"Mr. Annan said it is crucial that the Council preserves and strengthens what he called its "crown jewel" - the system of Special Procedures, or rapporteurs, independent experts and working groups tasked with examining a specific area of human rights.

"It has long since been recognized in theory, and increasingly also in practice, that the rule of law cannot be left to the discretion of governments, no matter how democratically elected they may be." The Secretary-General said the area most in need of innovation is the organization of the universal periodic review, a peer review mechanism. More

In his latest Sports Illustrated column Rick Reilly reports on his trip to Nigeria to distribute the first round of anti-malaria bed nets, bought from money raised by the Nothing But Nets campaign.

According to Reilly, the nets have had an immediate impact on the health and well being of some communities. "One hospital in Nigeria," writes Reilly, "is saying that since the nets went up, outpatient cases of malaria have dropped from 80 a month to 50."

The nets work. Help spread the word.

"Ban Ki-moon, who will fill Kofi Annan's shoes at the helm of the United Nations, has been described in the media as "uncharismatic" and a "career diplomat". But a former colleague believes such criticism could not be further from the truth." More

"United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday during a speech at Princeton University that there is an urgent need to confront the danger of nuclear weapons, and both disarmament and nonproliferation must be pursued simultaneously to achieve progress on either front.

"We are asleep at the controls of a fast-moving aircraft. Unless we wake up and take control, the outcome is all too predictable," Annan said. "We cannot choose between nonproliferation and disarmament. We must tackle both tasks with the urgency they demand." More

In the course of a two and a half hour press conference, Sudanese President Omar al Bashir rejected UN command of a hybrid AU-UN force for Darfur, saying he would only accept African Troops under African leadership. Bashir also gave an impossibly low mortality estimate - 9,000 - as the number of people who have died as a result of the conflict in Darfur. These comments could be a serious setback to the quick deployment of an effective peacekeeping force to Darfur.

Peter Gantz of Refugees International astutely dissects the present situation in an essay posted on his organization's website. In the face of Sudanese obstructionism, writes Gantz, the United Nations should remain steadfast to its commitment for an effective force in Darfur. But for that to happen, member states must back up the UN and not allow Sudan to dictate the terms of deployment of a hybrid force.

As Gantz writes, Sudan has the upper hand at the moment. And their diplomatic tactics may be aimed at making sure that a force for Darfur remains weak. This kind of obstructionism can only be overcome through the concerted efforts of member states concerned for the safety and stability of the region.

"New research says if the world acts now to decisively contain the AIDS pandemic, 28 million lives could be saved by 2030.... AIDS accounts for about 2.8 (m) million deaths every year.

But in a paper, two researchers with the World Health Organization estimate at least 117 (m) million people will die from AIDS by 2030.

Global mortality projections were last calculated a decade ago. At the time, researchers assumed the AIDS outbreak would start declining around the year 2000. One of the researchers, Dr. Colin Mathers, says what happens in the future depends very much on what the international community does now." More

"United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed the mutual ceasefire reached in the Gaza Strip at the weekend, but expressed deep concern that Palestinian militants have continued to fire rockets towards civilian targets inside Israel.

In a statement released by his spokesman, Mr. Annan said "such attacks underscore the destructive power that militants have to derail the crucial efforts under way to de-escalate tensions." More

In the Pittsburgh Tribune Review an interview with anti-UN activist Nathan Tabor quickly descends into bizarre conspiracy mongering. Tabor, who authored a book called The Beast on the East River: The U.N. Threat to America's Sovereignty and Security, tells the Tribune Review that the United Nations has effectively taken control of American National Parks.

I think this would be news to Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne, so let's review Tabor's claims.

"The Statue of Liberty, Yellowstone National Park, the Great Smoky Mountains, the Liberty Bell, Mt. Vernon are all under control of the United Nations."

Q: We hear about this all the time on the right-wing talk shows -- that the U.N. is taking over the national parks. How would you prove that to someone?

