In this week's UN Plaza, I chat with Matthew Lee who was traveling with the Security Council through Africa. We caught up at his layover in Khartoum.
In the segment below Matthew describes a government-sponsored field trip to Omdurman, where last month Darfur rebels clashed with government forces.
In this week's UN Plaza, I interview Richard Dicker, Director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch. Richard is an expert on the International Criminal Court and in the diavlog we discuss and debate the relative merits of the court. In the segment below, Richard explains the significance of the recent arrest of Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former Congolese Vice President and Militia Leader. Bemba was arrested outside his wife's home in Brussels last week and is now awaiting extradition to the Hague. As Richard explains, this is a very important development for the court.
In this week's UN Plaza, Matthew Lee and I discuss the "gold for guns" allegations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ban's diplomacy in Myanmar, the chaos in Sudan, and hopeful trends in Nepal. In the segment below, we chat about recent elections to the Human Rights Council.
In this edition of UN Plaza, I welcome Enough Campaign policy analyst Julia Speigel back to the program. We discuss her recent trip to Northern Uganda, where she monitored last month's peace talks between the government of Uganda and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army.
The peace talks stalled at the last minute when rebel leader Joseph Kony failed to show up to the signing ceremony. In the clip below, Julia discusses how the international community might pressure Kony to come back to the table. You can also read her excellent report on how to revive the peace process in Northern Uganda.
In this segment of UN Plaza, Matthew Lee and I discuss the UN's response to the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Burma.
In this segment, Matthew Lee speculates that speculators have had a hand in the rapid increase in food prices. Mathew explains:
In this segment, Matthew Lee speculates that speculators have had a hand in the rapid increase in food prices. Mathew explains:
In an interview with Campus Progress, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Samantha Power asks a very pertinent question -- and provides an impressively on-the-mark answer that bears repetition:
What is the United Nations? The United Nations is going to reflect the priorities of those 192 [member] countries. We've got to get some number of those countries to take 21st century challenges seriously. Then you'll see the United Nations as an organization follow suit. It won't work to start by saying, "Oh, the United Nations needs to take failing states, repression, and genocide seriously." That's like saying a building needs to take certain things seriously. The United Nations will start taking those thing seriously when the member states within it reallocate resources appropriately.One of those member states, of course -- and the one best positioned to provide resources for the UN's ambitious endeavors -- is the United States. Yet the U.S., instead of providing the support that would help the UN achieve its goals, deeply underfunds the world body and even chastises it for not taking stronger action on crises like Darfur. If you haven't read Power's new book yet -- which, as she describes it, is about not just the United Nations, but about how citizens and governments address complicated global challenges -- then I strongly urge you to check it out.
In an interview with Campus Progress, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Samantha Power asks a very pertinent question -- and provides an impressively on-the-mark answer that bears repetition:
What is the United Nations? The United Nations is going to reflect the priorities of those 192 [member] countries. We've got to get some number of those countries to take 21st century challenges seriously. Then you'll see the United Nations as an organization follow suit. It won't work to start by saying, "Oh, the United Nations needs to take failing states, repression, and genocide seriously." That's like saying a building needs to take certain things seriously. The United Nations will start taking those thing seriously when the member states within it reallocate resources appropriately.One of those member states, of course -- and the one best positioned to provide resources for the UN's ambitious endeavors -- is the United States. Yet the U.S., instead of providing the support that would help the UN achieve its goals, deeply underfunds the world body and even chastises it for not taking stronger action on crises like Darfur. If you haven't read Power's new book yet -- which, as she describes it, is about not just the United Nations, but about how citizens and governments address complicated global challenges -- then I strongly urge you to check it out.