"In the face of deadly clashes between United Nations peacekeepers and armed rebel groups in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Secretary-General Kofi Annan today reaffirmed the UN's determination to work closely with the Congolese authorities in restoring peace in the region." [More]

"A United Nations official said Wednesday that Iraq's recent parliamentary elections, which have given a strong lead to the Shiite religious bloc dominating the current government, were credible and that there was there was no justification in calls for a rerun." [Full Story]

UN News Service: "With both Sudanese Government and rebel troops violating the ceasefire agreement, the security situation in the Darfur provinces is volatile as banditry and looting are reported in the area, the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) said today."

"The toughest time after last year's devastating tsunami may be yet to come, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a video message broadcast in Banda Aceh on Monday.

"A year on, there has been tremendous progress in many areas. Children are back in school. Epidemics have been prevented. Tens of thousands of survivors are employed in cash-for-work activities," the secretary-general said. "And yet in some ways, the most challenging days lie ahead."

"Breadwinners desperately need to regain secure livelihoods, hundreds of thousands of families need to re-establish themselves in permanent homes, and communities need to rebuild." [More]

Selected summary of United Nations related news and events

Kenyan UN peacekeeper
in Ethiopia/Eritrea

UN Says Tension Remains Between Eritrea and Ethiopia Despite Redeployments

UN Probes Death of Canadian in Haiti

U.N. Budget Talks Focus on Ending Reform Impasse

PAKISTAN: UN Foundation Establishes Earthquake Responses Fund

Report from UN Special Envoy Clinton Says Tsunami-hit Countries Make Good Progress

Aceh Family Set to Move House Year After Tsunami

Children Recovering After Tsunami

"Nearly one year has passed since the devastating waves of the Indian Ocean Tsunami destroyed the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people.

However, through the combined of public and private sectors around the world, the United Nations in cooperation with national governments, NGOs and local communities was able to respond immediately and effectively to the disaster - assessing damages, rebuilding schools so children can resume their studies, preventing major outbreaks of diseases through sanitation projects and vaccination campaigns, and reconstructing shelters and permanent housing for the hundreds of thousands of homeless. The UN has effectively coordinated the immediate relief and rehabilitation efforts over the last 12 months, and will continue its work to work with to sustain and strengthen recovery efforts to "build back better" for many years to come." [Link]

Also see: UNDP & Tsunami Recovery

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Chicken Foot Stew: "The UN General Assembly and Security Council passed resolutions creating a Peacebuilding Commission to help insure that post-conflict societies do not slide back into conflict. Apparently, over half of the conflicts in the past 20 years have reignited after their initial cease-fires."

Rose Colored News: "UN Launches $500 Million Emergency Relief Fund - "The U.N. General Assembly approved the establishment Thursday of a new $500 million emergency fund aimed at providing swift relief following natural disasters. The new Central Emergency Response Fund is 10 times larger than an existing standby relief fund of $50 million. U.N. officials hope the creation of a standing account will allow for relief to reach areas hit by disasters and famine quickly." Full Story: Environmental News Network."

Agonist: "NYT - The General Assembly and Security Council passed resolutions on Tuesday founding a Peacebuilding Commission to help stabilize and rebuild societies emerging from war."

Meat-Eating Leftist: "Bolivia is now yet another South American neighbor that officially rejects American imperialism and unregulated, free-trade capitalism. Evo Morales, a Che-styled leftist who denounced U.S. influence in his country, and vowed to fight the same imperialist forces that have ensnared his people into poverty, looks to be the winner in the country's presidential election: "Mr Morales' win has raised eyebrows in the US, after he expressed his admiration for the Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. He has also pledged to fight to remove the coca plant from the United Nations list of poisonous plants..."

Opinio Juris: "Secretary General Kofi Annan today announced the adoption of a whistleblower protection policy for the U.N. The policy, which goes into effect next month, is intended to protect U.N. employees who report misconduct and/or who cooperate with investigations. This is welcome news for the project of creating genuine accountability at the U.N. and should help promote the kind of cooperation and good citizenship necessary to effective internal audits and investigations. It sets a standard higher than those available to government employees of many -- if not most -- member states."

