CNN: U.N. chief Kofi Annan called on Thursday for an immediate end to the fighting between Israeli and Hezbollah forces. The secretary-general blamed Hezbollah for triggering the crisis and accused it of holding Lebanon hostage with its campaign against Israel.
"While Hezbollah's actions are deplorable and, as I've said, Israel has a right to defend itself, the excessive use of force is to be condemned," Annan told the U.N. Security Council."
"The UN's top human rights official issued a strong warning yesterday that killings of innocent civilians in Lebanon and Israel could amount to war crimes.
"International humanitarian law is clear on the supreme obligation to protect civilians during hostilities," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour. "This obligation is also expressed in international criminal law, which defines war crimes and crimes against humanity." [More]
Watching the President's comments this week complaining "about [UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's] approach to the crisis, and for holding the view of many leaders [at the G-8 summit] that Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah should ceasefire and hash out their differences," one might think that the President is upset about the role that the UN is playing in the current crisis in the Middle East. Nothing could be further from the truth. Monday afternoon White House Press Secretary Tony Snow clarified the President's position saying that he "has been supportive from the very start of the U.N. mission to the region."
"United Nations officials said they had based their figures on tallies provided by two Iraqi agencies: the Ministry of Health, which tracks violent deaths recorded at hospitals around the country; and Baghdad's central morgue, where unidentified bodies are delivered, a vast majority of which met violent deaths.
Each agency issues death warrants for the bodies it receives, government officials say, and there is no overlap between the two populations of victims." [Full story]
"U.N. diplomat Terje Roed-Larson says a U.N. delegation has presented Israel with "concrete ideas" on ways to end the violence between Israel and Hezbollah.
Roed-Larson met with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Jerusalem, Tuesday. Roed-Larson said a political framework is necessary to end hostilities." [More]
Washington Post: "The United States defended its record on prisoner treatment, racial profiling, immigration and the death penalty on Monday in its first appearance before a top United Nations human rights panel in 11 years."
From CNN's Christiane Amanpour: "According to the United Nations, there are 12 million AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa alone, and in four short years that number will skyrocket to 18.4 million. That means AIDS orphans will make up 15 to 20 percent of the population in some African countries.
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
FP Passport: "Afghan and U.N. officials fear that a persistent drought could soon add 2.4 million more people to the 6.5 million Afghans already suffering from hunger. And that development, in turn, could add to the ranks of the Taliban, magnifying the problems faced by the shaky government and the Western troops helping to hold it together."