Maggie Farley of the LA Times has the goods on the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's choice for the next UN human rights commissioner -- a South African judge, of Tamil origins, named Navanethem Pillay.

Pillay, born in 1941, also served as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda prosecuting crimes related to that nation's genocide. She presided over landmark cases in international law that established rape as a war crime, convicted a former head of state for atrocities committed during his rule and prosecuted media for inciting genocide. She has served for five years on the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

Pillay may not be as outspoken as the current commissioner, Canadian Judge Louise Arbour, who often shamed governments and leaders that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would not criticize by name.

I've heard that criticism before -- that Ban was likely to pick someone not as vocal as Arbour in calling out Member States -- but, having little familiarity of Pillay, I'll reserve judgment until she begins her tenure. It's a tough job, dealing with countries that routinely abuse human rights, but lacking much real enforcement power outside the bully pulpit.

One criticism that can be made legitimately is the unnecessary opacity of the S-G's selection process. Every NGO I've talked to has complained about how little insight into the process has been available to the public. I understand that some aspects of the search would have to remain confidential, but others certainly do not have to be so secretive that not even the candidates themselves know if they're being offered the position.

From the UN News Center:

Despite recent progress, more than 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation, while nearly 1.2 billion people defecate without sanitary facilities, posing a major health threat to their communities, according to a report released today by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

"At current trends, the world will fall short of the Millennium [Development Goals] sanitation target by more than 700 million people," said Ann Veneman, UNICEF Executive Director. "Without dramatic improvements, much will be lost."

The report shows some progress in access to improved drinking water sources, with the number falling below one billion for the first time since data were first compiled in 1990. At present, 87 per cent of the world's population can access improved water sources with the figure expected to rise to 90 per cent by 2015.

Unicef TV has more on the situation in the Niger, where less than 45% of the population has access to clean water and less than 10% have access to adequate sanitation.

The International Court of Justice (sometimes called the World Court--and not to be confused with the International Criminal Court) is a forum where United Nations member states can hash out legal disputes in a neutral setting. The cases can range from the somewhat banal (like a dispute between Ukraine and Romania over Black Sea maritime rights) to the highly contentious (like Bosnia accusing Serbia of committing genocide in the 1990s).

One of the more contentious cases before the court is Mexico's action against the United States to stay the execution of Mexican nationals being held on death row. The case of one of these Mexican nationals went all the way to the Supreme Court this year. In 1993, Jose E. Medellin confessed to raping and killing two teenage girls in Texas and was sentenced to death. The catch, though, is that under the 1963 Vienna Convention, foreign nationals have the right to notify their consulate when detained. Medellin was not given that right, so Mexico sued the United States at the International Court of Justice on his and other nationals behalf.

In March, the Supreme Court ruled that Medellin's execution can go ahead, despite the World Court's ruling. (Technically, the Supreme Court ruled that the Bush Administration had no right to tell the state of Texas to re-open the case, per the ICJ's direction). Mexico, however, has not given up. The case is still pending at the ICJ and yesterday the court once again ordered the United States to stay the execution of five Mexican nationals on death row.

Julian Ku of Opinio Juris explains some of the technicalities of yesterday's ruling and makes a prediction of his own:

The U.S. Supreme Court will reject any efforts to enforce this ICJ order. Texas will also ignore it and go ahead and execute the said Mexican nationals. In this way, the U.S. will act in admitted violation of its international law obligations under Article 92 and the ICJ Statute, thus further exposing the ICJ's orders as having no domestic legal significance and of relatively little moral significance either. Congress has other things on its mind, and there won't even be a bill introduced to try to give effect to the ICJ order. The presidential candidates won't even be asked about their views on this order. But I suppose Mexico's lawyers have to try everything they can, and I can't fault them for pulling out all the stops, no matter how hopeless.