Shanghai Daily: "FOUR people died last night in a fire in a seven-storey building in the famous Hanzheng Street ... one of the longest and most renowned commercial thoroughfares in China. It acts as the largest small commodity distribution place and wholesale market in central China. The street is also the sister street of Fifth Avenue in New York, according to an agreement signed in September between the management bodies of the two streets. The United Nations Refugee Agency also set up its procurement information center on the street in September. The center is in charge of direct purchases, releasing the UN's needed items list and showing samples from Geneva, headquarters of the UN refugee agency."

"Outlining his major priorities for 2006, his last year as United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan said today that alongside efforts to promote peace and security and combat poverty and disease he was determined to follow through on his wide-ranging agenda of reform and renewal of the world body.

"If there's one thing I would like to hand over to my successor when I leave office next year, is that it should be a UN that is fit for the many varied tasks and challenges we are asked to take on today," Mr. Annan told an end-of-year press conference at UN Headquarters in New York, stressing that a strong programme to do that was already embraced by Member States at the 2005 World Summit." [Read more]

Selected summary of United Nations related news and events

Canadian Peacekeeper Killed in Haiti

UN Establishes New Body to Prevent Countries From Sliding Back into War

Kosovo Could One Day Be Self-sufficient: UN Envoy

Afghan Parliament Begins Tough Job

Aid Effort in Africa Undermined by New Violence, U.N. Reports

Annan Urges Developing Nations To Use Creativity

UN Approves Long-delayed Whistle-blower Rules

U.S. Greenhouse Gases Rose 2 Percent

Environmental Prize for UN Chief

Leaving years of exile in a refugee camp in Kenya
behind them, Sudanese refugees travel through
the dramatic scenery of South Sudan on the first
convoy of UNHCR's organised repatriation which
officially started on Saturday.

"This is a joyous day, the day we welcome refugees home from exile after decades of war," a representative of the government of South Sudan said at a ceremony on Saturday in Nadapal, just inside South Sudan on the Kenyan border, where local residents waved paper flags of what they call "New Sudan" to welcome their kinfolk home." [Read more]

See also: South Sudan Repatriation Outlook

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Global Voices Online: "Passion of the Present reports that the UN is to facilitate the return of 60,000 refugees to the South of Sudan by May next year ... "The move started Saturday and it could take up to five years to repatriate all 560,000 southern Sudanese refugees in seven neighboring countries - Central African Republic, Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda - said Jean-Marie Fakhouri, the head of operations in Sudan for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees."

Superspade: "The BBC today has a story about the escalating conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. This story talks about how U.N. peacekeepers are leaving, more specifically, have been ordered to leave by the U.N. Security Council, by Friday. Who knew about this? Not most Americans. Instead, we are talking about Iraq."

Opinio Juris: "In yesterday's Washington Post, we find an article in which Detlev Mehlis, the chief UN investigator into the murder of Rafik al-Hariri, actually accuses Syria of direct involvement in the assassination, as well as linking Syria to the murder of Gibran Tueni. While we can only sit and wait for the UN to release its evidence, let's hope that what has been gathered is so damning that Russia, China, and Algeria will have no hope but to support punishment."

TPM Cafe (Larry Johnson): "The revelation that the National Security Agency was allowed to conduct non-FISA intercepts of American citizens should bring last summer's hearing on John Bolton's nomination to the United Nations back into focus. As Legal times noted in September of this year, "During the confirmation hearings of John Bolton as the U.S. representative to the United Nations, it came to light that the NSA had freely revealed intercepted conversations of U.S. citizens to Bolton while he served at the State Department."

Harowo: "Toxic waste poisoning Somalia - Just before last December's tsunami hit the coast of Somalia, local fisherman thought their lucky day had arrived. The preceding force of the wave drove lobsters from the seabed onto the shoreline. But as fishermen collected the valuable harvest the biggest wave they had ever seen came towards them. Many homes have been rebuilt along the coast and many villages now have schools and hospitals for the first time ever. In some areas the situation is better now than before the tsunami, says Maxwell Gaylard, U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia. ... However, it appears Somalia is experiencing another disaster of unknown proportions thanks to the tsunami."

