There should be a flurry of Security Council activity on Kosovo in the next week or two. In March, Martti Ahtisaari, the UN's top diplomat for the "future status process" of Kosovo recommended the province's independence from Serbia. Russia, a traditional ally of Serbia, balked at this suggestion and instead recommended that the Security Council send a fact-finding mission to Kosovo--a move some saw as a delaying tactic.

When that mission returned yesterday, American officials reiterated their strong support for Kosovo's independence. "We hope that Russia understands that Kosovo is going to be independent one way or another," Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried told Reuters. "It will either be done in a controlled, supervised way that provides for the well-being of the Serbian people, or it will take place in an uncontrolled way and the Kosovo Serbs will suffer the most, which would be terrible."

Should the debate in the Security Council remain intractably stalled, Kosovo's ethnic Albanian government may unilaterally declare independence from Serbia. And if Kosovo declares independence without formal UN approval, European Union member states will be divided over whether or not to formally recognize Kosovo. Given that the E.U. ponies up much of the cash to support Kosovo reconstruction, a potential E.U. split could seriously disrupt reconstruction efforts.

So even though the diplomacy is tough, the UN route is really the only option for Kosovo. As Dan Fried remarked, "I see absolutely no advantage to doing this any other way than through a Security Council resolution. I see merely disadvantages. The alternatives are all worse."

Last week, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with former United States Vice President Al Gore to discuss climate change.

In his meeting, Ban said he was "very much encouraged by his firm commitment, as well as voluntary willingness to help the cause of the United Nations" regarding global warming. Ban also noted that he hopes to work closely with Gore to mobilize countries and "enhance the awareness of the international community with this issue."

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The United Nations refugee chief has pledged to step up efforts to improve local access to water in the Darfur region.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres toured areas adjacent to the Sudanese-Chadian border and met with African Union (AU) officials in West Darfur yesterday, the third day of his visit to Sudan.

An estimated 25,000 Chadians have sought refuge in West Darfur, despite the conflict in that part of Sudan, because of fighting across eastern Chad in recent months between rebels and Government forces.

Guterres acknowledged the vital importance of water to everyone living in the area and promised that UNHCR would do all it could to find better solutions for the refugees.

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About 100,000 tons of World Food Program aid is being held at the Port of Sudan by government officials who contend that the food is genetically modified. The food aid is mostly sorghum wheat donated by the United States and meant for distribution in Darfur.

According to the WFP it has been certified by independent laboratories as not genetically modified.

"We had it tested by a French laboratory along with Canadian split peas which the Sudanese are also objecting to, and neither food consignment is GM. In any case, there is no GM sorghum on the market, it doesn't exist," said the WFP's Caroline Hurford.

News of the hold up comes as the new head of the WFP, former U.S. Undersecretary of State for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs Josette Sheeran, visited Sudan on Wednesday. Perhaps Khartoum seeks to embarrass a key member state pushing for UN peacekeepers in Darfur. Whatever the reason, a responsible government would not hold hostage aid intended to feed their own citizens.

According to the latest United Nations human rights report on Iraq, large-scale killings and targeted assassinations continue to impede efforts to bring lasting stability and security to Iraq.

Although Government officials declared a drop in the number of killings in late February after the Baghdad Security Plan was launched, the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) says the number of reported casualties rose again in March.

UNAMI also voiced concern regarding the handling of suspects arrested as part of the Plan. The new procedures "contained no explicit measures guaranteeing minimum due process rights." Rather, the report argues, "they authorized arrests without warrants and the interrogation of suspects without placing a time limit on how long they could be held in pre-trial detention."

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by Elizabeth McKee
Director, Nothing But Nets

Today, April 25th, is the first time the United States will officially observe National Malaria Awareness Day. The President is hosting an event at the White House to commemorate what has been celebrated by the rest of the world as Africa Malaria Day since 2001. A forgotten disease that was eradicated in the United States, malaria affects over 500 million individuals a year, killing a child in Africa every 30 seconds.

The United Nations has made this issue a priority, listing it as one of the Millennium Development Goals and stating the need to halt and reverse the incidence of malaria. Shrinking Africa's economy by $12 billion a year, malaria is one of the main causes of poverty. Ironically, one of the most cost-effective and simple approaches to combat malaria is through the use of inexpensive insecticide-treated bed nets, which can prevent malaria transmission by at least 50 percent.