"I would direct them, hopefully, to buy my book. But if not, go to Google and search "world heritage sites." This was a treaty in 1972. It was UNESCO's Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Culture and National Heritage. This was ratified by the United States. Currently, there are 812 properties in 137 nations. This is what it says on its Web site: "World heritage sites belong to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are located."

Q: There's nothing that has been implemented? No U.N. blue helmets at Yellowstone?

"No, not yet. But if you go to Yellowstone there are plaques that say this is a world heritage site designated by the United Nations." (emphasis mine)

So there you have it: A UNESCO plaque at Yellowstone is evidence of the UN's perfidious trampling of American sovereignty. And according to Tabor, after plaques come blue-helmets.

Tabor later claims that then-President Clinton cited Yellowstone's UNESCO designation to prevent the opening of a gold mine on property near Yellowstone. That may be true, but an American president citing UNESCO to stop a mine near an endangered national park is hardly evidence that the UN dictated this decision. Actually, it is evidence that the American president, not the United Nations, directs policy on National Parks.

That should go without saying, but for someone who seems to think that the UN blue helmets may someday be stationed at Yellowstone, you never know.

"U.N. peacekeepers in Congo on Monday blocked an advance against an eastern city by soldiers loyal to a renegade general as the Supreme Court prepared to deliver its verdict on a contested presidential election result.

Indian troops, part of the world's biggest U.N. peacekeeping force deployed in Democratic Republic of Congo, went into action against soldiers loyal to dissident General Laurent Nkunda who moved towards the provincial capital Goma, an officer said." More

BBC: "UN investigators in the Democratic Republic of Congo say they have found mass graves with about 30 bodies in an army camp in the east of the country.

The dead included women and children who appeared to have been murdered, a UN spokesman said. He believed they had disappeared in the last few months."

"The number of Iraqi civilians killed in October reached a new high of 3,709, the influence of armed militias is growing, and torture continues to be rampant despite the Government's commitment to address human rights abuses, according to the latest United Nations rights report on the strife-torn country." More

Yesterday, Andrew Natsios and Jean-Marie Guehenno told an audience at the Brookings Institution that the next six weeks were period of crucial importance to Darfur. Their remarks came three days after Sudanese representatives to peace talks held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia agreed in principle to a hybrid United Nations-African Union force for Darfur, but said they needed time to consult with their leaders in Khartoum.

Echoing the sentiments of Natsios and Geuhenno, Kofi Annan said the agreement in Addis Ababa could be a "turning point." Speaking to reporters in Geneva today, Annan also said that he expects a response from Khartoum "today, or latest tomorrow." Meanwhile, Sudan has expelled one of the largest aid organizations in South Darfur, the Norwegian Refugee Council, accusing it of "espionage."

The situation is quite clearly fragile. This could be a moment of considerable progress for international efforts to bring human rights and rule of law to Darfur, or it could presage the total collapse of humanitarian operations in Darfur - a consequence of which Jan Egeland has said could result in as many as 100,000 deaths per month. How Khartoum responds to the Secretary General will give us a good indication of which track we can expect.

"The global HIV epidemic is growing, leaving an estimated 39.5 million people worldwide infected with the deadly virus, the United Nations said Tuesday. AIDS has claimed 2.9 million lives this year and another 4.3 million people became infected with HIV, according to the U.N.'s AIDS epidemic update report, published on Tuesday. Spread of the disease was most noticeable in East Asia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia." More

This morning, Presidential Special Envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios and Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guehenno spoke at a Brookings Institution forum on the next steps for Darfur. Their remarks come at a critical time. Late last week, the Sudanese government and representatives of major international actors including the United Nations, the African Union, China, and the United States met in Addis Ababa to discuss the possibility of a hybrid UN-AU force for Darfur.

