahidi was recently used in Kenya during the post-election violence. And Ken Banks presented FrontlineSMS, which provides free software that can be downloaded from the web to harness the power of text messaging to power work of NGOs and humanitarian groups. Already FrontlineSMS has been used by UNDP in Aceh as part of the post-tsunami reconstruction efforts and in Malawi to power a healthcare network, among other projects.
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Today's discussion about climate change and refugees is a good opportunity for me to plug a new initiative of Nothing But Nets to cover over 600,000 refugees in protective, anti-Malaria bed nets. The most vulnerable populations in the world are hit hardest by Malaria--it is the number one killer of refugees. But Malaria is also a preventable disease. A simple, insecticide treated bed net is a cheap and effective way of curbing Malaria. It can mean the difference between life and death.
The new Nothing But Nets initiative seeks to send enough bed nets to protect some 630,000 refugees living in 27 camps in Uganda, Eastern Sudan, Tanzania and Kenya. One bed net can cover a family of four for about four years--and costs only $10. So, as they say, send a net, save a life.
Everyday this week a distinguished group of panelists will respond to an idea submitted to On Day One, a website that asks users for their ideas on what the next president can do, on day one. Our theme this week is human rights and On Day One user Nick Robson wants the next president to focus on climate refugees.
Rising sea level caused by anthropomorphic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will have a huge impact in Small Islands Developing States and coastal dwellers globally. It could be argued that for the majority of these people, certainly those in the less developed world who have not contributed significantly to GHG output, have a right to continue to live in their ancestral home. Their forced evacuation caused by sea level rise could be said to be a abuse of their human rights. How can we help them?Micheal Bear Kleinman, Eric Schwartz and Emily Holland respond below the fold.
Early last month, back to back to back hurricanes devastated Haiti--the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. As always happens when a natural disaster strikes a developing country, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs issues an flash appeal to which member states pledge funds for humanitarian relief and reconstruction. The problem, though, is that member states sometimes pledge funds, but are slow to actually deliver. Alternatively, member states simply do not respond to the appeal at all. This latter seem be happening in Haiti. So far, only 40% of the $107 million appeal has been pledged. According to the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes, this is not going to cut it.
"Even that 40 per cent is nowhere near enough of what we're going to need for the next six months or so for people in Gonaives, and Gonaives is not the only place affected by any stretch of the imagination," Mr. Holmes said on his return from a two-day visit to Haiti, which was hammered by four successive storms in as many weeks from mid-August to mid-September... Gonaives, the hardest-hit city, is still a "dramatic and grim site" even six weeks after the last hurricane hit, said Mr. Holmes. Some 30,000 people are still taking refuge in city shelters, which are very often ill-equipped schools, and some of those who have gone back to their homes are camping on roofs and in courtyards. There is a large new lake just outside Gonaives, which did not exist before and now covers the bridge and roads leading to the city, and living conditions have been made even more difficult by huge amounts of mud and stagnant water. "If urgent action is not taken on the disaster risk reduction front, then we're simply going to see more tragedies in the future," warned Mr. Holmes.If you are interested in helping out, Yele Haiti (Wyclef Jean's NGO), and the World Food Program have established a Haiti Storm Relief Fund. Still, there is a limit to what NGOs can do. Member states need to step up. (Photo of Gonaives after Hurricane Hanna. From Flickr. Photo credit to Logan Abassi (MINUSTAH) )
With one week to go before elections here in the United States UN Dispatch, On Day One, Chasing the Flame and Humanitarian Relief are joining forces to talk human rights. Everyday this week a distinguished group of panelists will respond to an On Day One user generated prompt about a human rights idea the next president can adopt, figuratively, on day one. Our panelists include:
* Suzanne Nossel, Human Rights Watch * Eric Schwartz, Connect U.S. Fund * Michael Bear Kleinman, Humanitarian Relief * David Kaye, UCLA Law and Chasing the Flame * Emily Holland, International Rescue Committee and Chasing the FlameOur first prompt comes from On Day One user David Tuckman, who says the United States should support the United Nations Human Rights Council. Eric Schwartz, Suzanne Nossel, and David Kaye respond below the fold.
Via Yglesias, Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel offers a defense of the United Nations. From the New Yorker:
Critics have suggested that McCain's League of Democracies could diminish the role of the United Nations. When I mentioned this to Hagel, he said, "What is the point of the United Nations? The whole point, as anyone who has taken any history knows, was to bring all nations of the world together in some kind of imperfect body, a forum that allows all governments of the world, regardless of what kinds of government, to work through their problems--versus attacking each other and going to war. Now, in John's League of Democracies, does that mean Saudi Arabia is out? Does that mean our friend King Abdullah in Jordan is out? It would be only democracies. Well, we've got a lot of allies and relationships that are pretty important to us, and to our interests, who would be out of that club. And the way John would probably see China and Russia, they wouldn't be in it, either. So it would be an interesting Book-of-the-Month Club. "But in order to solve problems you've got to have all the players at the table," Hagel went on, his voice rising. "How are you going to fix the problems in Pakistan, Afghanistan--the problems we've got with poverty, proliferation, terrorism, wars--when the largest segments of society in the world today are not at the table?" He paused, then added, more calmly, "The United Nations, as I've said many times, is imperfect. We've got NATO, multilateral institutions, multilateral-development banks, the World Trade Organization--all have flaws, that's true. But if you didn't have them what would you have? A world completely out of control, with no structure, no order, no boundaries."Well said!