A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Paper Chase: "UN Legal Counsel Nicolas Michel said Thursday that the UN is ready to begin final negotiations on the establishment of an international tribunal to try suspects in the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. Michel said that a mixed tribunal with both Lebanese and international support, similar to the Special Court for Sierra Leone, would produce the best outcome. He said that it is unlikely that the tribunal will be established inside Lebanon and that factors such as impartiality and safety of witnesses and judges will determine its location. Michel's comments follow a recommendation of a mixed tribunal from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan earlier this week."
"One United Nations estimate says from 113 million to 200 million women around the world are demographically "missing." Every year, from 1.5 million to 3 million women and girls lose their lives as a result of gender-based violence or neglect.
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Science Blog: "A far wider range of species, some of them rare and endangered, may be affected by highly virulent avian flu than has previously been supposed, ranging from big cats like leopards and tigers to other mammals like martens, weasels and badgers to 80 per cent of all bird species, the United Nations environmental agency warned today."
"The United Nations today called on Iraq's Government to urgently assert control over the security forces and all armed groups in the war-torn country, saying February's attack on a shrine in Samarra had led to a worsening situation, resulting in hundreds of cases of killings, torture, illegal detention and displacement." [More]
"Violence is surging in Sudan's south as well as its western Darfur region, fueled by government inaction even after years of global attention, U.N. envoy Jan Pronk told the Security Council on Tuesday." [More]
"Britain's strategy for persuading Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions calls for sanctions that could be enforced militarily if diplomacy fails, but getting U.N. Security Council members Russia and China on board will be a struggle." [More]
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Agonist: "Security Council Fails To Reach Accord on Iran - WaPo - The Security Council's five permanent members and Germany failed to reach agreement at a meeting Monday on how to respond to the Iranian nuclear crisis but said they would forge ahead in the coming days to break the impasse. The deadlock comes as U.S. and European officials confirmed that Britain had presented the United States with a paper outlining a possible diplomatic strategy to resolve the crisis, including new talks and concessions. But the British representative at Monday's talks, John Sawers, said Britain had not made such a proposal at the meeting."
Tapped (Mark Leon Goldberg): "Finally, there's some good news out of Western Africa: The newly elected president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, formally requested that the government of Nigeria extradite former Liberian strongman Charles Taylor to the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity."
Huffington Post (Steve Clemons): "Anne-Marie Slaughter sums up the state of affairs regarding America's stance towards the new Human Rights Council beautifully. Slaughter, the dean of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton, outlines that although America voted "no" on the Council, word from the U.N. has it that Secretary Rice pushed hard to soften Bolton's stated opposition to the Council... Far more important, though, was the announcement later in the day that the U.S. would in fact help to fund the Council and would pledge support for making it "as strong and effective as it can be."
"A Congolese militia leader accused of conscripting children for war will be the first suspect to face trial at the International Criminal Court, the chief prosecutor of the ICC said on Saturday.... The U.N. children's agency UNICEF said Lubanga's arrest showed the international community would not tolerate the use of children in armed conflict."