The President’s Malaria Initiative has pledged $1.2 billion to the prevention and treatment of malaria. The Global Fund has committed to $2.6 billion. My grandmother in Texas donated $10 to the prevention of malaria through Nothing But Nets. We all have a role to play and Nothing But Nets makes it simple for individuals to make a difference.

Nothing But Nets is a global, grassroots campaign to prevent malaria. Inspired by Sports Illustrated’s Rick Reilly, the Campaign was created by the United Nations Foundation in 2006. The National Basketball Association’s NBA Cares, The People of the United Methodist Church and Major League Soccer have joined the campaign and helped to raise over $5 million. A $10 donation covers the cost of purchasing, distributing and educating families on the proper use of a bed net.

Today the Campaign is kicking off a multi-city tour in Miami to bring the issue of malaria to Americans everywhere. Even American Idol is getting behind this issue through tonight’s unprecedented television special, Idol Gives Back. Tonight viewers will have the opportunity to make donations throughout the show.

You too can get involved by Sending a Net and Saving a Life. $10 saves a life, maybe two, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will match it dollar for dollar. After all, if the Secretary General, Simon Cowell, and my grandmother is behind this issue, you too can join in on this special day. Visit www.NothingButNets.net and donate your own life saving dollars.

The African Union (AU) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) have renewed their partnership to fight hunger and enhance food security, education and emergency response.

Their cooperation agreement was signed by African Union Commissioner Rosebud Kurwijila and WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran.

"The African Union is an important ally in our fight to ensure food security in Africa," said Ms. Sheeran during a two-day visit to Ethiopia, her first overseas mission as chief of WFP. She voiced hope that the partnership would serve as "the wind beneath our wings" in aiming to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving global hunger by 2015.

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Last week BBC news ran a five part special report, "Keeping the Peace," exploring various aspects of UN peacekeeping. The final installment contains and interesting Q and A with John Bolton and the head of UN peacekeeping Jean-Marie Geuhenno, who discuss the political utility of peacekeeping missions. In a second installment, reporter Patrick Jackson speaks with a number of South Asian soliders about their experiences overseas. Collectively, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, make up 40% of all UN peacekeepers deployed around the globe. As Jackson points out, UN missions are highly sought after assignments for these soldiers. (Not surprisingly, however, the soldiers tend to prefer deployments to Cyprus over Sudan.)

Yet another installment explores changing peacekeeping tactics forged in Democratic Republic of Congo and Haiti. In the last couple of years, these missions saw a new a new assertiveness in UN peacekeeping strategies that the Dutch General commanding peacekeepers in Eastern Congo described as the difference between being neutral and being impartial. "Being neutral means that you stand there and you say 'Well, I have nothing to do with it,'" Maj Gen Patrick Cammaert explained to Patrick Jackson. "While being impartial means that you stand there, you judge the situation as it is and you take charge." The whole series is well worth a read.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for an end to the violence in Somalia, where hundreds of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced to flee their homes.

"The Secretary-General is gravely concerned about the continuing heavy fighting in Mogadishu, which has reportedly killed more than 250 people and forced more than 320,000 from their homes in the past six days alone," spokesman Michele Montas told reporters in New York.

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The United Nations-sponsored International Compact for Iraq (ICI), which seeks to consolidate peace and pursue political, economic and social development, will be launched in Egypt early next month.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that he and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would attend the launch in Sharm el-Sheikh on 3 May.

The Compact is a five-year national plan that includes benchmarks and mutual commitments from both Iraq and the international community, all with the aim of helping Iraq on the path towards peace, sound governance and economic reconstruction.

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Over on her Pajamas Media outlet Claudia Rosett sets her sites on Unicef. The offense? Having the temerity to warn about a potential food shortage in North Korea thusly: "A potential food crisis faces the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, with serious flooding last year leading to a possible shortfall of 1 million to tons of grain, a fifth of total food requirement for 2007..."

According to Rosett, Unicef is worthy of our scorn because the children's aid organization should have blamed the government of Kim Jong Il for the shortage instead. She may have a point. Except for the fact that the very next paragraph of the UN News Center report to which she refers, says: "Meanwhile, far less food is coming into the country because of the Government's decision not to accept humanitarian aid, Unicef country representative Gopalan Balagopal said on a recent visit to his agency's headquarters in New York." (emphasis mine.) Rosett seems to have artfully excluded this point.

