"In 2005, the United Nations delivered 1,200 reports on issues from Guinea-Bissau to the rights of women in the developing world. Its human rights office alone produced 44,000 pages of documents which in turn had to be translated into six official languages.

Such a huge volume of information, and the bureaucracy needed to produce it, threatens to overwhelm the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a study released Thursday. The 191 member states must fund the things they ask for, and stop demanding so much if the world body is to live up to the ideals and promises of its founders, he said." [More]

Selected summary of United Nations related news and events

Annan Hails UN Security Council Call on Iran
to Suspend Nuclear Activities

Victims of Sierra Leone War Rejoice at Taylor's Arrest

Eastern Congo Militias on Offensive Before Polls-UN

Recruiters of Child Soldiers Targeted for Prosecution

UN Torture Investigator to Visit Russia, Chechnya

Serbia Urges Patience Over Mladic

United Nations Praises India's Decision
to Provide all Women Police Unit

CNN: "The U.N. Security Council has unanimously called on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment activities within 30 days and cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Wednesday's vote came after the five permanent members of the council reached an agreement on the document, a presidential statement written by the British and French ambassadors."

UPDATE: Iran Defiantly Rejects New U.N. Demands

Security Council open meeting on Haiti
held at UN Headquarters in New York

"Haiti's president-elect appealed for urgent international help Monday to spur development in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country and called on all Haitians to join in a national dialogue to promote peace, democracy and stability." [Read more]

See also:

Aid Vital to Haitian Democracy, Preval Tells UN

United States Committed To Helping Haitian People, Says Bolton

"In a wide-ranging review of the "many formidable challenges" facing the Arab world, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today reaffirmed the United Nations commitment to help resolve issues ranging from sectarian violence in Iraq to the Israeli-Palestinian impasse to the continued killings, rape and displacement in Sudan.

Mr. Annan stressed the need for dialogue and cooperation in overcoming continuing strife on each of the following issues:

Iraq: after last month's "heinous" bombing of the Shiite shrine in Samarra, a fully inclusive government is needed more urgently than ever to counter sectarian violence. The UN will continue to promote inter-communal dialogue and maintain its efforts, as circumstances permit, to assist reconstruction and economic development.

Israeli-Palestinian conflict: an affirmation by the new Palestinian cabinet of the Arab Peace Initiative would be a first welcome step towards the reaffirmation of Palestinian commitment to the principles of non-violence, recognition of Israel's right to exist and acceptance of the UN-backed Road Map peace plan for a two-state solution. Israel, too, must be reminded, in light of continued creation of facts on the ground, that peace cannot be imposed unilaterally.

Lebanon: the country's friends and neighbours have a crucial role to play in helping it consolidate its independence and sovereignty and the UN stands ready to help Lebanon and Syria to cultivate productive, friendly ties based on the explicit assurances of respect for each other's sovereignty, security and independence.

Somalia: the UN will continue to provide political, moral and material support for the transitional process as the Horn of Africa country continues to cope with violence, the weakness or non-existence of governing institutions, and a lack of national consensus on the future. "I hope Arab states will actively seek opportunities to give both humanitarian and development aid," Mr. Annan said.

Sudan: aspects of the situation remains deeply troubling with actions falling short of expectations on several fronts following last year's peace accord in the south, while in Darfur "people continue to be killed, raped and driven from their homes by the thousands." Mr. Annan hailed African Union agreement to support in principle the transition from its mission in Darfur to a larger, more mobile UN operation.

Cultural rifts: the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that many found deeply offensive has led to "an apparent deepening of the already troubling rift between communities and nations of different beliefs and cultures," Mr. Annan said. The Alliance of Civilizations initiative that he has launched with the support of Spain and Turkey is intended to generate a concerted effort to bridge divides, combat extremism and overcome prejudices, misconceptions, and polarizations which potentially threaten world peace.

UN reform: he thanked the Arab countries for supporting the process and noted that important steps have already been taken such as setting up a new Peace-building Commission, a Democracy Fund, a much improved emergency response fund, and a new, stronger Human Rights Council." [Link]

"Dr. David Nabarro, chief avian flu coordinator for the United Nations, has become gun-shy about making predictions - in particular about if and when the A(H5N1) virus, now devastating bird populations around the world, will do the same to humans.