(Image: The Peace Palace in the Hague, seat of the ICJ. Credit: The Hague Justice Portal)

Discussing Myanmar's invitation for the UN envoy to the country, Ibrahim Gambari, to visit the country, Louis Charbonneau of Reuters writes:

Security Council diplomats in New York say that enough time has past since Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar two months ago, leaving 138,000 dead or missing, and that it is time to ratchet up the pressure on the junta to comply with council demands that it improve the state of human rights and democracy.

It's hard to say whether this is due to Charbonneau's peculiar way of phrasing this sentence, or whether Security Council diplomats are actually thinking along these lines on the matter, but there is something objectionable in the notion that the UN needs to wait "enough time" after a major humanitarian disaster to continue promoting human rights and democracy in a member country. Myanmar's obstruction of relief efforts did indeed make delivery of humanitarian aid an immediate priority, but this should not be seen as in exclusion of human rights concerns. Rather, the two are tied up quite intimately.

At any rate, it's far from certain whether Myanmar's most recent invitation will result in open access for Gambari, or whether the country's leaders will repeat past practice.

Gambari has said his most recent visit to Myanmar was a disappointment and yielded no concrete results. One of the problems was that he was unable to meet senior junta leaders.

From the UN News Center:

A just concluded three-year pilot project has shown that solar power can be an affordable and sustainable alternative energy source for the people of Timor-Leste, according to a senior United Nations official heading up the programme. The solar project, just one of many initiatives carried out by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affair (UNDESA) in the tiny South East Asian nation, aimed to help rural communities harness the potential of this alternative energy source. Under the pilot programme, carried out in communities on Atauro Island and in Aleiu District, community members agreed to pay $1.80 per month for the use of solar lanterns. It is estimated that communities on Atauro using the lanterns have saved over $1,800, and now other communities have also expressed interest in using the lanterns.

UNESCO formally inducted eight new sites into its world heritage list. Melaka and George Town, historic cities of the Straits of Malacca (Malaysia); Kuk Early Agricultural Site (Papua New Guinea); Stari Grad Plain (Croatia); Fortifications of Vauban (France); Berlin Modernism Housing Estates (Germany); Mantua and Sabbioneta; San Marino Historic Centre and Mount Titano (San Marino); and the Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of Carpathian Mountain Area (Slovakia) were all voted in during UNESCO's meeting in Quebec City last week. Friends of World Heritage has more.

(Image: UNESCO / Milos Dudas The Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of Carpathian Mountain Area)

The New York Times takes a peek at Lakdhar Brahimi's report on the security of UN personnel and property in the wake of last years bombing in Algiers.

United Nations personnel around the world are increasingly likely to be targets for attack because the organization is perceived by some as a tool of powerful members, rather than an unbiased advocate for all nations, Lakhdar Brahimi, a veteran diplomat who headed a global study on the security of United Nations staff members, said Monday.

The study, conducted by a seven-member panel that was organized after 17 United Nations workers were killed in a bombing in Algiers last December, concluded that neither individual staff members nor the organization had fully grasped the change in perceptions, Mr. Brahimi said.

"All of us who work for the U.N., we continue to think of ourselves as good guys, and just because you have the flag, wherever you go you will be all right," he said. "We need to realize that our flag is not enough protection."

It seems that speculation about the president of East Timor, Jose Ramos-Horta, leaving his country to become UN High Commissioner for Human Rights was a bit premature. Here's how Ramos-Horta explained his decision:

"An early departure from my current responsibility would result in early elections and this would be an unfair burden on a people who went to the polls three times in 2007," he told a news conference in Dili.

The possibility of inadvertently fomenting instability in his country undoubtedly weighed heavily on Ramos-Horta. His role, as one analyst describes it, is an important one of "ensuring there is a link between two groups of people who don't want to talk to each other" in a polarized East Timorese political system. The same analyst, however, sees the potential for more a slightly more cynical motivation on Ramos-Horta's part:

"By refusing this now, he has managed to put himself on the list for the future," said Edward Rees, a specialist on East Timor and a former UN consultant on security issues, speaking from Dili. "The list is constantly being used to fill top spots at the United Nations. His name will be on the list, and maybe in a year from now if something comes up, he'll get it."