Of course, anyone with even a basic understanding of North Korea would understand the underlying reason behind the dire humanitarian situation. That said, it is important to note that Unicef, like most humanitarian organizations, serve in countries at the pleasure of the host government. Humanitarian aid is based on the principle that people need not starve to death or lack basic medical care just because they are citizens of an odious regime. Humanitarian organizations are therefore loathe to jeopardize their access to vulnerable populations by condemning host governments. So when Rosett beseeches Unicef to say, instead, that North Korea "faces potential food crisis due to murderous, wasteful, degrading, abusive tyranny of Kim Jong Il's regime," she is basically asking Unicef to sign its own eviction notice, North Korea's starving children be damned.

Actress Daryl Hannah was among the awardees.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recognized seven winners for its 'Champions of the Earth Award' at a ceremony in Singapore.

UNEP chief Achim Steiner, who presented the awards, said "If we are to shape a new partnership between human-kind and the natural environment upon which all life ultimately depends then we need leaders, we need champions - champions in public life, champions in business and champions in our communities."

For a list of the winners, click here.

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In North Korea and Iran, would-be proliferators are starting to think twice about their nuclear pursuits. In recent months, North Korea has agreed to a suspension of its nuclear program. And although the rhetoric in Tehran has continued to be unyielding, it appears that internal fissures are beginning to form in Iran's resistance to international efforts to curb its nuclear programs. After many miserable years, international non proliferation efforts seem to have received a welcome boost.

So what caused this turnabout? One common element may be the punitive sanctions imposed on these countries by a unified Security Council. This new installment of UNF Insights explains how Security Council sanctions have helped prod North Korea and Iran away from their nuclear ambitions and offers recommendations on how to strengthen international non-proliferation regimes

Perhaps the most disturbing detail to come out of this new UN report on Darfur are revelations that the Sudanese government has painted military planes and attack helicopters white, thereby disguising them as humanitarian aircraft. Some planes have even had "U.N." stenciled on their wings.

This is deeply problematic for two reasons. One, the types of airplanes used by the Sudanese military are not your typical bombers. Rather, they are Russian-made Antanovs, which are designed principally as transport planes. The Sudanese military, however, has refitted Anatanovs to function as bombers. So from a distance it is hard to make out whether a white transport plane belongs, say, to the World Food Program, or whether it is a refitted Antanov, armed to drop payloads filled with thousands of tiny shards of metal.

What makes this new development more troubling is that air transport is the main way that humanitarian organizations access Darfur. By disguising military aircraft, the Sudanese government may forestall efforts to enforce a ban on offensive military over-flights in Darfur. When governments or policy makers call for no-fly-zones over Darfur, humanitarian organizations can now rightly worry that their planes may be mistaken for military aircraft.

In a UNHCR-organized conference in Geneva, some 450 delegates met to discuss the nearly 4 million Iraqis who have fled their homes.

"There was truly a humanitarian spirit that allowed us to work together, to work together in a committed way for the same purpose - the people we care for, the Iraqis displaced inside and outside Iraq," UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) António Guterres told a concluding news conference after the two-day gathering that drew representatives of 60 nations.

There are some 1.9 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) inside Iraq and 2 million refugees abroad.

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Yesterday, for the first time, the UN Security Council addressed the issue of climate change, energy, and global security (video: part 1 | part 2). I sat in on the six-plus-hour open session, called by the British and led by British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett. Although the major news outlets focused on a disagreement between the G-77 and the developed world over the appropriateness of the venue, there were many other topics that were discussed that could have bearing on the way the world chooses to the face the effects of climate change.

The over-reported rift between the developed world and the G-77 and China was not centered on Climate Change but on the role of the Security Council. The G-77, wary of what the Deputy Perm Rep from Pakistan called "ever-increasing encroachment by the Security Council on the roles and responsibility of other principal organs of the UN," protested that the Security Council has, as the Chinese Perm Rep put it, "neither the professional competence in handling climate change -- nor is it the right decision-making place for extensive participation leading up to widely acceptable proposals," making the not invalid point that the make-up of the Security Council doesn't properly reflect the current global power structure.

