Blog Roundup

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Peek: “Number one of the eight Millennium Development Goals that all 191 United Nations member states have agreed to try to achieve by the year 2015 is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. In addition to the security concern noted above, there’s an ethical imperative. Is there a belief system on Earth that doesn’t essentially tell you that you’re connected to every other human and that your soul suffers as theirs does?” READ MORE

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Informed Comment: “Bringing the United Nations Back In – There will be anti-War protests in the coming month, as the 3-year anniversary of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq approaches. I think it is time to demand a timetable for US withdrawal from Iraq. I suspect a majority of Iraqi parliamentarians want that. The Sunni Arabs demand it. The Sadrists demand it. It is time. Saying that the guerrillas would take advantage of a timetable, given the carnage we saw on Monday is frankly silly. They are taking advantage of the current situation. We have to create a new situation, with which they might be happier so that they stop blowing things up. Staying this course is untenable. But that step will not necessarily resolve the crisis. I think the peace movement has a real opportunity here to make a push for much heavier United Nations involvement in Iraq. I say, let’s make up placards calling on Kofi Annan to get involved, and calling on Bush to let the UN come in in a big way, with proper protection.”

Democracy Arsenal: “I spent this weekend at a conference organized by the Stanley Foundation on UN Reform. Stanley is deeply valued at the UN for convening in-depth, substantive sessions that are small enough to allow participants to engage and actually reach decisions. David Shorr, an occasional guest-blogger here, has masterminded these UN events in recent years. This weekend he and Stanley Foundation President Dick Stanley focused on the nuts and bolts of how to streamline the thousands of UN mandates that have accumulated over the years. They convened a group including a dozen UN ambassadors from major countries (none with mustaches), a handful of their deputies, a few top Secretariat and US government officials, one academic and one blogger. For me it was a chance to delve back into reform issues 5 years after completing negotiations at the US Mission to the UN to reform the organization’s financial system in 2001. Here are 10 reasons why the weekend left me somewhat heartened on prospects for UN reform…” READ MORE

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Agonist: “CSM – Amid new escalation in fighting in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan, with rebels shooting down a government helicopter Tuesday, there’s fresh pressure on the international community to step in to help stop the three-year-old conflict. It comes as consensus is hardening in Western capitals and at the United Nations that the 7,000 African troops now in Darfur, as part of a force supplied by the African Union, are inadequate. Because of limited training, equipment, and marching orders, the AU troops have been unable to contain the fighting, provide safety for civilians, or adequately protect humanitarian aid groups operating in the desert region, which is the size of Texas.”

Ethiopundit: “Deepening poverty shatters families in Ethiopia: “Ethiopia has the world’s largest population of orphaned children, with 4.6 million having lost parents to AIDS and other diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria, according to a 2004 study by the United Nations and Ethiopia’s labor and social affairs ministry.” God and fate have not betrayed Ethiopians but her rulers have. As Rural Ethiopians Struggle, Child Labor Can Mean Survival: [WaPo] “Ethiopia has one of the highest rates of child labor in the world, according to the United Nations’ International Labor Organization and the African Network for the Prevention of and Protection Against Child Abuse and Neglect.” READ MORE

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Flap’s Blog: [AP] “Russia and France immediately called on Iran to halt its work and fulfill the demands of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, according to a joint statement posted on the Kremlin’s Web site.” More bloviating from Russia and France. They MAY vote for economic sanctions against Iran when these issues come before the United Nations Security Council but cannot be counted upon for more… The ball continues in the Mullah’s court. Iran must STAND DOWN or suffer the consequences. Iran WILL NOT develop or possess nuclear weapons.”

Eccentric Star: “Cartoon Protests Continue; Protest Violence Also Condemned – “U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the drawings as “insensitive and rather offensive,” but he called for dialogue. “Right now there’s megaphone diplomacy,” Annan told Denmark’s national broadcaster DR. “And I think we should turn off the megaphones and begin to talk quietly to each other.” READ MORE

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Regime Change Iran: “The United Nations wants Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and five of his relatives and aides, including his younger brother, for questioning in the murder of Lebanon’s former premier, Rafiq al-Hariri. (Assad has tried to negotiate immunity for himself and his brother in exchange for handing over the others – but the U.N. wouldn’t play.)”

TPM Cafe (Michael Levi): “Inspecting Iran – Are inspections a technical or a political process? That question comes to mind as Iran prepares to resume its uranium enrichment activities, after the IAEA Board of Governors reported its case to the UN Security Council this past weekend. Until now, Iran’s enrichment activities had been suspended under an agreement with Britain, France, and Germany; the suspension had also been requested by the IAEA itself. Now, as Iran restarts its work, the IAEA will resume routine but spare inspections, monitoring Iranian installations for unauthorized production or diversion of nuclear material.” READ MORE

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Moondancer: “U.N. delegates drafting a treaty to protect the rights of the world’s 600 million disabled have resolved many of their differences and are on track to complete the document in August, the diplomat leading the negotiations said on Friday. “It should be possible to conclude drafting at our next meeting in August,” New Zealand Ambassador Don MacKay told a news conference after a three-week drafting session. “We have made real progress and there are relatively few unresolved issues,” he said. “But it is more than just dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.” A U.N. committee that includes all 191 U.N. member-nations has been working since 2001 on a treaty to promote and protect the rights of the disabled.”

Stygius: “Steve Clemons’ long-anticipated project, an online watch page on UN Ambassador John Bolton, is now active. Bolton Watch is being hosted by TPMCafe, and Steve’s first post is up: “As a friend of mine inside the State Department recently told me, I have a slew of friends inside the Department and in the nooks and crannies of Bolton’s world who want Bolton Watch to play a constructive role in helping Condoleezza Rice to supervise him.”

Coalition for Darfur: “Darfur: Sudan Reiterates Resistance to U.N. Force – From Reuters: “Sudan on Monday softened its resistance to admitting U.N. troops to its violent Darfur region, but demanded the world body consult the government before any deployment is agreed. Sudan initially refused the deployment of U.N. troops in Darfur to stop the rape, killing and looting described by Washington as genocide, and an African Union force was dispatched instead in 2004. But donors have slowed their funding for the almost 7,000-strong AU force, prompting U.N. chief Kofi Annan to say a U.N. takeover of the AU mission is inevitable.” READ MORE