The speakers' comments were at once hopeful and distressing; hopeful because both officials saw progress in Addis Ababa, but distressing because of a rapidly closing six week time period in which to seize on this apparent progress.

According to Natsios and Geuhenno, during the Addis Ababa negotiations last week the government of Sudan signaled that they agreed in principal to the hybrid AU-UN force proposed by the Secretary General and endorsed by the Security Council in Resolution 1706. As envisioned by 1706, the hybrid force would essentially be a joint AU-UN force that would support the political side of the peace process and offer more robust civilian protection than the AU is capable of doing on its own. It may also be a prelude to a full UN force called for by the same resolution.

Khartoum's apparent willingness to consent to the hybrid force is a positive step, and according to Guehenno may portend a shift in Khartoum's strategic thinking about the crisis in Darfur. For his part, Natsios offered praise for the Secretary General, "whose leadership really showed." Natsios also complimented the Chinese for intervening at key moments and helping to keep the discussion positive.

However, as Geuhenno and Natsios repeated throughout the conference, the diplomatic window to sustain this progress is closing. On January first, the mandate of the 7,000 African Union troops in Darfur is set to expire. (Next week, the African Union will have a critical meeting do decide next steps for the force.) Also on January first, Ban Ki-moon becomes the new Secretary General. This will usher a transitional phase that may present challenges to UN operations throughout the world, including Darfur. Because of both these looming deadlines, Geuhenno and Natsios insisted that these next six weeks are of urgent importance and that Khartoum must take concrete steps toward making the hybid force a reality in Darfur.

We will know in six weeks if promises made in Addis Ababa were sincere. For the sake of non-combatants in Darfur, I certainly hope so.

"Stressing that "the horror of biological weapons is shared by all," United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called for a comprehensive strategy that will tackle the possibility of such arms falling into the hands of terrorists....

Mr. Annan noted that he had already proposed the convening of a forum that would bring together the various stakeholders - industry, science, public health, governments, and the public - to ensure that biotechnology's advances continue to be used for the benefit of humanity while the risks are managed." More

Reuters: "The United States is the biggest source of greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels, and Bush's decision to reject caps under the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol discourages involvement by other big-polluting outsiders such as China and India.

After two weeks of talks, about 70 environment ministers in Nairobi agreed on Friday to a 2008 review of Kyoto as a possible prelude to deeper emission cuts by rich nations beyond 2012 and steps by developing countries to brake rising emissions....

Several senior delegates at the U.N. talks say 2010 now looks the most likely date for a new global pact to replace Kyoto. "We'd love a deadline of 2008 or 2009 but that looks unlikely unless Bush has a change of heart," one said.

Environmentalists want a 2008 deadline. "Technically it's still not impossible," said Hans Verolme, climate director of the WWF conservation group. "The planet cannot wait."

Developing countries say rich states must lead the way -- China told Kyoto nations to makes pledges to cut their emissions in 2008 or 2009." More

"The Sudanese government on Thursday agreed in principle to allow a joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force into the war-stricken Darfur region, reversing its longstanding refusal to let United Nations troops in.

The agreement, reached after a day of talks with United Nations officials in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, raised hopes for a more effective peacekeeping effort in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed in brutal ethnic and tribal warfare since 2003. A small African Union peacekeeping force has been unable to quell the violence." More

"The head of the United Nations body mandated to protect press freedom today deplored the murder of yet one more Iraqi journalist, saying it was vital to bring an end to "the outrageous campaign of bloodshed" against media professionals in the violence-racked country." More

BBC: "A package of measures, including an enhanced peacekeeping force, aimed at solving the Darfur crisis are to be discussed at UN-led talks in Ethiopia.

Plans for a hybrid African Union (AU)-UN force are among proposals being considered after Sudan refused to allow a UN force to replace AU troops there."