Most of the developed world, led by the UK, made the following counter arguments. First, it's a broad problem, potentially devastating to the human race in a number of ways; it would be a disservice to the magnitude of the issue not to confront it on as many fronts as possible. And, second, it is clearly a security issue. Foreign Secretary Beckett said:

Recent scientific evidence has...given us a picture of the physical impacts on our world that we can expect as our climate changes. And those impacts go far beyond the environmental. Their consequences reach to the very heart of the security agenda. The consequences of flooding, disease and famine and from that migration on an unprecedented scale. The consequences of drought and crop-failure and from that intensified competition for food, water and energy. The consequences of economic disruption on the scale predicted in the Stern Report and not seen since the end of World War II.

Though this rift got a lot of attention, it was not nearly the most interesting thing to come out of yesterday's session.

True many (but not all) G-77 countries argued that climate change is a development issue not a security issue and expressed concern about the economic cost of adaptation, but it was almost universally agreed that it is a grave and global issue and one that has "left the global community with one option: international collective action" through the United Nations, as the representative from Qatar put it. In fact the sheer number of statements that were made (around 55, a record) point to how serious the world community is taking climate change. Even those who felt the Security Council was an inappropriate venue for this discussion took the opportunity yesterday to express their concerns about climate change and their commitment to adequately confronting it.

In fact, several Member States talked about effects of climate change that are already manifest in their countries. The representative from Ghana pointed to rising temperatures, which are contributing to drought and the expanding Sahara desert, and food shortages. The representative from Peru discussed shrinking glaciers in his nation and the effect on water supply. And the representative from Costa Rica talked about increased hurricanes and flooding.

That consensus was also reflected in the fact that nearly every Member State drew on the authority and findings of the IPCC report as a foundation for their remarks. This consensus among the world's climate scientists appears now to be developing into a consensus among world governments.

In a way, these facts alone mark the meeting as a success. The representatives from the UK, the Netherlands, and Panama mentioned a similar thematic session on HIV/AIDS held by the Security Council and the benefits that were reaped simply from developing consensus on the gravity of the threat and moving the issue "from the fringes into the mainstream."

Regardless of whether or not those effects are repeated in this instance, the international effort on climate change will certainly be bolstered by the Secretary-General Ban's commitment to the issue. During his remarks to the special session yesterday, the Secretary-General talked at length about the IPCC report, the scarcity of resources as a catalyst for conflict, and the importance of the "entire multilateral machinery" working together to mitigate the effects of climate change, as well as the importance of engagement with civil society and the private sector.

Although the consensus on the need for forward movement was clear, the way forward is a little more diffuse. Many in the developing world maintained that a Framework for addressing climate change already exists and that it is incumbent on the developed world to begin to do their share of emission cutting. "Common but differentiated" was repeated often. The representative from the Congo went so far as to say that, through the effects of climate change, the poor will pay "for the excess consumption and carefree attitude of the rich." Many developed nations, on the other hand, called for the immediate development of a successor regime to the Kyoto Protocol, which is set to expire in 2012, and action by the Secretary-General on hosting a world climate summit.

Regardless of which tactics are chosen, proponents of collective action on climate change should feel optimistic about yesterday's session. It appears as if a global consensus has been gained on the gravity of climate change.

The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) says that the escalating violence in Iraq combined with a shortage of health workers is putting severe pressure on the health of the Iraqi population.

A release from the WHO relays concern that health services will not be able to help the millions of people who have been displaced.

The government estimates that almost 70 per cent of critically injured patients with violence-related wounds die while in the Emergency and Intensive Care Units due to a shortage of competent staff and a lack of drugs and equipment, WHO said in a news release published in conjunction with a conference in Geneva being organized by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to address the needs of the nearly 4 million uprooted Iraqis.

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As news of Sudan's agreement to let some 3,000 UN troops into Darfur reached world capitols yesterday, officials were quick to caution that the deployment of these troops should not supplant the ulitmate goal of diplomacy toward Sudan. As the head of UN peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno warned, "The heavy support package, as its name indicates, is not the robust force that Darfur needs. It's a support package to lay the ground for a future robust force. It's a transition to a hybrid mission. That's how we see it." Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who was visiting Chad at the time, agrees. So do officials from the United Kingdom, which holds the Security Council presidency this month. Yesterday, Tony Blair threatened to pursue sanctions should Sudan renege on this most recent agreement, "We must be prepared, as the United Nations Security Council, if they do not agree to the U.N. package, to pass a strong resolution with sanctions in respect to the Sudanese government."

