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organizations with NGO status at the United Nations. Please contact member parties regarding the
positions of their respective organizations on matters expressed in this online journal.
January 28, 2005
Posted 8:57 PM
by Mary
UN Wire: "Nobel laureates rally behind Annan
A group of 70 Nobel Prize winners signed a letter of support commending United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's leveraging of 'moral authority, independence, and wisdom to elevate the United Nations to meet its highest principles.' Signatories, including former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, also praised Annan for taking a 'critical look' at the UN and initiating reform."
Posted 8:56 PM
by Mary
MaximsNews: "Weapons of Mass Destruction, Terrorism, Global Security
by Hans Blix
Global security, which I shall talk about, used to mean the security of states from being attacked by other states.
However, as a high level panel appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan has argued in its recent report on a 'more secure world' global security must extend to protection against hunger, global disease and environmental disasters.
After the catastrophe in South Asia we now rightly discuss better tsunami warning systems. We also discuss how the strong global will to help can be more effectively coordinated.
One conclusion emerging is that the UN and its various organizations, which the world communitys has created for common tasks, are the instruments best placed to bring about cooperation with the recipient countries, better preparation and coordination of international help."
January 26, 2005
Posted 11:20 PM
by Mary
Amnesty, Oxfam Call for Urgent Adoption of UN Arms Trade Treaty
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Amnesty International and Oxfam, among several other global groups, are calling on the United Nations to urgently adopt a legally binding system that will make it possible to trace the origin and transfer of millions of small arms, light weapons, and ammunition that are traded worldwide.
In a report released Monday, the two groups, as well as the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), say that the small arms trade is making it impossible for nations to enforce UN arms embargoes--or hold violators accountable --against governments, warlords or rebel movements responsible for the killing of thousands of people each year.
"It is outrageous that you have more chance of tracking a GM (genetically modified) tomato or a suitcase than you do an AK47 or rocket launcher," said Jeremy Hobbs, Oxfam's director. "A piece of lost luggage can be tracked from San Francisco to Sierra Leone within hours, yet deadly weapons disappear without trace on a daily basis."
The report, 'Tracing Lethal Tools' was released to coincide with the UN conference on Marking and Tracing Arms in New York. Its task--mandated under the 1991 Program of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms--is to make recommendations about how arms can most effectively be tracked around the globe, from the place of manufacture to the final user. More than eight million small arms are manufactured in different countries each year.
"The illicit arms trade fuels human rights abuse on a massive scale," said Amnesty's secretary general, Irene Khan. "Every year thousands of people are killed, tortured, raped and attacked with guns that cannot be traced. Millions more are deprived of the right to a decent standard of living, health services, and education because funds are diverted to buy illegal weapons."
"It is time the world had a way to clearly identify those behind this cynical and deadly trade and bring them to justice," she added.
January 22, 2005
Posted 9:58 PM
by Mary
WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Porto Alegre Puts Mumbai's Lessons to the Test: "WORLD SOCIAL FORUM:
Porto Alegre Puts Mumbai's Lessons to the Test
Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 21 (IPS) - Returning to its original venue of Porto Alegre, Brazil, this year's fifth World Social Forum (WSF) will attempt to incorporate some of the lessons learned from the 2004 edition, held in Mumbai, India.
The higher degree of heterogeneity achieved at last year's meeting, where a significant number of the participants represented poor and marginalized sectors, has prompted major structural changes for the upcoming meeting in southern Brazil, taking place Jan. 26-31.
The WSF 2005, which is expected to attract some 120,000 participants, will include a number of organisational and methodological modifications aimed at generating concrete proposals for resolving the problems the world faces today. "
Posted 12:02 AM
by Mary
Feminist Daily News 1/21/2005: Nominee Says Reproductive Health Not Relevant to UNICEF Mission
Nominee Says Reproductive Health Not Relevant to UNICEF Mission
Ann Veneman, the outgoing US Secretary of Agriculture under the Bush Administration, has been nominated by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to head the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Veneman was questioned at a press conference Tuesday about her views on comprehensive reproductive health education, which the UN has long supported. Veneman said that reproductive health and education are not “relevant to the missions of UNICEF,” according to Voice of America.
Veneman will replace Carol Bellamy, a Clinton nominee who has served as UNICEF’s executive director for 10 years. Bellamy is an outspoken advocate for comprehensive sex education, global reproductive health, and children’s rights, which frustrated conservatives in the Bush Administration, according to the Washington Times.
January 20, 2005
Posted 11:08 PM
by Mary
NGOs Rally Behind UN Plan to Slash World Poverty
Published on Thursday, January 20, 2005 by OneWorld.net
NGOs Rally Behind UN Plan to Slash World Poverty
by Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Development groups are rallying behind a new UN plan unveiled Wednesday that concludes that, with sufficient support from wealthy donor nations, goals aimed at halving the number of people living in abject poverty around the world by 2015 are still achievable.
If wealthy nations double their aid to an average of 0.54 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP), not only will the number of absolute poor be sharply reduced over the next decade, but also, other goals set forth at the Millennium Summit in 2000 will be realized. U.S. economist Jeffrey Sachs--main author of 'The Millennium Report' that outlines the new Plan--and non-governmental groups believe that even the goal of reducing maternal and infant mortality can be achieved within that time frame.