On Sunday, the world's top humanitarian official met one of the world's worst war criminals in a remote jungle outpost on the Congo-Sudan border. Jan Egeland, the UN Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator met Joseph Kony, leader of the brutal Lord's Resistance Army, in the depths of the jungle in an effort to promote peace in the devastated region.

The two men are a study in contradiction. Egeland, who is resigning in January, has devoted his long diplomatic career to preserving life. Meanwhile, Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has spent just as long waging a merciless rebellion in Northern Uganda. The main victims of the LRA are the abducted children who make up the rank and file of the army and serve as sex slaves to their commanders. Those children in northern Ugandan villages who have been lucky enough to avoid the LRA do so by "night commuting" from their villages to relatively safer confines of larger towns and IDP camps. Tens of thousands of children avoid abduction this way.

In October, the International Criminal Court issued its first ever indictment against Kony. And since then, there has been a slow, but positive march toward peace. In August, the LRA and the Government of Uganda signed a ceasefire, which is more or less holding. The ceasefire is being supported by the UN, mainly through the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS). According to the Security Council Report, as a result of the cessation of hostilities and the improvement in the humanitarian situation, 300,000 internally displaced persons are reported to have begun returning to northern Uganda.

Still, the cease-fire remains tenuous. Egeland's meeting was an attempt to secure the release of some abducted children as a sign of good faith and relay messages between the fugitive Kony and the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni. And it should be noted that this trip came at great personal risk to the Egeland. Egeland flew to a remote outpost in South Sudan and with a small security team, then drove deep into the jungle to wait for Kony. When Kony arrived, he came with an entourage carrying rifles affixed with bayonets. And according to this Times (UK) report Kony behaved erratically as if he was on drugs.

The Council is expected to consider a Presidential statement on the situation in Uganda in the next few days. The timing is good, for the conflict is closer to resolution than it has ever been. What is needed now is strong international commitment to facilitate a lasting peace.

"Elements of Sri Lanka's security forces are helping a breakaway rebel group abduct children to fight the separatist Tamil Tigers, while the rebels themselves continue to use child soldiers in their conflict against the Government, a United Nations adviser has said after a 10-day assessment mission to the strife-torn country. "It is increasingly clear that children are at risk from all sides," Allan Rock, the Special Adviser to the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict on Sri Lanka said yesterday." More

A couple of weeks back, we told the story behind the creation of Nothing But Nets, a grassroots campaign asking people to donate $10 toward the purchase of bed nets to combat malaria. Today, Nothing But Nets officially goes online.

WASHINGTON, DC (November 14, 2006) - The United Nations Foundation (UN Foundation) announced today the launch of Nothing But Nets - a grassroots campaign asking individuals to donate $10 to "send a net, save a life." Each $10 donation pays for an insecticide-treated bed net, distributes it to a family in need in Africa, and provides education on its proper use to prevent malaria. Founding partners of the campaign are NBA Cares, The People of the United Methodist Church, and Sports Illustrated.

This campaign was created after Sports Illustrated (SI) columnist Rick Reilly's May 5, 2006, column, "Nothing But Nets," raised $1.2 million. More than 120,000 bed nets have already been delivered in Nigeria as a result of Reilly's call to readers who had "ever cut down a net, jumped over a net, watched the New Jersey Nets, worn a hair net, surfed the net, or thought of Angelina Jolie in fishnets" to donate $10 to purchase insecticide-treated nets.

"Send a net. Save a life. It's that simple," said Andrea Gay, Director of Children's Health Programs at the UN Foundation and Program Director for Nothing But Nets. "Malaria is a leading cause of death in Africa and one of the most preventable diseases world-wide. We know that together we can stop the spread of malaria in a simple, easy, and affordable way."

Malaria is a disease that infects nearly 500 million people each year and kills more than one million of those who become infected. Malaria can be prevented through a simple, inexpensive measure: sleeping each night under a net treated with insecticides that kill mosquitoes or stop them from biting.