The story is still developing. Still, officials seem to be saying that this incremental step is useful only to the extent that it helps pave the way for the deployment of the full contingent of UN forces, called for by Security Council 1705.

Today the UN refugee agency opened an international conference on the humanitarian crisis facing nearly 4 million refugees and displaced people in Iraq. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres called for a sustained international response.

"The humanitarian dimension of the problem can no longer be overlooked...Almost 4 million Iraqis are watching us today. Their needs are as obvious as the moral imperative to help. All of us - representatives of governments, international organisations and civil society - are now compelled to act."

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During the Arab League summit in Riyadh two weeks ago, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah and Secretary General Ban Ki moon held extensive talks about the crisis in Darfur with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. At the time, the meeting was significant principally for the fact that it was one of the first times that a regional power like Saudi Arabia took interest in Darfur. Now, if news accounts prove accurate, it would seem that this meeting could have actually yielded an important breakthrough.

The official Saudi news agency reported last night that Bashir contacted King Abdullah to say that he has signed a joint agreement with the United Nations and African Union to delineate the respective roles of Sudan and the international organizations to resolve the crisis in Darfur. Details about the pledge are still sketchy. But if news reports this morning are accurate, Sudan has agreed to the so-called "phase 2" heavy support package that would let some 3,000 UN troops augment the AU force in Darfur.

To be sure, Bashir has backed away from similar pledges in the past, so his government should be judged by actions, not words. Also, while a hybrid AU-UN force would be an important development for Darfur, it is still an incremental step. The ultimate goal remains deploying the full compliment of 17,000 peacekeepers called for in Security Council Resolution 1706, passed in late August. Still, if today's apparent agreement helps that mission materialize, it would be a positive step.

The senior United Nations envoy to Iraq, the Secretary-General's Special Representative Ashraf Qazi, condemned weekend bombings which targeted hundreds of civilians.

Qazi "denounced in the strongest terms the bombings in Karbala, and Al Jaderyia Bridge in Baghdad on Saturday, 14 April, and Al-Ottaeefia neighborhood on Sunday, 15 April, which caused the death and injury of more than two hundred innocent civilians."

Mr. Qazi described these wanton acts of deliberate violence against men, women and children while going about their daily lives as "heinous."

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Nothing But Nets has been nominated for a "Webby Award" for excellence on the internet. NBN is the anti-malaria campaign sponsored by a number of organizations, including the NBA and the United Nations Foundation. It is up for the award in the Charitable Organizations / Nonprofits category and faces stiff competition from the the Denver Zoo.

Click here to register to vote for Nothing But Nets. And as always, donate $10 to send an anti-malarial bed net to Africa. Send a net, save a life.

Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy, after completing a three-day fact-finding mission to Lebanon, called on all sides in the Middle East to respect international humanitarian law to ensure that schools are "zones of peace."

After visiting the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, [Coomaraswamy] said she was shocked to see the destruction caused by last year's conflict between Hizbollah and Israel and its considerable impact on children.

"All parties should respect International Humanitarian Law with regard to the protection of children and ensure that schools are zones of peace. For the sake of future generations, a framework for a permanent peace should be negotiated with Israel," she said.

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The United Nations has announced that Rwanda will participate in the "One UN" pilot program that aims to better coordinate development activities nationally.

The scheme will test how the greater UN family can ensure efficient and more effective development operations, while aiming to speed up activities to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight targets for tackling poverty, hunger and other social ills by 2015.

The reform projects - also set to be carried out in Albania, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Pakistan, Tanzania, Uruguay and Viet Nam - will consolidate the UN's presence by replacing current structures with one leader, one programme and one budget, thus allowing various UN agencies to play to their strengths while also building on the strengths of different members of the UN family.

Rwanda's Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, James Musoni, says that "Rwanda is proud to have been selected as a pilot country for the implementation of the One UN Reform at country level...The efficiency of the UN agencies is crucial to the success of Rwanda's development endeavors."

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This is incredible. Google Earth teamed up the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to create an interactive map of the genocide in Darfur. It features a host of features, including icons where villages were maimed or destroyed and photos of life in the refugee camps and relief efforts. This breathtaking photograph of a World Food Program air drop over Geniena, the capital of the west Darfur province, can be seen when you download google earth and search for "Darfur."