But Dr. Nabarro describes himself as "quite scared," especially since the disease has broken out of Asia and reached birds in Africa, Europe and India much faster than he expected it to. "That rampant, explosive spread," he said, "and the dramatic way it's killing poultry so rapidly suggests that we've got a very beastly virus in our midst." [Read more]

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Paper Chase: "UN Legal Counsel Nicolas Michel said Thursday that the UN is ready to begin final negotiations on the establishment of an international tribunal to try suspects in the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. Michel said that a mixed tribunal with both Lebanese and international support, similar to the Special Court for Sierra Leone, would produce the best outcome. He said that it is unlikely that the tribunal will be established inside Lebanon and that factors such as impartiality and safety of witnesses and judges will determine its location. Michel's comments follow a recommendation of a mixed tribunal from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan earlier this week."

Political Animal: "Knight Ridder quotes three anonymous officials about Iran's nuclear program: "Based on the IAEA data, U.S. experts have concluded that "Iran could be as little as two to three years away from having nuclear weapons, with all the necessary caveats and assumptions and extrapolations about them overcoming technical hurdles," said one U.S. official. "Admittedly, those are significant assumptions."

TPM Cafe (Scott T. Paul): "Bolton Lobbying Against U.S. Membership on Human Rights Council - Bolton believes that if the U.S. declares its candidacy for membership, it will be seen as an endorsement of the Council that he has so emphatically denounced. The Council would benefit from U.S. membership. It would be more credible and more effective with the U.S. on board. That being said, it might (and I emphasize, might) be better to heed Bolton's advice on this one - not for his articulated reason, but because there is no assurance that the U.S. would be voted on. Abuse in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, U.S. foreign policy, and Bolton's heavy-handed diplomacy have left the U.S. more isolated in the UN than perhaps ever before."

Washington Note: "Last Thursday morning, I sent a couple of questions to the "Ask the State Department" site that was planning an online session with John Bolton. I sent two questions, clearly identified myself, received confirmations from the State Department that my queries of Ambassador Bolton were received. If you read the transcript of carefully crafted blandness in Bolton's responses during his on-line forum, there is no reference to the questions I posted early. That's OK. They can't answer everyone -- and I felt that I was just accidentally ignored -- UNTIL I got this email..."

"One United Nations estimate says from 113 million to 200 million women around the world are demographically "missing." Every year, from 1.5 million to 3 million women and girls lose their lives as a result of gender-based violence or neglect.

In countries where the birth of a boy is considered a gift and the birth of a girl a curse from the gods, selective abortion and infanticide eliminate female babies.

Young girls die disproportionately from neglect because food and medical attention is given first to brothers, fathers, husbands and sons." [Read more]

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Science Blog: "A far wider range of species, some of them rare and endangered, may be affected by highly virulent avian flu than has previously been supposed, ranging from big cats like leopards and tigers to other mammals like martens, weasels and badgers to 80 per cent of all bird species, the United Nations environmental agency warned today."

Paper Chase: "The UN Commission on Human Rights was formally abolished Wednesday by a resolution of the UN Economic and Social Council adopted without a formal vote. The resolution calls for the completion of the commission's currently-suspended sixty-second session and the final shutdown of the organization on June 16, when it will be replaced by the new UN Human Rights Council created last week by a General Assembly resolution that passed 170-4 over objections from the United States, Israel, the Marshall island and Palau. The first meeting of the Council is scheduled for June 19 in Geneva. The Commission, created in 1946, had been highly sharply criticized for allowing countries with continued human rights violations to win seats and protect each other from inquiries. Elections for the smaller, somewhat more stringent Council will be held May 9. Reuters has more."

Sookie Tex: "World Water Day, March 22, 2005, marks the start of the Water for Life Decade, 2005--2015, a new United Nations International Decade for Action. The decade-long effort will improve the chances of achieving international water-related goals, including that of the United Nations Millennium Declaration: by 2015, to reduce by 50% the proportion of persons without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. An estimated 1.1 billion persons lack access to an improved water source, and 2.6 billion persons lack access to adequate sanitation."