"Once you learn about the devastating effects of malaria, how this disease contributes to global poverty, and how easy it is to prevent, it is hard not to get involved," said Kathy Behrens, Senior Vice President of Community and Player Programs for the National Basketball Association. "Our teams, players, and the league are firmly committed to this campaign."

"We're excited about our involvement in this campaign. The People of the United Methodist Church have been in mission across Africa for more than 160 years," said United Methodist Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton of Pittsburgh. "Our work in the area of malaria prevention made Nothing But Nets a natural partner for us. There are many ways to stop the spread of malaria, but buying a bed net for a family in Africa is something that almost everyone can do. We hope that everyone will join us and our other partners in support of this effort."

Several global agencies of The United Methodist Church will launch supporting campaigns to educate and raise money for bed nets. The church is creating a special Web page through www.UMC.org in conjunction with www.NothingButNets.net. The People of the United Methodist Church are making Nothing But Nets a focal point of their youth outreach program. The efforts will culminate at the Youth 2007 gathering in Greensboro, N.C., in July 2007. More than 10,000 young people are expected to attend this event.

"This is the all-time no-brainer," said SI's Rick Reilly. "No governments to topple, no disease to cure, no warlords to fight. Ten bucks puts a net over a kid -- sometimes two and three kids -- and saves their lives. For the price of a new CD, you just saved two lives. It's such a good feeling; the country is starting to get behind it. And that's a very cool net result."

Rick Reilly visited Nigeria the week of November 6, 2006, and his follow-up column on the campaign will appear in the December 4 issue of Sports Illustrated, which will appear on newsstands on or around November 28.

To distribute the nets throughout communities in Africa throughout 2007 and 2008, Nothing But Nets has partnered with the Measles Initiative -- an integrated health campaign whose partners include the American Red Cross, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the UN Foundation. The Measles Initiative is one of the most successful vaccination efforts ever. The campaign will also fund education on the use of bed nets.

Additional partners for the campaign include AOL Black Voices, Malaria No More, and VH-1. To learn more about Nothing But Nets, visit www.NothingButNets.net.

CNN: "Human trafficking, including women forced to become prostitutes or minors forced to do child labor, is worse now than the trade in African slaves of past centuries, a top Vatican official said on Tuesday.

"This trafficking in human beings has intensified, persons put into slavery because they depend on certain criminals who take possession of these human beings," said Cardinal Renato Martino, former longtime Vatican envoy to the United Nations and current head of the Holy See's office concerned with migrant and itinerant peoples."

More here

At various times, blogs like Atlas Shrugs and Michelle Malkin hurl sundry invectives at the UN and its Secretary General for allegedly coddling terrorists in Lebanon. Invariably, these criticisms are always more bluster than fact-based, so I am hardly surprised that these two have been silent on a recent positive development in Lebanon.

The Lebanese government just approved a draft statute of a UN backed court to try the killers of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Harriri. Details of the Tribunal's composition have not yet been released, but it is likely to be a hybrid court led by a combination of Lebanese and international jurists. It is also likely to build on the fact-finding missions of United Nations official inquiry into the car-bombing that killed Harriri and 22 others in February 2005.

The draft statute passed in the Lebanense Cabinet after representatives from the main pro-Syrian parties resigned earlier in the day. And if it gets off the ground, this tribunal will represent yet another way in which the United Nations is promoting transparency and long-term stability in the region.

BBC: "Lebanon's cabinet has approved draft UN plans for setting up an international tribunal to try suspects in the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Syria has been implicated in the bombing that killed Mr Hariri in February 2005, but denies involvement."

"They are dubbed the 'climate canaries' - the people destined to become the first victims of world climate change. And as government ministers sit down in Nairobi at [the] UN Climate Conference, the people most likely to be wiped out by devastating global warming will be only a few hundred miles away from their deliberations.

