The second Annual Review of Global Peace Operations (executive summary pdf) was released last week at the United Nations and highlighted a year of unprecedented growth in UN peacekeeping operations. A project of the Center on International Cooperation at New York University, the report says that despite the immense challenges of starting several new large-scale missions "2006 was not a catastrophic year for peacekeeping. In some ways, it was a surprisingly successful one." It goes on to elaborate on the details of deployments by the UN and other organizations, looking at specific regional and country contributions.
Congress should keep this information in mind as it starts its deliberations on the utility of UN peacekeeping and makes budgetary decisions about the U.S. contributions. Right now, the President's budget is about $500 million short of what will be needed for the U.S. to pay its peacekeeping dues even though the U.S. has voted for all of the new missions in the Security Council. Considering the benefit of peacekeeping to U.S. interests, the U.S. should pay these bills in full.
United Nations officials have called for increased efforts to end human trafficking, most notably in women and girls.
At the International Conference on Trafficking in Women and Girls, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said that "the fact that there are forms of slavery in our world today should fill us all with shame...As an African woman, I would add that it also fills me with rage."
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A Friday event called "Girls Speak Out" featured girls from around the world, including a former child soldier from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and an HIV-positive rape victim from Zambia, sharing their experiences of activism.
Moderated by CBS News anchor Katie Couric, the event was part of the 51st Commission on the Status of Women.
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Women's empowerment as a poverty eradication tool was discussed by top UN officials at the 51st session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).
Despite several promising steps, including increased provision of microcredit and the accession of several States to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), "challenges remain," Rachel N. Mayanja, the Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women, said at a meeting yesterday. "Continued discrimination against the girl child, violence against girls and women, and low representation of women in decision-making" still pose major problems, Ms. Mayanja said.More For more information on CSW, click here. For more information on poverty eradication and women, check out the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO).
The Security Council referred the Darfur issue, along with the names of 51 suspected perpetrators, to the ICC in March 2005, after a UN inquiry into whether genocide occurred in Darfur found the Government responsible for crimes under international law and strongly recommended referring the dossier to the Court.More
Diplomats from the U.S., Britain, China, Russia, Germany and France have agreed to start working on new resolution in order to pressure Iran to rein in its nuclear program.
The State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said the United States was willing to join in talks between the Europeans and Iran over the nuclear program, provided that Iran suspended its uranium enrichment activity.More
"I am quite confident that with your help we can maintain a peaceful, stable and violence-free environment in Liberia," Mr. Doss told the unit made up 105 female officers with 20 male supporting staff - the first largely female Formed Police Unit to be deployed to a UN peacekeeping operation.More
"I urge again that the Iranian Government fully comply with the Security Council as soon as possible" to engage in continued negotiation "with the international community so that we will be able to address and peacefully resolve this issue," he told reporters in Vienna, Austria, where he is on an official visit.More