World Changing: "The idea that open source is political underlies many of the posts here on WorldChanging that talk about Linux and its brethren. Alex's 2003 "Redistributing the Future" sums up this concept well, but we frequently build on the argument that the real value of Linux, and the free/libre/open source model in general, is that it enables previously technologically-dependent communities to build the tools that they need with their own skills, and become a global participant as a producer of ideas, not simply a consumer. We're not alone in this belief; the United Nations University's International Institute for Software Technology has fully embraced the idea of open source as a developmental driver. They think of it as "technological self-determination," and they've come up with forward-looking programs to help this come about."

© UNICEF/HQ00-0631/LeMoyne

"On World Water Day, as the 4th World Water Forum here draws to a close, the voices of debate and discussion have fallen silent to hear and consider a clarion call to action from children.

Ten young water activists took the stage yesterday, side by side with over 30 ministers of water and environment at the global meeting, to discuss children's role in the world water crisis. They represented the 112 participants in the Children's World Water Forum, a parallel event ending in Mexico City today. And they spoke out for the hundreds of millions of children worldwide struggling to survive without safe drinking water." [Read more]

"The United Nations today called on Iraq's Government to urgently assert control over the security forces and all armed groups in the war-torn country, saying February's attack on a shrine in Samarra had led to a worsening situation, resulting in hundreds of cases of killings, torture, illegal detention and displacement." [More]

"Violence is surging in Sudan's south as well as its western Darfur region, fueled by government inaction even after years of global attention, U.N. envoy Jan Pronk told the Security Council on Tuesday." [More]

"Britain's strategy for persuading Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions calls for sanctions that could be enforced militarily if diplomacy fails, but getting U.N. Security Council members Russia and China on board will be a struggle." [More]

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Agonist: "Security Council Fails To Reach Accord on Iran - WaPo - The Security Council's five permanent members and Germany failed to reach agreement at a meeting Monday on how to respond to the Iranian nuclear crisis but said they would forge ahead in the coming days to break the impasse. The deadlock comes as U.S. and European officials confirmed that Britain had presented the United States with a paper outlining a possible diplomatic strategy to resolve the crisis, including new talks and concessions. But the British representative at Monday's talks, John Sawers, said Britain had not made such a proposal at the meeting."

Tapped (Mark Leon Goldberg): "Finally, there's some good news out of Western Africa: The newly elected president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, formally requested that the government of Nigeria extradite former Liberian strongman Charles Taylor to the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity."

Huffington Post (Steve Clemons): "Anne-Marie Slaughter sums up the state of affairs regarding America's stance towards the new Human Rights Council beautifully. Slaughter, the dean of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton, outlines that although America voted "no" on the Council, word from the U.N. has it that Secretary Rice pushed hard to soften Bolton's stated opposition to the Council... Far more important, though, was the announcement later in the day that the U.S. would in fact help to fund the Council and would pledge support for making it "as strong and effective as it can be."

Stygius: "Via Steve Clemons at Bolton Watch, the Christian Science Monitor barely conceals exasperation: "As the United Nations Security Council wrestles with how to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions, discussion at UN headquarters is at times as much about the council's effectiveness and America's role in the international community as it is about Iran." Sound vaguely familiar? Unfortunately, we have a UN Ambassador who is willing to sabotage the overall process and thwart results -- and maybe get a lot of people killed -- in order to acquire vindication for an assumption."

Uganda - CAN: "Dennis McNamara, the U.N. special adviser on internal displacement, has warned of a "human rights crisis" in northern Uganda where "the rule of law does not apply." McNamara just spent a week touring the conflict-affected regions of the north and meeting with senior government officials and UN agencies working in the region. "They [internally displaced people] live in unacceptable conditions, are not getting adequate basic services and are unprotected," said McNamara, speaking to reporters. Jan Egeland, the U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator will visit Uganda at the end of March to discuss the U.N. proposal that all aspects of the war, not just the humanitarian aspect, be more systematically addressed."

"A Congolese militia leader accused of conscripting children for war will be the first suspect to face trial at the International Criminal Court, the chief prosecutor of the ICC said on Saturday.... The U.N. children's agency UNICEF said Lubanga's arrest showed the international community would not tolerate the use of children in armed conflict."

"Senior diplomats from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany will meet in New York next week to try to break a deadlock on Iran's nuclear program, U.S. officials and U.N. diplomats said on Thursday.

The meeting is now set for Monday among foreign affairs officials from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, the envoys said.

The five permanent Security Council members, who have veto power, have failed to reach agreement on a statement aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions after several rounds of negotiations in the last week.