The fact remains, though, that Ramos-Horta's name was never officially offered the job from the Secretary-General to begin with. Curious indeed.

Once again, stay tuned.

From the UN News Center:

Jan Eliasson, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Darfur, told a Council briefing that the environment in the region had deteriorated, despite the persistent efforts of the UN and the African Union to bring the Government and the many splintered rebel groups to the peace table.

"We now urgently have to mobilize all available political energy inside and outside Sudan to, first of all, stop [the] escalation and reach a cessation of hostilities and, secondly, to lay a foundation for serious peace talks for Darfur," he said.

Mr. Eliasson said "a new generation in Sudan may be doomed to a life in conflict, despair and poverty" and become radicalized in camps unless the international community does more to end the crisis.

"But, at the end of the day, we will not make progress unless the Sudanese themselves show seriousness, political will, and a focused commitment to peace. It is for them to accept responsibility and finally accept the outstanding issues."

Ruth Cardoso, the former Brazilian first lady, anthropologist, author and social entrepreneur, passed away on Tuesday at her home in Sao Paulo. She was 77 years old.

Cardoso was a member of the board of the United Nations Foundation, which sponsors this blog. In 1995, she founded the Brazilian non-profit Communidade Solidaria which forms public-private partnerships to combat poverty in Brazil. Our hearts go our to her family and all the people whose lives she touched.

From the UN News Center:

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on world leaders gathered at a United Nations summit in Rome to take "bold and urgent" steps to tackle the global food crisis, including boosting food production and revitalizing agriculture to ensure long-term food security.

Addressing the High-level Conference on World Food Security, Mr. Ban said that over 850 million people around the globe were short of food before the current crisis began. That number is estimated to rise by a further 100 million, and the poorest of the poor will be the hardest hit.

"The threats are obvious to us all. Yet this crisis also presents us with an opportunity," Mr. Ban told the gathering, which is being hosted by the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "It is a chance to revisit past policies. While we must respond immediately to high food prices, it is important that our longer term focus is on improving world food security -- and remains so for some years."

What Mark earlier called the "scandal that never was" -- the U.S.'s accusation that the UN Development Program (UNDP) had illegally funneled millions of dollars in cash to the North Korean government -- can finally perhaps be put to bed. Already, a Senate investigative committee, as well as the UN's own auditing board, has exposed this charge as largely groundless, and now, the just-released report of an independent panel chaired by former Hungarian Prime Minister Miklos Nemeth, confirms the extent to which this issue has been blown out of promotion by scandalmongers and UN-bashers.

The UNDP's operations with North Korea are difficult, but they are also vital to millions of North Koreans who benefit from the organization's services. Everywhere UNDP works, it must work with and under the rules of the host country's government. In North Korea's case, this entailed UNDP adopting sub-optimal policies on local staffing, the use of hard currency (as distinct from cash), and project oversight -- policies that had long been accepted by the U.S. government and are still being practiced by embassies and NGOs in the country. Nonetheless, when UNDP came under attack in March of 2007 for having operated under the policies that North Korea required, and recognizing the importance of ensuring that its funds were not being mismanaged, UNDP suspended its operations in North Korea.

Some of the accusations then leveled against UNDP came from a former employee who later claimed that he was being punished for having "blown the whistle" on the organization's supposedly irregular policies. The new Nemeth report, however, clarifies how well-established UNDP's operating procedures were in North Korea among U.S., NGO, and UN agencies and finds no UNDP complicity in North Korea's attempts to avoid sanctions. It also casts serious doubts on the credibility of the purported "whistleblower" who broke these accusations.

Meanwhile, and even though this particular individual's case did not prove to be substantiated, UNDP strengthened its whistleblower protection policy and beefed up accountability systems worldwide. As for whether or not UNDP should resume its programs helping the citizens of North Korea, that will be up to Member States to decide, when they discuss the Nemeth report later this month.