Those people, according to research commissioned by the charity Christian Aid, will be the three million pastoralists of northern Kenya, whose way of life has sustained them for thousands of years but who now face eradication. Hundreds of thousands of these seasonal herders have already been forced to forsake their traditional culture and settle in Kenya's north eastern province following consecutive droughts that have decimated their livestock in recent years." More

"Two Jordanian UN peacekeepers have been shot dead in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, UN officials say. The soldiers are reported to have come under attack near Cite Soleil, a slum where armed street gangs are based." More

My french may be a bit rusty, but I can't help but think that the outrage in this Martin Peretz post is a bit misplaced. At issue is a Ban Ki-moon interview in Le Monde in which Mr Ban says (roughly) that the United Nations should be more responsive to the needs of its member states.

Any casual UN observer knows that this is a wholly uncontroversial statement. It is perhaps the equivalent of a new football coach saying he looks forward to working with his players.

As a platform for promoting international peace and security, the United Nations is obviously more effective when member states are actively engaged. And it also goes without saying that Ban couldn't get anything done without the support of the member states. Still, this innocous statement sets Peretz off on a rambling UN-bashing tirade. Apparently, Peretz - who owns the bi-weekly New Republic - has already decided not to like Ban Ki-moon.

For the record, Mr. Ban does not take office until New Year's day.

BBC News: "A new report from the United Nations Development Programme has demanded a big increase in spending to provide clean water. The UNDP wants another $4bn a year spent, and says that water has not received the attention it deserves.

Water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea kill far more people than HIV/Aids and malaria combined, it said. And the difference is particularly stark for children: water-borne diseases kill five times as many children as HIV/Aids.

The report says that water is a key part of human development - and warns that, in particular, sub-Saharan Africa is lagging behind the rest of the world in the provision of basic services."

As Congress prepares to switch majority parties in January, it may be useful to think about how this shift could affect US-UN relations. Initially, perhaps the most identifiable consequence of the election may be that it delivered a death knell to Congressional threats to force United Nations reform by withholding UN dues.

The latest permutation of this effort came in 2005 when the House passed the so-called "United Nations Reform Act" championed by the retiring Chair of the House International Relations Committee, Henry Hyde. The bill passed House largely on party lines, but was opposed by the Bush administration. It has since languished in the Senate.

At the time, Tom Lantos, the minority leader of the House International Relations Committee, opposed the legislation (he compared it to "a guillotine on autopilot.") Instead, he and Republican Christopher Shays offered a substitute to the bill that reaffirmed the need for UN reform, but tempered down the threats to withhold payment.

When the new Congress takes office in January, Lantos will likely become Chair of the House International Relations Committee. This is a powerful position for setting US priorities with the United Nations. And while Lantos has historically shared his Republican predecessor's goals for UN reform, he has opposed threatening to withhold dues as a tactic to achieve reform. For the time being, I think it is safe to say that parochial bills intended to strong arm the UN will have a less receptive audience in the House International Relations Committee.

"Norway, Iceland, Australia, Ireland and Sweden rank as the best five countries to live in but Africa's quality of life has plummeted because of AIDS, said a U.N. report released on Thursday.

The United States was ranked in eighth place, after Canada and Japan, in the report that rates not only per-capita income but also educational levels, health care and life expectancy in measuring a nation's well-being.

The Human Development Index, prepared by the U.N. Development Program, has been issued annually since 1990 and includes every country for which statistics are available.

Unsurprisingly, the countries at the top of the list are high income nations as people in richer countries tend to be healthier and have more educational opportunities." More

"A campaign to plant a billion trees within a year was launched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, today in a bid to encourage all sectors of society, from concerned citizens to philanthropic corporations, to take small but practical steps to combat what is probably the key challenge of the 21st century.