New Communications Blogzine: "Each year, the Millennium Project of the American Council for the United Nations University publishes its State of the Future report. [Disclosure: Jen McClure and I did some pro-bono work for this organization a few years ago to promote this report.] Designed to provide easy-to-read snapshots of the global situation as it pertains to topics such as democracy, technology, organized crime, ethics and so on, it is an excellent resource to get a broad sense of what is happening around the world and how experts expect trends to continue. Each year the SOTF report comments on 15 Global Challenges for Humanity, identified by the think tank's several hundred futurists, scholars, business planners, and policy makers from around the world."

"A year of disasters around the world sparked an unprecedented outpouring of aid, but richer nations still are not giving enough money to tackle lingering humanitarian crises, the United Nations' humanitarian chief says.

Jan Egeland said, for example, that as many people died in Congo every eight months as in last year's Indian Ocean tsunami.

He also criticised political leaders for failing to take action to end the wars that created humanitarian crises or invest in disaster prevention to ease the impact of earthquakes, hurricanes and floods.

The work of UN and other relief workers in conflict-wracked eastern Congo, in the Darfur region of western Sudan, and in northern Uganda had become "an alibi for lack of political and security action", Egeland said." [Emphasis added]

Read more...

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Stories in America: "Millions of children "invisible": UNICEF - "Millions of the world's neediest children are not even a blip on the radar of their own governments because there is no record of their birth, the United Nation's Children's Fund UNICEF said on Wednesday."

Becks & Posh: "Perhaps you have noticed by now that Food Bloggers all over the world have pulled together to raise money for Unicef's efforts to help out Earthquake-stricken area of India and Pakistan. Here at Becks & Posh there are three prize packages up for grabs. We hope, that by tempting people with the opportunity to win the gifts our kind sponsors have generously donated, the people who enjoy our food blog will make a donation to Unicef."

Blony: "It may well be that the time has come for Iraqis to take over arranging their own future. The threads that may intertwine Iraqis in the near term: A fresh start at a constitution with U.N. assistance * UN forces to secure borders * Trusted brokers (probably UN) to mediate differences."

American Future: "Every time Iran's president opens his mouth, he increases the chances that the Security Council will authorize actions to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capability and, if the Security Council fails to act or its sanctions aren't enforced (remember Iraq?), his foul words provide a justification for Israel to take matters into its own hands. Iran simply cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons. Period. As quoted in the Washington Post, Ahmadinejad on Wednesday called the extermination of 6 million Jews during World War II a "myth." ... UPDATE: From Reuters: Russia's Foreign Ministry said: "We consider attempts to revise generally known historical facts about the Second World War, including those facts connected with the Holocaust, as unacceptable. Speculation on these topics runs counter to the Charter of the United Nations and the views of the international community."

Democracy Arsenal: "Speaking of defense manpower, here are two hopeful items from West Point: a new project called "Beyond War" and news that the West Point Model United Nations team has finished its most successful year in team history--taking first place at every conference in 2005."

Moorish Girl: "Survivors of the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that rocked Pakistan last October were burning books to stay warm. As many as 10,000 books were destroyed before the army intervened. Related: Unicef distributes winter clothing to survivors. You can donate money here."

Syria Comment: "Here is an excellent article by Mark Goldberg about John Bolton's role at the UN and his struggle with Condoleezza Rice. I gave a bit of an assist on some of the "Qadhafi Deal" information. Mark has been researching this story for some time. Hats off to him."

"Hundreds of millions of children are suffering from severe exploitation and discrimination and have become virtually invisible to the world, UNICEF said Wednesday in a major report that explores the causes of exclusion and the abuses children experience.

Launching the report in London, UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman said millions of children disappear from view when trafficked or forced to work in domestic servitude. Other children, such as street children, live in plain sight but are excluded from fundamental services and protections. Not only do these children endure abuse, most are shut out from school, healthcare and other vital services they need to grow and thrive.