After meeting with the Secretary General last week, the Burmese military junta finally relented from their opposition to letting foreign aid workers into the country. Still, that doesn't mean delivering that aid is easy in a country where the military tightly controls the economy. From the IHT:

An SUV for $250,000 and a cellular phone for $3,000. As foreign aid workers test Myanmar's commitment to allow them to operate inside the country as part of the relief effort for Cyclone Nargis they face not only administrative hurdles erected by a xenophobic military government but an economy warped by years of misrule.

Myanmar's military limits the sale of mobile phones, bans satellite phones, sharply restricts car imports and rations gasoline to one or two gallons (between 3.5 and 7 liters) a day. The main beneficiaries of this system are government employees and military officers, who profit by selling permits, gasoline and many other items on the black market.

Aid workers from the United Nations and private aid agencies continued Wednesday to travel into the Irrawaddy Delta, the area hardest hit by the May 3 cyclone, following an agreement last week reached with the Myanmar government. Richard Horsey, the spokesman for the UN relief effort, said the military was requiring aid workers to give 48 hours' notice before traveling into the delta but that he was hearing only positive news about their access.
[snip]
"I assume we will be running out of quite a lot of things when the influx comes," said Hakan Tongul, deputy country director in Yangon of the World Food Program, a UN agency delivering supplies to the victims of the storm. "There will be logistical problems for sure."

From the UN News Center:

Flying by helicopter over rice fields submerged under brown sludge, Mr. Ban visited the Kyondah relief camp, 75 kilometres south of Yangon in the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta, where many women and small children who have lost their homes and family members have taken shelter.

"I am so sorry, but don't lose your hope," Mr. Ban told a camp resident. "The United Nations is here to help you. The whole world is trying to help Myanmar."

From the IHT:

The secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon, was on his way to Myanmar on Wednesday, hoping to pry open the door to more international relief aid at what he called a "critical moment" in the country's slow recovery from the cyclone that left more than 100,000 people dead or missing.

"Aid in Myanmar should not be politicized," he said as he stopped in Bangkok on Wednesday. "Our focus now is on saving lives."

But the opening offered by Myanmar appeared to be a narrow one, and some analysts said the ruling generals were conceding only enough to defuse international pressure after the May 3 cyclone.

In the run-up to Wednesday's elections to the UN Human Rights Council, Nobel laureates Desmond Tutu, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, and Jimmy Carter have all issued statements opposing Sri Lanka's candidacy. The case against Sri Lanka, according to Tutu:

Sri Lanka has failed to honour its pledges of upholding human rights standards and cooperating with the UN since joining the council two years ago. Indeed, its human rights record has worsened during that time. The Sri Lankan idea of cooperation with the UN, meanwhile, has been to condemn senior UN officials (including the high commissioner for human rights, Louise Arbour, and the under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, John Holmes) as "terrorists" or "terrorist sympathisers."

The systematic abuses by Sri Lankan government forces are among the most serious imaginable. Government security forces summarily remove their own citizens from their homes and families in the middle of the night, never to be heard from again. Torture and extrajudicial killings are widespread. When the human rights council was established, UN members required that states elected must themselves "uphold the highest standards" of human rights. On that count, Sri Lanka is clearly disqualified.

Opposition to Sri Lankan membership in the Council -- the successor to the Human Rights Commission, which was much-maligned for its regular inclusion of rights-abusing and abusive regimes -- does seem to have crystallized among NGOs and human rights activists. While the new Council is by no means a paragon of human rights monitoring -- passing more resolutions that condemned Israel than those that censured Sudan, for example -- the campaign to tighten the standards of countries accepted into the body reveals how far the Council has come. Last year, Belarus' candidacy flopped, deterring notorious human rights offenders like Sudan and Zimbabwe from even attempting to stand for election. Sri Lanka may well not be pleased with the negative attention is receiving, but ultimately, both the Human Rights Council and the human rights situation within Sri Lanka stand to benefit.