Josette Sheeran, the new chief of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) officially took up her duties yesterday by calling for a renewed commitment to combating hunger.

Executive Director Josette Sheeran said "despite enormous efforts by WFP and its donors and partners, we are losing ground on hunger with 4 million more people malnourished each year than the year before. Together, we can turn that tide."

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Hermann Scheer, a member of the German Parliament, recently published a book, Energy Autonomy, in which he delineates the consequences of continued reliance on fossil fuels, the advantages of renewable energy, and political successes in his native Germany. I recently spoke to Hermann Scheer about his book, the real cost of renewable forms of energy, and the policy implications.

Listen to the Interview

In his guest slot on the New York Times columnist page (subscription req.), Robert Wright flips the conventional wisdom on the Security Council's rejection of a force authorization resolution for the American led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

A sacred duty of bodies that authorize things--the Security Council, Congress, zoning boards--is to sometimes not authorize things. (Imagine a world where everything was authorized!) People who want a thing authorized sometimes call the failure to authorize it "gridlock." People who don't want the thing authorized prefer to say "the system worked," and refer to people who complain about gridlock as "whiners." Who is right?

History can judge who was "right" about the wisdom of invading Iraq in the spring of 2003. For now, I think it's instructive to look at how a core group of pro-Iraq war pundits and editorialists (whom we may call "whiners") tried to inflict damage on the public's opinion of the United Nations when the Security Council refused to authorize the war.

Almost immediately following the Council's rejection of the war resolution, folks like Claudia Rosett, Anne Bayefsky, and editorialists in the pages of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Sun hit back hard. When top United Nations officials hinted that the Iraq war may have been a mistake, the gloves really came off. Alleged improprieties in the Oil for Food program turned into a witch hunt for these pundits. Calm analysis of the facts about the program quickly gave way to unsubstantiated allegations about corruption at the very highest levels of the UN bureaucracy. Soon, these folks began to call for Kofi Annan's head. (Here, it is crucial to point out that Paul Volcker's long investigation into the Oil for Food program found no reason for Annan to step down.)

The damage done to the American public's perception of the United Nations was acute. Constant media repetition of scandals at the United Nations, real or imagined, sank deep into American consciousness. On basic image issues, it is undeniable that the UN suffered from these attacks. The Gallup organization, which has conducted favorability polling on the United Nations since 1953, recorded a steep drop from a high point in Janurary 2003. The vindictive work of the so-called "whiners" may have not resulted in Annan's resignation, but it certainly helped to corrupt Americans' views of the United Nations.

That said, there are encouraging signs that the United Nations can recover. That same Gallup Poll showed that most Americans want the United Nations to play a major policy making role in world affairs. Other polling has been consistent on the point that most Americans want the United States to support the United Nations. Also, contrary to popular myth, polling by the Program on International Policy Attitudes has shown that a strong preference for multilateral approaches to global problems runs deep in the American electorate. Despite the best efforts of the "whiners," Americans are still looking toward the United Nations.

As an aside, Wright's signature book, Nonzero, argues that human progress can be traced to the development of conflict negotiation strategies that transcend zero-sum outcomes (to oversimplify of a complex thesis.) Wright devotes much space in his book describing how global governance structures and multilateral institutions (to wit: the United Nations) fits his theory. It is an excellent read. Check it out on Amazon.

Yesterday, thirteen years after some 800,000 Rwandans were murdered, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for "a global partnership against genocide."

The post of UN Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide -- currently held by Juan E. Méndez of Argentina -- will be upgraded to a full-time position, Mr. Ban said in a message marking the anniversary of the start of the genocide.

The UN Advisory Committee on Genocide Prevention will also be boosted, the Secretary-General said, adding that Africa has taken its own steps as well, such as the proposed Pact on Security, Stability and Development for the Great Lakes Region, which contains measures on genocide prevention and punishment.

Ban said "Preventing genocide is a collective and individual responsibility...Everyone has a role to play: governments, the media, civil society organizations, religious groups, and each and every one of us."