'The State of the World's Children 2006: Excluded and Invisible' (www.unicef.org/sowc06) is a sweeping assessment of the world's most vulnerable children, whose rights to a safe and healthy childhood are exceptionally difficult to protect. These children are growing up beyond the reach of development campaigns and are often invisible in everything from public debate and legislation, to statistics and news stories" [Read more]

Selected summary of United Nations related news and events

UNHCR plans to build a new school to replace this
crumbling secondary school for girls in Yei, South Sudan.

South Sudan repatriation to start Saturday, says UNHCR

Annan Urges World Trade Talks to Take Steps to Boost
Exports of Poor Countries

Iraq: UN Envoy Hails Start Of Voting

U.S. Backs Extending U.N. Inquiry on Hariri Death

Pope Says War No Excuse for Human Rights Abuses

UN Court Tries Former Leader of Wartime Serb State

UNESCO Condemns Assassination Of Lebanese Editor

War Would Hit S.Lanka Health, Bird Flu Effort-UN

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Washington Note: "The American Prospect's Mark Leon Goldberg writes the first serious assessment of John Bolton's tenure thus far as the recess-appointed U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations... the big news that Mark Goldberg breaks is that the American Prospect has confirmed that it was John Bolton himself who scuttled Secretary of State Rice's efforts to offer Syria a Libya-like opportunity to get itself out of the international dog house. Goldberg writes: "The tension between Rice and Bolton has grown dramatically in several areas, most notably with regard to Syria: The Prospect has learned that Bolton was the source of an October leak to the British press that submarined sensitive negotiations Rice was overseeing with that country."

Daily Kos: "The $100 laptop has arrived. It is hand-crank-powered, has built-in wi-fi, and promises to bring the technology to millions of children in the developing world. This is really cool stuff, even if Intel's Craig Barret is being a grinch about it. Apparently, the $100 laptop competes against his own company's efforts. (Here's a story with picture of the device.)"

Eclecticity: "My friend Tyson Vaughan pointed me to this article outlining the findings of a UN study of poverty in the United States. A primary conclusion of the report is that racial poverty is systemic in our country and that such poverty constitutes a human rights violation under the meaning of that term as defined by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights."

Arms Control Wonk: "ElBaradei Accepts Nobel Prize - what he said: "I believe it is because our security strategies have not yet caught up with the risks we are facing. The globalization that has swept away the barriers to the movement of goods, ideas and people has also swept with it barriers that confined and localized security threats. A recent United Nations High-Level Panel identified five categories of threats that we face: 1. Poverty, Infectious Disease, and Environmental Degradation; 2. Armed Conflict - both within and among States; 3. Organized Crime; 4. Terrorism; and 5. Weapons of Mass Destruction. These are all "threats without borders" - where traditional notions of national security have become obsolete. We cannot respond to these threats by building more walls, developing bigger weapons, or dispatching more troops. Quite to the contrary. By their very nature, these security threats require primarily multinational cooperation."

Coalition for Darfur: "Congo: As Militiamen Flee, Calm Descends At Last - From Knight Ridder: "After years of false starts and costly failures, peace is finally taking hold in Congo's remote northeastern Ituri region, a key battleground in a pan-African war that's claimed 4 million lives. In recent weeks, Congo's patchwork national army, backed by United Nations peacekeepers, has chased some 4,000 militiamen into the dense forests near the Ugandan border. It was the most aggressive military action to date against the once-fearsome militias that held sway here. The militias still control some Ituri villages. But 16,000 have turned in their guns under a 2003 peace agreement, and U.N. and Congolese officials say the militias are on their last legs."

Daily Kos (Plutonium Page): "Yesterday was the last day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Montreal. It was a historical conference because it is the very first meeting of the countries who have ratified the Kyoto Protocol; one goal of the conference is to discuss the extension of the Kyoto Protocol. So, how did the conference go? There was definite progress made, but not without difficulty, and that's the subject of this post."