Russia and China are resisting proposals from Britain, France and the United States that would express "serious concern" about Iran's nuclear program and ask it to comply with demands from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The statement does not threaten sanctions." [Read more]

"In contrast to earlier problems with Syrian cooperation, the United Nations panel looking into last year's assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri today reported progress in this "critical area," with a common understanding reached regarding access to individuals, sites and information." [Full Story]

"The United Nations will soon have a re-minted human rights body to monitor abuses worldwide after the full membership voted in favour of its creation yesterday ... The notion of a reformed council was proposed by Kofi Annan, the secretary general, last year and endorsed by the UN's 60th anniversary summit in September." More

"United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged the international community to remain focused on the protection of civilians in Sudan's strife-torn region of Darfur, saying that rising insecurity there had made it dangerous and volatile.

International efforts should aim to "contribute to the protection of civilians at risk with a view to creating an environment conducive to national reconciliation in a country where human rights are respected and internally displaced persons and refugees can return home," said Annan in his monthly update on Darfur, which was released to the Security Council on Tuesday." [Read more]

"Iran came under more pressure to halt its suspected nuclear weapons programs on Tuesday when the United States and its allies took the issue to the full U.N. Security Council and Russia pursued its own initiative in talks in Moscow.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that any retreat on the nuclear issue would break the Islamic Republic's independence and force it to retreat in other areas." [Link]

"The Security Council today welcomed the decision of the African Union (AU) to support, in principle, the transition of the AU peacekeeping mission in the strife-torn Darfur region of Sudan to a United Nations operation.

"The Security Council commended the African Union for the successful deployment of the African Mission in Sudan (AMIS) and AMIS' role in reducing large-scale organized violence in Darfur," Council President Cesar Mayoral of Argentina told the press after the body was briefed by Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hedi Annabi." [MORE]

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Informed Comment: "Kofi Annan says that two things are keeping back an expansion of UN activities in Iraq: no nation will transport UN workers inside Iraq by plane, and the general violence that plagues the country."

Mahablog: "Iran Update - Bronwen Maddox of the London Times provides an update on the Iran nuclear situation: "EVERYTHING is set for the row over Iran's nuclear work to land before the UN Security Council in New York. The council is preparing to take up the baton next week. Yet until this week's acrimonious and muddled meeting at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna finally ends, there is a hovering uncertainty that this will happen." Iran, in its inimitable vocabulary, warned the US that it, too, could cause "harm and pain", and threatened to disrupt oil markets. It attacked US "warmongers", saying: "Surely we are not naive about the US's intention to flex muscles. But we also see the bone fractures underneath." Ms. Maddox writes that the Security Council will be reluctant to impose sanctions. Nobody expects anything to happen soon."

MoJo Blog (Bradford Plumer): "Eric Reeves, who's followed the Darfur conflict closer than just about anyone else on the planet, notes today that it's not just Europe that deserves the blame here. The United States isn't exactly leading on the issue, either. And while both the EU and the U.S. are pushing for UN involvement, that won't be enough - ultimately, NATO needs to get involved."

WHO: Affected countries with confirmed
human cases of H5N1 avian influenza
since 2003

"With wild birds spreading the avian flu virus further into Africa and Europe, the United Nations system was stepping up assistance to countries in their efforts to contain the virus in birds and conducting simulation exercises to prepare strategies for quick action on a human future pandemic, the official in charge of the effort said today.

"Frankly, there will be a pandemic, sooner or later," Dr. David Nabarro, the UN System's Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza told correspondents at UN Headquarters in New York as he updated them on developments since his mission to China in mid-January. "It might be due to H5N1 or to some other influenza virus and it could start any time," he said. "We have to behave as though this could start any time, because if we don't, we will put off getting prepared." [Read more]

Also see:

Bird Flu Could Reach Americas in 6 Months

UN Officials Rehearse Plans for Bird Flu Pandemic

World Health Organization: Avian influenza complete coverage

Secretary-General Kofi Annan
©UN Photo/Mark Garten

"Aiming to keep step with the shift at the United Nations from bureaucratic tasks to life-saving work in the field, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today presented proposals for a far-reaching overhaul ranging from setting up a 2,500-strong core of mobile peacekeeping professionals to multimillion dollar investments in training and technology.