The United Nations released its semi-annual World Economic Situation and Prospects Report. The prospects are not so good. From the UN News Center

The deepening credit crisis in affluent countries triggered by the continuing housing slump, the declining value of the United States dollar, persisting global imbalances and soaring oil and commodity prices pose major threats to economic growth around the world, according to a report released today by United Nations economists.

[snip]

Today's report, issued by the UN's Department of Social and Economic Affairs (DESA), predicts that world economic growth will fall steeply to 1.8 per cent this year and 2.1 per cent next year, down from 3.8 per cent in 2007.

The report says that much depends on developments in the US, which remains the prime driver of the global economy, and where a crashing housing market and finance and credit weaknesses set off the global downturn.

A worst-case scenario would see the "world economy come to a virtual standstill" if recent financial measures in the US fail to turn the economy around, and house prices continue to fall, blending with a severe tightening on credit.

Things are poised to go from worse, to very worse. From the UN News Center:

The Darfur conflict could lapse soon into another major cycle of violence and large-scale human displacement unless the parties retreat from their recent state of confrontation, the top United Nations peacekeeping official told the Security Council today.

Briefing Council members on the work of UNAMID, the hybrid UN-African Union mission in Darfur, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guehenno said there has been "a deeply disturbing" recent deterioration in the security situation.

Last weekend's attack by rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) members on Government forces on the outskirts of the capital, Khartoum, illustrated that the conflict -- which has raged on and off since 2003 -- had the potential to move beyond the borders of the Darfur region, which lies on Sudan's western flank.

From the UN News Center:

Unless more access to Myanmar is granted to allow aid to flow more quickly to victims of this month's deadly cyclone, a second catastrophe could result, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned today.

Despite some progress, efforts to help the 1.5 million people affected by Cyclone Nargis must be enhanced, a spokesperson for OCHA told reporters in Geneva.

Elizabeth Byrs said that, some 12 days after the cyclone struck, the UN and its partners have reached about 270,000 at-risk people, less than a third of those affected. Heavy rains have been forecast, further impeding aid efforts. Ms. Byrs called for an air and sea corridor to channel aid in large quantities as quickly as possible.

The official death toll reported by Myanmar's Government has reached almost 32,000, with over 34,000 others missing.

This Happens:

[World Food Program] now has more than 800 metric tonnes of food stocks available in its warehouses in Yangon, and will deliver these food resources to all areas in need, including the Ayeryawaddy Division, the largest and hardest hit of the five major divisions affected by the cyclone. WFP's $500,000 initial emergency operation will fund the airlifts of food supplies and emergency staff deployments.

The UN refugee agency, for its part, is emptying its emergency shelter material stockpiles in neighbouring Thailand of plastic sheeting and tents for some 10,000 people for urgent dispatch to Yangon. The supplies would be distributed through a Disaster Management Committee that had been established by the Myanmar Government.

Jennifer Pagonis, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told journalists in Geneva that the agency's office in Myanmar yesterday purchased $50,000 worth of urgently needed basic supplies in Yangon for distribution, including emergency tarpaulins, plastic sheeting and canned food.

In addition, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has dispatched teams to make initial assessments in Yangon, Pathein and Bago, and is positioning relief supplies. The agency says it will work with partners and the Government to provide access to clean water, safe sanitation and improved hygiene, and will seek to protect children and help them return to school as soon as possible.

UNICEF's Myanmar field staff have started delivering urgently-need supplies to the Irrawaddy delta, and has provided medicines, first-aid kits and oral rehydration tablets to Laputta township, one of the most severely impacted areas.

Another sign of UN success in West Africa. From the UN News Centre:

The United Nations mission in Sierra Leone has made "significant progress" in supporting the Government to consolidate peace in the country, by strengthening the security sector, by promoting human rights and the rule of law, and by helping prepare for upcoming elections, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in a new report.

However, Mr. Ban also cautions that the "the country continues to experience political tension along ethnic and regional lines" and cites high unemployment, poor economic and social conditions, and the rising price of food and gasoline, as other factors which "have the potential to derail the peace consolidation process."

