Yearly Archives: 2009
China Steps Up on Global Health
Liu Zhenmin, the Chinese deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, spoke to the general assembly on Tuesday and called for better global cooperation on global health issues. He specifically focused on improving information: “The international community should pool its resources and work together, strengthen the sharing of information, technology and experience in prevention and control, so as to contain the spread of major epidemics around the world, including H1N1 influenza…”
Lord Monckton calls climate activists “Hitler Youth”
Here’s the story. Earlier in the week, in Copenhagen, a group of climate activists disrupted a public meeting of Americans for Prosperity, which is an astroturf organization committed to fighting action on climate change. At the time, Lord Monckton–a prominent speaker on the climate change denialist circuit–called the protesters,”Hitler youth.” That was bad enough.
Susan Rice at the Holocaust Museum elaborates on U.S.-Sudan Policy
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum hosted an event last night with Susan Rice, which was billed as a conversation about genocide prevention and timed to the one year anniversary of a high-level report on the topic. The Q and A was not earth-shattering, but her fluid articulation of the challenges facing the United Nations and the United States in confronting genocide and mass atrocity did re-enforced every positive bias I have toward my UN
New Tech in Emergencies and Conflicts
I had the distinct pleasure of co-authoring this major new United Nations Foundation & Vodafone Foundation Technology Report with my distinguished colleague Diane Coyle. The report looks at innovation in the use of technology along the time line of crisis response, from emergency preparedness and alerts to recovery and rebuilding.
Crowdsourcing for emergency preparedness
Having multiple resilient and trustworthy communication networks is a key requirement to be able to assess and react to a crisis, and technological developments offer new exciting opportunities to improve situational awareness, and document crisis information that would otherwise fall behind the horizon of the press and other conventional channels.
During an emergency, established communication channels may fail. One of the most effective channels to rapidly gather information is to tap into the only resource that is always present: the general public.
Day 4 at Copenhagen: Small Countries Revolt
The prospects for a unified front between developed and developing nations in combating climate change further broke down today, as more than half of the world’s countries — mostly smaller nations, including those most threatened by the effects of global warming — pledged not to sign any accord that allows global temperatures to rise by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. (Abhishek‘s got more on that)
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The SC; HRC; DPRK; South Sudan
The SC: The Security Council today held its last consultations under the Council Presidency of ROK. Tomorrow, Russia will take over the rotating Presidency of the Security Council for March under Ambassador Vitaly Churkin.
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The SG; Mali; Middle East; Palestine
The SG: At the Fifth Global Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations in Vienna, Austria today, the SG emphasized the role of youth in ensuring a “prosperous, equitable and peaceful future.”
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The SG; DRC; HRC; Palestinian Prisoner
The SG: In Ethiopia over the weekend, the SG is now in the United Arab Emirates. Today he met with Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, where the two discussed developments in the region, including Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan, and in the Middle East Peace Process.
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