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Following East Timor's independence from Indonesia in 1999, the Security Council authorized a peacekeeping operation in East Timor to stabilize the new country and rehabilitate its fractured government bureaucracies. Kofi Annan sent one of his most able diplomats, the late Sergio Vieira de Mello, to oversee East Timor reconstruction. The UN then began an ambitious set of capacity building efforts, including training Timorese to fill basic bureaucratic structures and training a judiciary. (This latter job was no easy task. As James Traub recounts in The Best Intentions, there was not a single lawyer in the county at the time.)

The United Nations also oversaw elections in East Timor. It now seems that the young country will reach another milestone as voters stood in long lines this week to cast ballots in a new presidential election. The results are still being tallied, and will not likely be known until Wednesday.

Crucially, the elections occurred without incident. This is an encouraging sign because ten months ago a brief spate of violence threatened to metastasize and reverse hard fought reconstruction gains. At the time, a speedy deployment of Australian military forces calmed the situation before it spiraled out of control. Today, it seems that the security situation is improved to the point that Australia has signaled that it may pull its remaining 1,000 troops from East Timor following a set of parliamentary elections later this year.

Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has called for investigations into the widespread sexual violence in Darfur.

Arbour noted that based on the testimony they gathered for a new report, "it appears that rape during the December 2006 attacks was used as a weapon of war to cause humiliation and instill fear into the local population."

In [the] new report, the High Commissioner's Office describes attacks in December 2006 in eastern Jebel Marra, Darfur. At least 15 cases of sexual assault, including rape, had occurred, according to the report. At least two pregnant women were targeted in the violence.

"Soldiers came in cars heading towards the hills. Three were in green military uniform and the fourth was in civilian clothes. All four of them were armed and all of them raped me," said one 13-year old victim, according to the report.

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After negotiations throughout the night in Brussels, the second installment of the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is ready for publication. The Financial Times offers a good summary of the panel's findings:

Spring is occurring earlier all around the world, and glaciers are melting. The polar ice caps are also melting, sea levels are gradually rising, and wildlife are migrating.

Mr Pachauri [the Panel's Chair] said one of the most important aspects of the report was the "equity dimension" – that poor countries, which are least able to cope with climate change and which are least responsible for past emissions, are likely to be most affected by it.

Read More.

The United Nations, the African Union (AU) and the Sudanese Government will participate in a technical-level meeting next week to finalize the measures for the UN "heavy support package" to the AU peacekeeping mission in Darfur.

Monday's meeting is not intended to re-negotiate the heavy support package, the second phase of the three-step process culminating in the eventual deployment of a hybrid UN-AU force, Mr. Ban told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York.

"As the Government of Sudan has made certain reservations on my proposals, this meeting will be used to clarify and for an exchange of views on this heavy support package," he said following a briefing to the Security Council on his recent trip to the Middle East.

"We hope that, through these consultative meetings, we will be able to deploy hybrid forces as soon as possible."

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At the Brookings Institution this morning, Steven Kull, editor of WorldPublicOpinion.org released the results of a new global public opinion survey on the responsibility to protect. The results are pretty striking. According to the data, there is an emerging international norm that approves United Nations intervention in the affairs of a member state if that country is failing to protect its own population from widespread human rights abuses.

Back in 2005, heads of state signed on to the principal of the responsibility to protect. This survey shows that the idea has now been endorsed by the public--in very large numbers.

So what does this mean? For one, the data would suggest that the idea that sovereignty is the preeminent principal of international relations does not hold when it comes to genocide and large scale human rights abuses. This includes the publics of countries like China that have historically been among the staunchest defenders of the primacy of state sovereignty.

The survey also asked respondents from 10 countries about international intervention in Darfur. According to the report, "In all countries the most common response is that the Security Council has at least the right to authorize intervention in Darfur and many says it has the responsibility to act." In many member states, this translates into a willingness to send troops to Darfur. 84% of the French public supports contributing French troops to an international peacekeeping force for Darfur. Remarkably, despite the experience of Iraq, 65% of the American public would support contributing American troops to an international peacekeeping force in Darfur.

Old assumptions that publics will only support military action when it is in their national interest, narrowly defined, seem to no longer hold. As Gayle Smith said in the discussion following Kull's presentation, the idea of the responsibility to protect transcends national policies.

At a UN-backed meeting in Beijing, experts called for the promotion of increased condom use for sex workers and clients as a way to stop the spread of HIV.