His far-reaching report, "Investing in the United Nations: For a Stronger Organization Worldwide," focuses on ensuring efficiency and accountability in a way that reflects the fact that more than 70 per cent of the $10 billion annual budget now relates to peacekeeping and other field operations, up from around 50 per cent of a $4.5 billion budget ten years ago." [Read more]

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Democracy Arsenal: Guest Blogger: Jon B. Wolfsthal, Nonproliferation Fellow -- International Security Program, CSIS: "For three years the United States has been trying to bring Iran's violations of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons to the UN Security Council. The International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors reported Iran's behavior to the UN in early February and gave Iran one month to clear up lingering concerns about its program, after having previously found Iran in violation of its inspection obligations. Nobel Laureate and IAEA Director General reported to the IAEA Board last week that Iran is still obstructing inspection requests by the Agency, and advancing its uranium enrichment program and despite last minute diplomatic efforts by the EU and Russia, the matter is now headed directly for New York and the UN Security Council."

RCP Blog: "In widely reported remarks this weeked at the AIPAC conference U.S. Ambassador John Bolton warned of "tangible and painful consequences" for Iran if tit doesn't acquiesce to international demands. Today The Guardian reports that Bolton offered an even more frank assessment of the situation with Iran to a delegation of British MPs visiting Washington last week."

Agonist: "Iran, the IAEA and the UN Thread: Iran's Khatami Says Islam Is the Enemy West Needs - WaPo - "Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, whose foreign policy was defined by a quest for what he called a "dialogue between civilizations," warned Saturday that tensions between the Islamic world and the West are taking the shape of a new Cold War." Iran Maintains Defiant Stance as Atomic Agency Takes Case - NYT - Iran on Sunday reiterated its warning that it would begin making nuclear fuel on an industrial scale if the United Nations nuclear agency decided to send its case to the Security Council in its meeting on Monday."

Democracy Arsenal (Suzanne Nossel): "[D]espite the intensive focus on the Iranian threat in recent months, every realistic policy option has major drawbacks. The problems I outlined here remain unsolved. Diplomatic sanctions may cut down even further visibility on Iran's nuclear activities. Economic sanctions will be difficult to target at the government. A ban on Iranian oil is predicted to send prices spiking, potentially hurting the world more than it does Iran."

Modern Tribalist: "Systematic rape in eastern Congo continues despite pleas for intervention - Dennis Bueckert: Eric Schiller has visited some of the world's most notorious trouble spots, from Gaza to Haiti, but nothing prepared him for what he saw in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Schiller, who spent six weeks in eastern Congo as a volunteer with Christian Peacemaker Teams, says the distinguishing feature of the conflict is the systematic use of rape to control the population. UN agencies estimate Congo's tragedy has claimed far more casualties than the Rwandan genocide - some four million lives since 1996, making the Congo hostilities the deadliest since the Second World War."

TPM Cafe (Mark Leon Goldberg): For the record. A couple days ago, I posted about the "Washington Post's Wednesday editorial on the human rights council which misrepresented a key fact about Jan Eliasson's proposal. I sent my concerns to the ombudsman and it seems that wrongs have been righted: "Correction - A Feb. 28 editorial misrepresented the proposal for a United Nations human rights council put forward by Jan Eliasson, president of the U.N. General Assembly. Mr. Eliasson proposes that countries seeking a seat on the council must win votes from a majority of U.N. member states, not from a majority of the states that vote on their candidacy. Because of the possibility of abstentions, Mr. Eliasson's proposal sets a higher bar than the one we described."

Selected summary of United Nations related news and events

Kerry: Fight Terrorism by Boosting United Nations

UN Atomic Chief Sees no Breakthrough at Meeting on Iran's Nuclear Programme

Watchdog Holds Crucial Iran Talks

Annan Wants U.N. to Consider Outsourcing

Principles Defeat Politics at the U.N.

UN Deplores 'Cowardly' Murder of Afghan Aid Worker

"The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said today that a Compliance Committee for the Kyoto Protocol, the environmental treaty aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, has begun operations, with an enforcement branch dealing with countries having difficulties meeting their commitments." [More]

"U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland asked for the fund after the tsunami, and the General Assembly approved it last December. The idea is to give the world body the ability to quickly send emergency supplies to areas hit by natural disasters and other humanitarian crises, without having to wait for international donors to send checks.