This update on the improving situation in Sierra Leone follows similarly encouraging news out of neighboring Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire. As Ban's prudent warning suggests, however, these transitions toward peace and democracy in West Africa do not come unaccompanied by serious lingering problems and potential pitfalls. After easing violent societies into stability, the UN faces perhaps the even steeper challenge of consolidating these gains and ensuring that former war zones become politically and economically sustainable. That's why the peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone, scheduled to withdraw in September, will be replaced by a peacebuilding office.

These peacebuilding efforts will be funded out of the UN's relatively new Peacebuilding Fund, created in late 2006 to provide societies transitioning toward peace with "a crucial bridge between conflict and recovery at a time when other funding mechanisms may not yet be available." Despite the enormity and importance of its work, though, the Peacebuilding Fund has received less than a third of the money it needs to operate -- including zero contributions from the United States.

The UN's ambitious renovation project has, predictably, attracted the attention of bloggers questioning the cost of the building and the value of the UN in general. Writing at Hot Air, Ed Morrissey thinks that the construction of the new building poses a broader question.

The renovation really isn't the issue here...Either the UN is a worthwhile use of American funds or it isn't. If it is, the renovation doesn't make it less so, and the building obviously needs a lot of work...

True, but this is not the entirety of the matter. Of course the construction of a new building doesn't make the UN less of "a worthwhile use of American funds." Renovation of its headquarters doesn't make it more deserving of American funds either. The relevant point here, which needs to be made more emphatically, is that, if the is UN indeed "worthy" of U.S. funding -- which we here at UN Dispatch firmly believe it is -- then it affirmatively needs a new building in order to continue its mission.

Ed also objects to the cost of the renovation, calling it "a rather expensive project even for the United Nations." This, however, neglects to mention the reason that the building's costs have expanded -- namely, because the U.S. has dragged its heels throughout the process, raising pedantic objections as the costs of construction continued to rise.

For those who oppose the UN, the real point in highlighting the costs of the replacing the old building -- which even Ed admits is in decrepit condition -- is to call into question the entire notion of supporting the international organization. According to Ed:

If the UN isn't a worthwhile expense, then the renovation makes no difference, either. One has to wonder why nations don't simply put their money towards the programs that actually deliver benefits and forego the fancy building and standing bureaucracy that adds little to the benefit of anyone...

The problem here is that, in order for the programs that Ed lauds to be able to function, they need to be able to operate out of, yes, a building -- and preferably one without asbestos. The people working in the 39 floors of the UN Secretariat are not simply faceless bureaucrats; they are the individuals that make the UN machinery run, and that, though they are far from the field, enable many life-saving programs to thrive.

So if the building isn't necessary, then what is?

What the UN needs is an overhaul of its membership, its leadership, its bureaucracies, and the HRC [Human Rights Council] most of all. Unfortunately, it's easier for everyone to renovate the building without considering the cancers within it.

Critiques of the UN -- its members, leaders, bureaucracies, etc. -- can be legitimate and constructive. Assuming that constructing a new building to meet fire and safety codes precludes pursuit of reform in these areas, however, is misguided. It will be very difficult for reform to succeed if there is no place to house the fruits of that reform. The U.S. should take the lead on both of these initiatives -- reforming both the UN's headquarters and its substance -- rather than balking at funding programs that the U.S. itself calls for. Ed is right to remind us that the building can be no more than the Member States it contains -- but that doesn't make the building any less necessary.

It is only slight exaggeration to say that visitors to the United Nations HQ in New York can sometimes see asbestos dripping from the walls. The building is old and decrepit. City officials would have condemned the building long ago if not for the fact that it falls under international jurisdiction. The sad fact is UN HQ, an international symbol and New York landmark, has not undergone a major renovation in fifty years. That is, until now. From the UN News Center:

Shovels in hand and donning blue hard hats, members of the United Nations community, led by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, today broke ground for the construction of temporary conference venue at the world body's New York Headquarters, marking the beginning of a five-year, $1.9 billion overhaul of the landmark complex.