Disinformation: "Washington Post's Elizabeth Gross investigates the 'digital dumps' and landfills that have swamped Nigeria in recent years. Organizations such as the Basel Action Network and the United Nations Environment Program have been monitoring the environmental degradation and export of legacy computer parts."

Gristmill: "Finally, some good news. From Mongabay: Friday, at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Montreal, the U.N. agreed to a proposal that allows developing nations to receive financial compensation from industrialized countries for agreeing to preserve their rainforests. Environmentalists hope the deal -- set forth by ten developing countries led by Papua New Guinea -- will give developing nations a financial reason to get more involved in climate talks while safeguarding globally important ecosystems."

Ethan Zuckerman: "Jane Perrone spent the full day with us at the Global Voices summit, representing The Guardian. Her article on the conference is spot on (as is her accompanying blog post) and begins with a lead that's going to be one of my favorites of all time: "The Global Voices conference called to mind a United Nations of blogging: there was a Cambodian sitting next to an Iranian sitting next to an Indian sitting next to a Kenyan sitting next to Richard Dreyfuss."

OUPBlog: "Louise Arbour, a former Canadian judge who is now the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, told the United Nations on December 7 that "Governments are watering down the definition of torture, claiming that terrorism means established rules do not apply anymore." The United Nations press release on her remarks further describes her as calling "on all Governments to reaffirm their commitment to the absolute prohibition of torture by condemning torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and prohibiting it in national law." There can be little doubt that the "government" she is most trying to speak to is our own."

President Bush: "The United Nations is playing a vital role in Iraq -- they assisted in last January's elections, and the negotiations for the constitution, and in the recent constitutional referendum. And at the request of the Iraqi government, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution extending the mandate of the multinational force in Iraq through 2006."

"The need to hold free elections in an environment free of coercion topped the agenda of meetings Sunday in Baghdad between the senior United Nations envoy to Iraq and representatives of various political parties." [Read more]

UPDATE: UN envoy hails start of voting, pledges support for peaceful democracy

150 Nations Agree to Future Climate Talks

Kyoto Accord Won't Hurt Economies: Clinton

Climate change conference urges strategies to curb massive deforestation

Clinton Warns of Climate Peril, Demands US Switch Out of Fossil Fuels

Kyoto Reforms to Boost 'Green' Business

US Isolated at World Climate Talks

Seattle Sets Own Kyoto Goals for Emissions

Inspired by Lennon, Youth Say Give Climate a Chance

2,300 Computers at the UN Climate Change Conference are Powered by the Wind

Blogs weighing in:

Barking Dingo
Guardian Blogs
Climate Change News
Greendiary
It's Getting Hot in Here
Rubicon

NYT: "Secretary General Kofi Annan on Thursday vigorously defended Louise Arbour, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, after comments she made about detention and torture came under criticism from John R. Bolton, the United States ambassador.

"The secretary general has absolutely no disagreement with the statement she made yesterday, and he sees no reason to object to any of it," said Mr. Annan's spokesman, Stephane Dujarric. In an unusual instance of a secretary general's singling out an individual envoy for critical comment, Mr. Annan said he was seeking a meeting with Mr. Bolton to make his point in person."

"The rise of deadly new diseases such as SARS and bird flu could be linked to the destruction of the environment, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

"Human health is strongly linked to the health of ecosystems, which meet many of our most critical needs," Maria Neira, director of WHO's Department of Protection of the Human Environment told a news conference at the launch of a new report.

"As a result of human actions, the structure and the world's ecosystems changed more rapidly in the second half of the twentieth century than at any other time in human history," the report said." [Read more]

Full Report

"With the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) reporting banditry, looting and ethnic fighting in Sudan's western Darfur region, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today voiced grave concern about the worsening situation in the area and called on all parties to respect their ceasefire agreement.