The money in the fund would be continually replenished as contributions later poured in for each individual disaster. The 19 donors to date are Armenia, Britain, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Grenada, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Sweden, Switzerland and Sri Lanka." [More]

"Warning that the proposed Human Rights Council could "unravel" if Member States made the wrong moves in the ongoing negotiations over the body, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today that the Council was of utmost importance to all nations and the stakes in the ongoing debate were "very high."

Mr. Annan told reporters that he was "chagrined" by reports that Washington opposed the proposed text to set up the Council, aimed at replacing the much-criticized Human Rights Commission, but said that this was not an issue about isolating the United States from the rest of the world and he repeated his call for an agreement as soon as possible."

"If we are not careful and we make the wrong moves that unravel the Council, then we are in a situation where we have a Commission that we all claim is discredited, and the Council that should replace it is being unravelled," he said.

"So I would urge the Member States to think about this as they move forward with their decision. The bad must always give in to the good, but the better must not be the enemy of the good. That is the advice I would want them to bear in mind as they attempt to settle this issue." [Read more]

Also see:

EU Backs Proposals for New UN Rights Council

States should transcend national concerns
to agree on Human Rights Council: Eliasson

Human rights: A needed UN reform

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Paper Chase: "EU supports UN rights council proposal despite US opposition - The 25-member European Union (EU) has issued a statement of support for a draft resolution [PDF text; JURIST report] proposing a new UN Human Rights Council to replace the generally-discredited Human Rights Commission, which has been severely criticized for not preventing rights violators from using their membership to protect one another from censure."

Sudan Watch: "Feb 28 2006 Bloomberg report reveals the UN's top envoy to Sudan Jan Pronk said intelligence shows there are "persons in Khartoum who were not there before," meaning al-Qaeda terrorists who have threatened his life and would act against any UN troops, particularly non-Africans."

Jurist Forum: "The Iran Nuclear Standoff: Legal Issues - JURIST Guest Columnist Daniel Joyner of the University of Warwick School of Law in the United Kingdom says that now that Iran has been referred to the UN Security Council over its nuclear program, some Council action under Chapter VII of the UN Charter seems likely, but it's difficult to see what would come of that use of authority other than international armed conflict."

African Update: "Various media sources have recently reported that Jan Pronk, the United Nations' special envoy in Sudan, believes that there is a strong and growing anti-UN and anti-NATO sentiment in Khartoum which has been fueled by fear of a "conspiracy against the Arab-Islamic world." Recently Sudan's president Omar el-Bashir was sounding very much like pre-invasion Saddam Hussein when he said that Darfur would become a "graveyard" for any foreign military contingent that entered the region without his government's approval. So if the UN (or NATO) can get past these hurdles and deploy troops in Darfur with a mandate to stop the violence what will happen? Will it truly become a "graveyard" as President Bashir says? Will Jihad be unleashed on the troops there and on the countries that sent those troops? ... Let"s hope not. Let's hope that rationality and a general worldwide distaste for genocide rule the day."

Mental Meanderings: "The controversy about the new Human Rights Council in the United Nations continues unabated. The new Council is proposed to replace the Human Rights Commission which has already been discussed here. The US has confirmed that they will oppose the format of the new Council, mainly because the danger of human rights offenders being elected to the Council continues unabated in the absence of the requirement for a two-thirds majority vote for membership. I challenge anyone to find an international institution that is absolutely perfect. I equally challenge anyone to find a nation state that does not violate human rights standards. However I would wager that the vast majority of states have improved their compliance with human rights standards by means of the UN and it is through a marriage of the world's two dominant discources: security and rights: that further development can be secured."

"The average age of sexual debut is just 12, according to government research. In a few traditional communities, girls are forced to have sex with older men as part of rites initiating them into adulthood. But most have their first experience with a friend or relative.

Girls who have lost one or both parents to HIV/Aids are especially vulnerable to exploitation. In cities like Blantyre, it is not unusual for them to have several "boyfriends" who support them, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) in Malawi. This in turn exposes them to the risk of infection with HIV, the virus that causes Aids.

Some older men will marry young girls after their wives die of HIV/Aids because they believe sex with a virgin will "cleanse" them, says Banda. It is also traditional in some cultures for a man to marry his wife's younger sister if she dies." [Full story]