"Action does not need to be confined to the corridors of the negotiation halls," UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner said, noting that intergovernmental talks on tackling climate change can often be difficult, protracted and sometimes frustrating, especially for those looking on." More

"Panama got 164 votes in the 192-member UN General Assembly, more than the 120 needed to win a two-year term starting Jan. 1 on the UN's most powerful body. Venezuela got 11 votes, Guatemala got 4 and Barbados got 1." More

"Global warming is threatening archaeological sites from Peru to Egypt as well as natural wonders such as the Caribbean's largest coral reef, a U.N. report said on Tuesday.

Heritage sites linked to thousands of years of civilization "may by virtue of climate change very well not be available to future generations," said Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Program." More

"The United Nations has welcomed a probe by Sri Lanka's government into a series of extrajudicial killings and disappearances amid a new chapter of the island's civil war, but is concerned it could be hampered.... The government announced on Monday the probe into a series of killings, including the assassination of the foreign minister and dozens of troops and civilians by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels, as well as the massacre of 17 aid workers which Nordic truce monitors have pinned on the security forces." More

Despite its proximity to American shores, the conflict and UN peacekeeping operation in Haiti receives little media attention in the American press. Seldom is the question asked: "Could the United States be doing more in Haiti?"

However, despite being buffered from Haiti by the United States, the same cannot be said for the Canadian press. Sunday's Toronto Star asks that very question and features a series of in-depth articles that probe the wisdom of Canada's relatively sparse contributions to the United Nations force established to help local authorities battle urban gangs and put the impoverished nation back on its feat. The force, known in the French acronym as MINUSTAH, used to have a significant number of Canadian troops. But these troops have since redeployed elsewhere. Now, the only Canadians in MINUSTAH are a small contingent of civilian police advisors known as UNPOL.

UNPOL is operating 30% below capacity in Haiti, yet the country remains plagued by urban crime and vigilantism. This has caused some officials interviewed for the Star article to call for more Canadian personnel and troop contributions to MINUSTAH:

"Carlo Dade, an analyst with the Canadian Association of the Americas, known by its French acronym FOCAL, has just returned from Haiti. He says he believes there is a lack of urgency at the RCMP to get officers down to the country and he believes Canada has underestimated the task at hand...'A problem in Haiti is going to show up in Montreal.'"

What is true for Montreal is also true for Miami, Boston, and many other cities with large diaspora communities. Haiti is just miles from the U.S. shores. And with American and Canadian troops extended elsewhere overseas, Ottawa and Washington have effectively outsourced the stabilization of their neighbor to the United Nations. In the long run, the price that North America would have to pay should Haiti experience a total collapse makes MINUSTAH a bargain.

"Africa could suffer greater effects from global warming than previously feared, the United Nations said yesterday, with the risk of widespread coastal flooding, substantial loss of animal habitat and lower cereal yields all likely in coming decades.

In a report published on the eve of a key climate change conference opening in Nairobi today, environmentalists gave warning that the continent needed help in dealing with a problem created by the industrialised world." Full story

Read more about the UN's climate conference here

And here:

.

Yesterday the Carter Center announced that the run-off Presidential election held on October 29, 2006, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was "extremely orderly and peaceful" and "very well executed." This is a remarkable piece of good news for the inhabitants of this war torn country and those of the entire region, which has been destabilized for more than a decade due to almost non-stop cross-border clashes. And it is an example of one of the myriad ways in which the United Nations is fostering peace and prosperity around the world.

The run-off on Monday was the third successful election held this year in the Congo, which had not, prior to July, had a free election in over 46 years and has been embroiled for over a decade in a conflict that may have killed up to 4 million people. While there have been a number of factors that have made these elections possible, there can be no question that the United Nations played a central role. The Congolese have received massive amounts of support from the UN's peacekeeping mission in the DRC (MONUC) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

MONUC and UNDP have helped register 26 million Congolese to vote at 9,000 registration sites. Voter registration kits were distributed to every village by light aircraft, by truck, by canoe, and by hand to overcome infrastructural difficulties in this massive country. Despite being the size of Western Europe, the Congo has only 300 miles of paved roads. And, it has one of the absolute lowest per capita GDPs in the world.