"The cost is low. The benefits are huge," Jonathan Hepburn of the international development agency, Oxfam, told OneWorld. He cited the unprecedented US$4 billion in aid commitments that followed last month's catastrophic tsunami as evidence that citizens of donor nations were willing to meet the needs of poor people.
The Sachs report--a summary of the 3,000-page project titled "A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals" (MDGs)--comes as British Prime Minister Tony Blair assumes the presidency of the Group of Seven (G-7) industrialized nations which represent the world's 22 major donor countries. The Plan was developed by more than 200 leading scientists and development specialists from both developed and developing nations
January 19, 2005
Posted 12:09 AM
by Mary
Politics News Article | Reuters.com: "Annan Says U.S. Agriculture Secretary to Head UNICEF
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday that Ann Veneman, the U.S. agriculture secretary, was expected to become the new head the U.N. Children's Fund, or UNICEF.
Veneman would succeed American Carol Bellamy, who ends 10 years as UNICEF executive director in May. Annan has to submit Veneman's name to the UNICEF board this week but no problems are expected in getting her approved.
'Miss Ann Veneman is my candidate for the UNICEF position,' Annan told reporters. 'I will be submitting a recommendation to the board very shortly.'
Senior U.N. officials told Reuters last week Annan had agreed on Veneman, the first choice of the Bush administration to head the world's largest children's agency with more than 7,000 staff in 150 countries and. Annan interviewed her when he was in Washington last month
January 13, 2005
Posted 6:36 PM
by Mary
Report Singles Out US, Sudan For Strong Censure
Published on Thursday, January 13, 2005 by the Inter Press Service
Report Singles Out US, Sudan For Strong Censure
by Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - The impunity surrounding the ethnic cleansing in Darfur, Sudan and the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in U.S.-occupied Iraq has dealt a serious blow to global efforts to strengthen respect for human rights, according to a major U.S. human rights group.
”No one would equate the two,” according to a lengthy introduction to the 527-page survey of 60 countries by Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), ”yet each, in its own way, has had an insidious effect.”
”One involves indifference in the face of the worst imaginable atrocities, the other is emblematic of a powerful government flouting a most basic prohibition,” he wrote. ”One presents a crisis that threatens many lives, the other a case of exceptionalism that threatens the most fundamental rules.”
”The vitality of the global defense of human rights depends on a firm response to each,” he went on, urging serious efforts by the U.N. or any competent group of nations to stop the Sudanese government's slaughter in Darfur and to condemn the policy decisions by the Bush administration that resulted in torture and mistreatment of Iraqi and other detainees and to punish those responsible.
January 4, 2005
Posted 10:00 PM
by Mary
Annan calls on Israelis and Palestinians to observe international obligations
January 2005 – Expressing concern over the deaths of seven Palestinian civilians during Israeli military operations in northern Gaza Strip on Monday after Palestinians there launched rocket attacks, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called on both sides to fulfil their international obligations in the run-up to Palestinian elections next week.
“He is particularly disturbed that at least five of the victims were under the age of 18,” UN spokesperson Marie Okabe said, adding, “The Israeli military operations followed a marked increase in recent days of Qassam rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.”
January 2, 2005
Posted 1:52 PM
by Mary
Multifaceted UN response to tsunami focuses on both large and small
The following is a country-by-country snapshot of some of the latest items in the UN's multifaceted response to the disaster:
India: With contaminated water presenting the greatest threat of deadly diseases in the tsunami's aftermath, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has begun moving nearly 2,500 500-litre water storage tanks to relief camps and distributing 3 million water purification chlorine tablets. The UN World Health Organization (WHO) is planning disease prevention at district level, guarding against potential measles outbreaks and providing vitamin A and oral rehydration salts (ORS). The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is monitoring fisheries.
Indonesia: The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is starting an airlift on Sunday of 400 tons of shelter and other emergency supplies for an initial 100,000 people in Aceh province, among the worst and most inaccessible disaster zones. A UN joint logistics centre will be set up at the central level and in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital and a FAO emergency coordinator and a fishery expert have been sent in.
Maldives: The UN country team is focusing primarily on the provision of water, food, ORS and transport. The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is procuring safe delivery kits for the 4,000 expectant mothers while UNICEF is providing food, shelter and non-food items.
Sri Lanka: UNFPA is carrying out reproductive health assessments. UNICEF continues to help ferry the wounded and dead to area hospitals while providing 10,000 bed sheets, towels, drinking water bottles, cooking utensils sets and mats to assist the displaced and stranded. UNHCR has been distributing non-food items.
Thailand: UNFPA has deployed mobile clinics while UNICEF has begun assessing the needs of children. FAO is assisting the worst affected sectors of fisheries and agriculture. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) is sending 1,000 body bags and 2,000 kilos of formalin to the devastated holiday island of Phuket. The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is focusing on education and their World Heritage Committee will assess damage to relevant areas. The UN International Labour Office (ILO) will focus on longer-term rehabilitation and employment.
Somalia: FAO assessment teams have already been mobilized for a food security assessment in the field and the WFP has stockpiled 83 tons of food supplies for the worst affected areas.
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"War does not determine who is right--only who is left." - Bertrand Russell
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