UNMIS has reported "banditry, looting, inter-tribal fighting, clashes allegedly between Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) rebels and tribes, attacks on civilians - destroying wells, which are essential to their livelihood, and forcing thousands more people to leave their homes in addition to the 2 million already displaced - and a further increase in the number of attacks and robberies committed against humanitarian workers," Mr. Annan said through his spokesman." [Read more]

"The U.S.-led fight against terrorism is eroding the time-honored international prohibition of torture and other forms of cruel or degrading treatment of prisoners, the top U.N. human rights official said Wednesday in a statement commemorating Human Rights Day.

Louise Arbour, the high commissioner for human rights at the United Nations, presented the most forceful criticism to date of U.S. detention policies by a senior U.N. official, asserting that holding suspects incommunicado in itself amounts to torture." [More]

Blogs covering the story:

Andrew Sullivan
Swords into Plowshares
Talking Points Memo
The Heretik
The Corner
Wise Law Blog

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Gypsy Girl Chronicles: "Today is Human Rights Day. It has been celebrated since December 10th, 1948, when the United Nations first adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This year, in the aftermath of Abu Ghraib and the current reports of secret CIA prisons, the theme is significant..."

Matthew Good: "I suppose it should come as no real surprise that the United States is now saying that the UN CAT [Convention Against Torture] applies to US personnel abroad, including interrogators. Their position had been that it didn't apply to US personnel abroad, but given the various scandals that have erupted one can see why Congressional pressures might have made some headway with regards to altering the administration's point of view. Of course, the precedent set has caused a great deal of damage to global human rights standards, something that won't be so easy to correct. Terrorism, the world's new justification in perpetuity, provides rights abusers the perfect, and highly ambiguous, justification for suspect action. Just because a few skeletons in America's War On Terror closet are starting to rattle around doesn't mean that justification is any less potent. Rice has said that her statement does not imply a policy shift, but that she was simply clarifying policy. If that's the case, one has to ask the obvious question: does it apply to the last four years, or has the clock just started?"

Barking Dingo: "Time to Learn How to Swim - The first recorded displacement of humans due global warming has officially been recorded: "Pacific islanders move to escape global warming: "Rising seas have forced 100 people on a Pacific island to move to higher ground in what may be the first example of a village formally displaced because of modern global warming, a U.N. report said on Monday."

Guardian Blogs: "Midway through the final week of the UN climate negotiations in Montreal brings a strange kind of lull, writes Simon Retallack. It could be the calm before the storm. Something seems to be up. I've tried to attend press conferences that have been postponed three times and then abandoned. An important negotiating session was eagerly awaited and then cancelled. Without much light being shed, it's a time when dark thoughts and rumours flourish. The news overnight has not been particularly good. Negotiations on how to kick-start negotiations on new emission reduction targets for industrialised countries under the Kyoto protocol went on until 2am and a leak of the draft text that emerged suggests the state of play is worse than before. Key elements of a decision are now in square brackets, which means they are in dispute, including the suggestion that the negotiations should be completed by November 2008 (when a new US president would be elected)."

It's Getting Hot in Here: "Earlier today, the US climate delegation met again with a room full of climate advocates. While the audience had expanded in size, the responses remained equally disappointing. Dr. Harlan L. Watson led his congregation of cronies through another round of crass question evasion. Once again, inaction was defended under the veil of "scientific uncertainty," adaptation, and voluntary participation in climate mitigation. As NGO (non-governmental organization) reps and US citizens voiced concern about the urgency of our climate situation, the US delegation replied with oily, rehearsed rhetoric. Ultimately, today's meeting served to reinforce the necessity of the local action emerging across the US. With or without the US administration, we are moving ahead."

The Decline: "This is an essay question for my International Relations final exam. The question: What are the most important long-term US interests at the international level, and how can the US best accomplish them? Are US interests and global peace mutually exclusive, or complementary? What I came up with: We need to, overall, get back to diplomacy as a means to solve international problems.... Haass is correct when he says: "A decision to opt out of formal multilateralism should only be taken when it is truly necessary. And when the United States does break ranks with the international community, it should look to bring in the relevant regional organizations -- or the U.N. -- at the first opportunity."

"A small community living in the Pacfic island chain of Vanuatu has become one of, if not the first, to be formally moved out of harms way as a result of climate change.