The meeting offered an opportunity for participants to review successful local efforts to promote "100 per cent condom use" or "no condom, no sex" in relations between sex workers and clients. Approaches vary, but generally involve cooperation among health authorities, police, entertainment venue owners, and sex workers trained to be peer educators, the agency said.

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Martti Ahtisaari, the United Nations special envoy for the future status of Kosovo, presented the Security Council with a 61 page report outlining steps for eventual Kosovar independence. The New York Times has the story.

Today, International Mine Action Day, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on Member States to continue efforts to eliminate landmines.

The International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action "is a reminder that millions of people in nearly 80 countries still live in fear of landmines and explosive remnants of war," Mr. Ban said.

But thanks to the work of Member States, the UN, non-Governmental organizations (NGOs) and countries affected by mines, "we have made real gains in our mine actions," he said.

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Remember back to summer 2006. Hezbollah rockets rained down in northern Israel and Israeli retaliatory air strikes left hundreds of thousands internally displaced in Lebanon. For weeks, the situation remained hopelessly stuck. The Security Council had discussed ways to stop the fighting, and on August 14 authorized a peacekeeping force. But until the peacekeeping force actually asserted itself in northern Lebanon, Israel would not withdraw its forces and neither would Israel lift its sea and air blockade until other parts of the resolution were implemented.

In late summer Kofi Annan traveled to the region to address these outstanding issues and shore up the Security Council resolution. During a frantic bout of shuttle diplomacy that took the then Secretary General to 12 countries in 11 days, Annan was able to win the right set of concessions from both parties and convince member states to rapidly deploy peacekeepers to southern Lebanon.

Now, six months later, the new Secretary General has set foot in southern Lebanon where the ceasefire is holding.

From The New York Times:

"We are enjoying a situation in which we have no major incidents and no open display of weapons by anyone," said Maj. Gen. Claudio Graziano of Italy, the commander of the force, known as Unifil. "We call this Unifil 2," said General Graziano as he showed Mr. Ban around the new base here, built on what six months ago was a barren rock-strewn hillside.

While it's true that the now 14,000 strong UNIFIL peacekeeping force has been able to prevent an outbreak of fighting, there are still some outstanding issues that challenge the region. For one, unexploded ordinances are wreaking havoc on the internally displaced who have returned home to rebuild. (Here the United Nations demining teams are taking the lead.) Also, although the resolution called for the disarmament of Hezbollah, there has been little indication that any actual disarmament has taken place. The August 14th ceasefire resolution did not grant Unifil the mandate to disarm Hezbollah, leaving that job to Lebanese authorities. But at this point, without a political settlement between Hezbollah and state authorities, any moves to disarm Hezbollah could spark a civil war. Still, despite these unresolved issues, the ceasefire in Southern Lebanon and Israel is holding strong.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke out yesterday about the murder of five African Union (AU) peacekeepers in Darfur, saying it further illustrates the need for a hybrid UN-AU force in the region.

"I would like to strongly deplore such killings," Ban said in New York yesterday. "That really illustrates the necessity and urgency of dispatching hybrid peacekeepers to Darfur."

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Shashi Tharoor, formerly the Under Secretary General for Communications and Public Information, resigned from the United Nations yesterday. Tharoor was a legend at the UN. And in his inimical style (Tharoor also happens to be an award winning novelist) he takes to the pages of the Times of India to reflect on 29 years at a changing United Nations.

I joined the UN in 1978 as an idealistic young man of 22, hoping to serve refugees and discover the world.

I did a bit of both. But how much the institution I joined has changed! If I had suggested to my seniors at that time that the UN would one day observe and even run elections in sovereign states, conduct intrusive inspections for weapons of mass destruction, impose comprehensive sanctions on the entire import-export trade of a member state, or set up international criminal tribunals and coerce governments into handing over their citizens to be tried by foreigners under international law, I am sure they would have told me that I did not understand what the UN was all about. Indeed, since those were the late 1970s, they might well have asked me, "Young man, what are you smoking?"

Tharoor will certainly be missed. Continue reading his essay.

After visiting South Lebanon, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced hope for peace between Israel and Hezbollah.

Responding to questions at a press conference in Naqoura, Mr. Ban said both Israel and Lebanon showed interested in this goal. "It is important that the current cessation of hostilities could be transferred and developed into a permanent ceasefire. I know that Lebanese Government is very much interested."

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