The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has announced an investigation into alleged crimes, most notably widespread rape, committed in the Central African Republic (CAR) in 2002 and 2003.
"My Office has carefully reviewed information from a range of sources. We believe that grave crimes falling within the jurisdiction of the Court were committed in the Central African Republic," said ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo.
Moreno-Ocampo continued, "We will conduct our own independent investigation, gather evidence, and prosecute the individuals who are most responsible."
More
In June 2006, the United Nations Foundation and the Vodafone Group Foundation formed a partnership to help fund the development of digital health data systems in Africa so local health care workers can access national health databases. This includes an initiative, admimnistered through the NGO DataDyne, to fund mobile computing devices for health care workers and data officers in Burkina Faso, Kenya, and Zambia.
In the post below, Dr. Joel Selanikio writes in from a clinic in Zambia to explain why cell phones and PDAs have become a critical tool in the development of national health data systems in the developing world.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has started talks with rebel groups in the Central African Republic (CAR) to negotiate the release of hundreds of child soldiers; 220 have been freed so far.
Discussions have started with the full support of the Government of CAR, which has engaged in talks with the UNICEF since the first UN assessment mission in the Vakaga region identified armed children among the ranks of non-State armed groups in January, the agency said in a news release.
"This UNICEF programme not only contributes significantly to children's welfare, but also helps resolve one of CAR's most pressing problems," said the agency's CAR Humanitarian Coordinator, Toby Lanzer.
More
As Jessica notes below, fourteen new members have just been voted to the new Human Rights Council. The real story here is what country did not win a seat. Belarus, a repressive dictatorship in Eastern Europe, was blocked from gaining a seat on the council on Thursday when it could not muster the requisite number of votes in the General Assembly. Given Belarus' appalling human rights record that should not come as a surprise. Still, there was a chance that Belarus could have snuck in the council because Eastern Europe was guaranteed two slots on the 47 member panel, and only Belarus and Slovenia originally entered the race.
For a while, it looked as if Belarus was a shoo-in. The United States and other western countries, however, persuaded Bosnia to run and then worked behind the scenes to lobby members of the General Assembly to vote for Bosnia over Belarus. A coalition of NGO's like Human Rights Watch, the Open Society Institute, and the Democracy Coalition Project also lobbied hard to deny Belarus a seat on the Council.
According to the New York Times, the new United States Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad called the outcome "heartening." This is significant statement because just over one year ago, the United States refused to vote to create the new Council (which replaced the discredited Human Rights Commission) and eschewed running for a seat. At the time, the United States worried that there were not enough safeguards preventing a country with dismal human rights record from gaining membership. However, the vote against Belarus goes to show that when member states are sufficiently determined to keep an abusive state off of the council, the rules on voting and membership are, in fact, adequate.
Fourteen countries have been elected to serve on the United Nations Human Rights Council after a vote by Member States at UN Headquarters in New York.
Angola, Bolivia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Madagascar, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Qatar, Slovenia and South Africa were successful after the first round of voting, while Bosnia and Herzegovina and Italy were chosen following a second round.
Successful countries - which were elected according to a formula that allots seats among regional groups - needed to obtain an absolute majority of the General Assembly's membership of 192 States. The second round of balloting was restricted to those States which had scored the most votes in the first round without achieving a majority.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged policymakers and industry leaders to work to ensure that young people have better access to information and communications technology (ICT).
"In many instances, young people are the driving force behind innovation in the development and use of new technologies," Mr. Ban said in a message on World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, which is being observed under the theme Connect the Young.
More
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the largest and most expensive peacekeeping operation in the world. As of March, there were 18,336 total uniformed personnel, including 16,594 troops, 713 military observers, and 1,029 police, costing over $1 billion per year. But the price of peace is still less than the cost of years of war in Congo, which claimed more lives than any other conflict since World War Two.
From 1998 to 2003 nearly 4 million people are thought to have perished in a civil war stoked by Congo's neighbors. Today, that fighting has largely, but not completely, subsided. And while it is too early to call the DRC a UN Peacekeeping success story, it is clear that the United Nations Mission in the Congo (called by its French acronym, MONUC) is responsible for overseeing Congo's significant strides toward peace and democracy in recent years.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has announced the launch of "Food Force," the world's first humanitarian video game for children.
"Children have very few opportunities to understand the realities of a hungry world. By engaging children in a fun and creative way, 'Food Force' will help children become better global citizens - now and in the future," said John Powell, WFP Deputy Executive Director for Fundraising and Communications.
Colum Lynch reports that the African Union force in Darfur may be on the verge of collapse:
The African Union's first major peacekeeping mission — once considered the last line of defense for Darfur's civilians — has been crippled by funding and equipment shortages, government harassment and an upsurge in armed attacks by rebel forces that last month left seven African troops dead.
The setbacks have sapped morale among peacekeepers, many of whom have not been paid for months. It has also compelled the force -- which numbered 7,000 troops at its peak -- to scale back its patrols and has diminished its capacity to protect civilians, aid workers and its own peacekeepers. In one example, Gambian troops last month failed to aid a Ghanaian peacekeeper who was gunned down in a carjacking incident within 300 yards of the mission's Darfur headquarters, U.N. officials said.
When the fighting reached its peak in Darfur in spring 2004, the government of Sudan allowed a small number of African Union peacekeepers in to Darfur. Ostensibly, their job was to monitor a nominal cease-fire brokered between the government and rebels--not provide civilian protection. Still, considering the small number of troops, sparse resources at their disposal, and restrictive mandate, the African Union Mission in Sudan conducted itself admirably. In 2005, I interviewedBrian Steidle, a former US marine who served with the AU force. He recalled one incident in which the African Union deterred a government and janjaweed attack on a town of 45,000 by positioning merely 35 soldiers in the town.