The villagers have been relocated higher into the interior of Tegua, one of the chains' northern most provinces, after their coastal homes were repeatedly swamped by storm surges and aggressive waves linked with climate change.

The relocation, under a project entitled Capacity Building for the Development of Adaptation in Pacific Island Countries, underlines the increasingly drastic measures now underway to conserve low lying communities as a result of the rise in human-made emissions to the atmosphere." LINK

More here

Selected summary of United Nations related news and events

World Must Act Quickly to Stop Sudan Violence: UN

Arctic, Tropical Islands Unite in Climate Fight

World Weather Disasters Spell Record Losses in 2005

Mugabe Rejects UN Offer of Tents

Deadly Violence in Sri Lanka Must Not Derail
Peace Process - Annan

UN Troops Murder Suspect Arrested

Sri Lanka: Focus of Tsunami Recovery is Shifting to
'Bricks-and-Mortar' Reconstruction

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Coalition for Darfur: "Darfur: UN Refugee Agency Calls for Urgent Action - From the AP: "The head of the U.N. refugee agency called on the international community to take a united stance and give urgently needed help to Sudan's embattled Darfur region."

Democracy Arsenal (Morton H. Halperin): "Having spent most of Friday at the United Nations headquarters in New York, I am much more pessimistic about the chances for reaching agreement on a new human rights council. More alarming, I fear that the US is precipitating a crisis which will further weaken American ability to lead and which could debilitate the UN. As reported in an editorial in the New York Times on Friday, John Bolton has informed his colleagues that the United States will only support an interim three month budget for the UN and will accept a longer budget only after the US reform agenda is implemented. With the possible exception of Japan, the US position has no significant support. UN officials say that the UN will run out of money by late February if this course is adopted."

Agonist: "UN contemplates military operation for Darfur - Reuters: "A joint military team will visit Darfur next week to study whether the United Nations should take over efforts to bring order to Sudan's lawless west, U.N. officials and diplomats said on Sunday."

Strategy Unit: "Ruth Wedgwood is right to say the U.N. should not have a monopoly in what defines the international community and the U.S. should nurture relationships with other international organizations for its own foreign policy goals. But, it won't be a catalyst for U.N. reform. Indeed, it can lead to the fragmentation of the international community space - with major power getting "legitimacy" for its policies from whatever regional or international organizations out there."

Tapped (Mark Goldberg): "If you were ever wondering how to lose diplomatic influence across the world, let me suggest using John Bolton's recent maneuverings over the UN budget as a case study."

Survivors have to prepare their meals outdoors

"The United Nations World Food programme (WFP) can guarantee winter food supplies for hundreds of thousands of earthquake survivors in remote high-altitude villages in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, but continuing donor support is vital for one of the most challenging logistical operations the agency has ever faced." [Full article]

BBC: "UN investigators are due to question five Syrian officials on Monday as part of their inquiry into the killing of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri. The officials, who have not been identified, will be interrogated at UN offices in Vienna.

An interim UN report has already implicated Syrian and pro-Syrian Lebanese officials in the death of Hariri in a Beirut bombing in February."

"The use of torture is widespread in China and the country's legal system needs a major overhaul for the situation to improve, a top U.N. envoy said on Friday, adding the government had obstructed his investigations.

Manfred Nowak, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, said his team was under frequent surveillance during a two-week trip that included Tibet and the northwestern Muslim-majority region of Xinjiang and was granted after 10 years of lobbying by his office.

There was also evidence authorities had intimidated victims and family members the U.N. team tried to interview, he said." [Full Story]

"Long an advocate of completing a treaty against all forms of terrorism by the end of this year, Secretary-General Kofi Annan voiced disappointment over the failure of the General Assembly's committee on legal affairs to reach agreement on a draft comprehensive convention.

Finalizing the treaty has been elusive. A major sticking point has been the issue of exempting armed resistance groups involved in struggles against colonial domination and foreign occupation, on which General Assembly President Jan Eliasson said several key countries had taken hard positions." More

BBC: "HIV impact: Region-by-region - As World Aids Day is marked around the globe, virtually no part of the world has remained untouched by HIV."