"Today, we turn the soil which the United Nations stands on to mark the rebirth, or renovation, of our Headquarters," Mr. Ban told representatives of Member States, the Host Country, staff and the private sector gathered for the groundbreaking ceremony on the North Lawn.

The construction of the temporary conference building is the first phase of the project, known as the Capital Master Plan (CMP), which aims to make the five-decade old Secretariat and adjacent buildings -- plagued by leaks, safety violations and outdated systems -- safer, more efficient, greener and more modern.

From the UN News Center:

The United Nations has offered its assistance to Myanmar authorities in responding to the deadly cyclone which struck the South-East Asian nation on Friday, leaving death and widespread devastation in its wake. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Cyclone Nargis made landfall in the Irrawaddy delta region, some 250 kilometres southwest of Yangon around 4 pm on 2 May. With winds of over 190 kilometres per hour, the storm hit Yangon later that same night, tearing down tears and power lines and causing widespread flooding. Thousands have reportedly been killed.

Security Council countries took a turn at word interpretation yesterday, somewhat ambiguously invoking the need for "realism" in negotiations between Western Sahara and Morocco, which has occupied the desert territory since 1975. What this means in reality -- no pun intended -- is that outright independence is likely off the table for Western Sahara. The Security Council renewed the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force that has maintained a ceasefire there since 1991, but the Council's president in April, South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, objected to what he perceived as powerful countries' bias toward Morocco in the dispute.

"This council has made a mistake. They sent a wrong message to Morocco, thinking that they will always support Morocco," Kumalo told reporters after the vote, adding that he nevertheless voted in favor because he still held out hopes for the negotiations.

In a statement to the council after the vote, he said the reference to realism could set a precedent in other conflicts, such as that between Israelis and Palestinians, that the principle "might is right" would hold sway.

Kumalo also complained that the resolution drafted by France, Russia, Spain, Britain and the United States omitted any reference to human rights, a sensitive subject for Morocco. He said such an omission was a case of double standards.

I can't help but notice that Kumalo's examples conspicuously did not include Zimbabwe, where Robert Mugabe's faltering government has long benefited from South Africa's protection. If it is "realistic" to downplay the prospect of Western Saharan independence, then surely it is equally so to acknowledge the electoral defeat that even Zimbabwe seems ready to admit. For South Africa to continue to shield Mugabe, then, would represent an entirely unambiguous "case of double standards."

Move over, Arnold -- there's a new "Terminator" in town. And this one's not heading to the gubernatorial halls of Sacramento, but to the courtrooms of The Hague.

A Congolese warlord known as "the Terminator" is being sought for prosecution, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague has revealed.

The arrest warrant for Bosco Ntaganda, was issued in 2006 but not made public and he is still at large.

He is accused of conscripting children under 15 to fight in hostilities in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo between July 2002 and December 2003.

Interestingly, the ICC said it had not publicized its arrest warrant for Ntaganda earlier because this may have "hindered the court's investigations." This illustrates an important dynamic in the Court's work -- and one that we have previously highlighted in reference to Uganda. Simply put, the ICC is better able to achieve its mission of bringing justice and accountability to a region when peace has already been secured. Whereas northern Uganda fell agonizingly short of a landmark peace deal, a ceasefire in eastern Congo was signed in January. Even as this peace still needs to be consolidated, now seems to be the time to begin the process of bringing to justice those who inflicted such untold misery on the innocents of eastern Congo.

The Secretary General urged donors to fund a UN appeal as first step in tackling global food crisis. From the UN News Center:

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on donors to urgently provide the $755 million in emergency funds needed for the United Nations to feed millions of hungry people worldwide, as the first of a series of measures to tackle the global food crisis.

"The [27 heads of UN Agencies] call upon the international community and, in particular, developed countries to urgently and fully fund the emergency requirement of $755 million for the World Food Programme and honour outstanding pledges," said Mr. Ban, standing alongside WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran and other leaders of UN bodies on the frontline in dealing with food security.