"U.N. human rights investigators called on Myanmar's junta on Tuesday to stop targeting members of the country's ethnic Karen minority and cited allegations of killings, rape and torture by soldiers." [Read more]
By Kofi Annan
"The agreement signed between the government of Sudan and the largest rebel movement in Darfur on May 5 gives the world one more chance to bring peace to that unhappy region. The Peace and Security Council of the African Union is meeting on Monday in Addis Ababa to see how best to take the agreement forward. The rest of the world must also engage rapidly and without reservation if the opportunity the agreement offers is not to be lost.
United Nations officials mobilized today to press for a robust peacekeeping force and a speedy disbursement of humanitarian funds to back up a peace accord signed 10 days ago between the Sudanese Government and a major rebel group in the western Darfur region of Africa's largest country.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for Sudan Jan Pronk took part in a ministerial-level meeting of the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to examine the current mandate and the future of the AU protection force currently deployed in Darfur. [More]
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Coalition for Darfur on Darfur's children
Daily Kos's Hunter on Iran and US isolationism
"U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan urged the United States again on Friday to enter direct talks with Iran to ease a crisis over Iranian nuclear work after Washington vowed not to be drawn into "endless" dialogue." [More]
"Ethiopia is holding opposition figures under laws that may violate its constitution, Somalia urgently needs international attention, and despite assertions by Sudan's Government, displaced women in that country's Darfur region are still being raped on a large scale, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said today.
Just back from a two-week mission to the Horn of Africa, she told reporters at the UN complex in Geneva that in Ethiopia, thousands of people were imprisoned after events following last year's elections year. Of these just over 100 remained, comprising elected officials, journalists and other members of civil society charged with genocide and treason." [Full story]
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Democracy Arsenal's Suzanne Nossel on China and the UN
Bradford Plumer on the "water wars"
Coalition for Darfur on setting up UN forces in Darfur
Mark Leon Goldberg on the new Human Rights Council
News Hounds on Fox News' UN coverage
"When Toshiko Kitahara arrived in Ragh district in Badakhshan province, north-east Afghanistan, two things struck her: its natural beauty and the fact that girls did not attend school.
As a UN Volunteer with the World Food Programme (WFP), Toshiko decided to make girls' education a priority. [She first arrived in Afghanistan in 2002 and started as a UN Volunteer in 2003.] A programme officer with WFP's Food for Education unit in the province, the Japanese national took up her concern directly with department of education officials - and just about anyone else who would listen.