The UNDP Electoral Assistance Program undertook a widespread civic education program, which included plays, musical performances, classes, and films, to educate the 23rd largest electorate in the world, which is predominately illiterate and had never participated in an election. UNDP also delivered over 30 million ballots and other technical equipment to over 50,000 polling stations.

There is no doubt that the road to lasting peace in this complex nation is long and uncertain. But the Carter Center's stamp of approval certainly bodes well for the possibility of forward movement and makes a strong argument for the power of the UN as a stabilizing factor in some of the world's most hostile and complicated situations.

After over forty rounds of voting, neither Guatemala nor Venezuela will join the Security Council. Rather, Latin American member states have nominated Panama as a compromise candidate.

Far from causing a meltdown in the General Assembly, this long drawn out series of votes shows that the system is healthy; the main deliberative organ of the United Nations can survive a heated contest between some of the most influential member states, and emerge stronger from it. As Delegates Lounge predicted two weeks ago, the process worked.

"Condemning the recent militia attacks in Sudan's strife-torn West Darfur region that killed scores of civilians, reportedly including young children, and forced thousands more to flee, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called on all sides to respect humanitarian law and appealed to the Government to prevent such violence.

"The Secretary-General condemns the large-scale militia attacks in the Jebel Moon area... on 29 and 30 October. The attacks on eight civilian settlements, including a camp harbouring some 3,500 internally displaced persons, caused scores of civilian deaths and forced thousands to flee the area," Mr. Annan said in a statement attributable to his spokesman." More

"The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to shift power from Ivory Coast's president to its prime minister to guide the volatile West African nation to long-delayed elections within a year." More

NYT: "Venezuela and Guatemala agreed Wednesday to withdraw from their race for a seat on the United Nations Security Council and to support Panama as a candidate."

It's not often that a story in Sports Illustrated can have a direct impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in sub-Saharan Africa. But with an 815 word column in April, writer Rick Reilly kicked off a grassroots campaign to do just that.

Reilly's pitch was straightforward. Every thirty seconds, an African child dies from a malaria infection transmitted by a mosquito bite, making it the number-one killer of African children under five. So he implored his readers to send $10 donations to the United Nations Foundation to purchase mosquito nets to help protect families when most of the transmissions occur: at night when families are asleep.

The pitch was simple, and it worked. It really worked.

In a few short months, SI readers, little league teams, high school clubs and community groups began sending donations to the United Nations Foundation. Soon, some $1.2 million - much of it raised in $10 increments - had poured into UNF. As a result, some 120,000 insecticide treated bed nets were purchased.

The success of Reilly's campaign was, quite literally, overwhelming. So to help organize the incipient movement, and collect and distribute the donations, the United Nations Foundation, in partnership with Sports Illustrated, the NBA, and the People of the United Methodist Church, established a non-profit to handle the donations and keep the momentum going. Nothing But Nets was born.

Here's how it works: One net is durable enough to last as long as four years. The nets themselves cost about $7. A $10 donation covers the cost of the net, delivery, and installation. In some cases, parents and children may sleep under one net. Importantly, there are no overhead costs for Nothing But Nets - the United Nations Foundation pays for that.

The first nets were recently delivered in Nigeria. Reilly is traveling there to visit families and with staff from the World Health Organization and the Measles Initiative to check out how the nets are used.

In the meantime, you can click here to donate ten bucks.

"North Korea said Wednesday that it was returning to nuclear disarmament talks to get access to its frozen overseas bank accounts, a vital source of hard currency.... In Washington, Bush cautiously welcomed Tuesday's deal and thanked the Chinese for brokering it. But he said the agreement would not sidetrack U.S. efforts to enforce sanctions adopted by the U.N. Security Council to punish Pyongyang for the nuclear test. Those measures ban the North's weapons trade and other items such as luxury goods." More