UPDATE: Bloggers covering World AIDS Day 2005

Birmingham Blues

Comments from Left Field

Gay Patriot

Mohawk Blogger

Political Cabaret

This is Zimbabwe

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Mark Thomson: "For those interested in what international covenants have to say on the use of the death penalty, here are two UN sites for your information: United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."

El Canche: "[P]lease forgive yet another article about poverty, the United Nations, and the lack of humanitarian assistance from wealthy nations. It's just that when the need is so dire, and a solution so easily attainable... it infuriates me that our elected "leaders" are so incapable of acting in humanity's best interests."

Sudan Watch: "U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said last week that killing and rape in Darfur had increased in September and October and the region was descending into complete lawlessness. Darfur is slipping yet deeper into catastrophe before the very eyes of an unmoved international community, writes Eric Reeves Nov 20, 2005. Pope Benedict XVI said Monday "stronger international resolve" is needed to halt the bloodshed in Darfur."

Bob Whitson: FACTBOX - What Is The Kyoto Protocol? Planet Ark: About 190 governments will meet in Montreal, Canada, from Nov 28 - Dec 9 to review the UN's Kyoto Protocol meant to cut emissions of gases blamed for global warming. Here are some frequently asked questions about Kyoto..."

Global Voices Online: "The western Sudanese region of Darfur made the headlines for a significant portion of last year when millions of civilians were displaced by fighting between rebel groups and the pro-Sudanese government Janjaweed militia. African Union troops were then sent in to keep the peace with assistance from international bodies like the United Nations, European Union and the United States. Peace talks on Darfur between the rebel groups and Sudanese government are scheduled to continue (they have been going on intermittently for while) in the Nigerian capital of Abuja on Tuesday, 29 November 2005. The blogosphere has been active on the crisis in Darfur. We take a look at some bloggers and what they have to say on this."

Indian Writing: "Ending violence against refugee women continues to be one of the priorities of the UNHCR: "The United Nations Population Fund has found that violence kills as many women and girls between the ages of 15 and 44 as cancer; that worldwide, one in three women has been beaten, coerced into unwanted sexual relations, or abused; and that roughly 80 per cent of the 800,000 people trafficked across borders each year are women and girls."

Jurist: "US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton has requested that the UN Security Council put Myanmar on the council's agenda for the first time, alleging that Myanmar's military rulers are destroying villages, targeting ethnic minorities, seeking nuclear power capabilities and failing to initiate democratic reforms and repressing political opponents such as pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi."

Media Girl: "In the Washington Post today, Former UN Ambassador Richard Holbrooke is only half right: "Until a vaccine is found -- and that is probably more than a decade away -- we must focus on prevention and treatment.... According to U.N. figures, over 90 percent of all those who are HIV-positive in the world do not know their status. Yet there has never been a serious and sustained campaign to get people to be tested." Mr. Holbrooke rightly points out that the only true victory over HIV/AIDS will be a vaccine. But when we have Republicans beholden to pseudo-religious fanatics who oppose effective cures for diseases that affect sexually active people, will the United States even help make available any future cure for HIV/AIDS?"

Philobiblion: "Three million girls abused and mutilated every year - I was going to write an extensive post on this, but it is so depressing I couldn't face it. From the Unicef press site: "An estimated three million girls in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East undergo genital mutilation/cutting every year, according to a UNICEF report released today. Yet the study says that with adequate commitment and support, this millennium-long custom could be eliminated within a single generation."

Radio News America: "[AFP] Pneumonia is spreading amongst cold and hungry children who survived Pakistan's giant earthquake, killing two and affecting hundreds more as the Himalayan winter sweeps in. The United Nations begged the international community for extra help as it races against time to save millions of people threatened by disease and hypothermia because of the sudden change in the weather."

Terrorism News: "U.S. storm brewing at UN climate summit in Montreal - The first United Nations climate conference since the Kyoto agreement came into force in February has opened with the US still resisting targets."