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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.
April 27, 2005
Posted 10:01 PM
by Mary
On 24 March, Security Council Resolution 1590 established the United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS). UNMIS works with the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and other UN agency partners to support implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed by the Government of Sudan and the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) on 9 January 2005. Implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement includes monitoring armed groups and the redeployment of forces, promoting understanding of the peace process in local communities, addressing the need for a national inclusive approach that includes women in the peace-building process and supporting elections. UNMIS is also responsible for coordinating the voluntary return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees, demining assistance and coordination with non-governmental organizations. In his monthly report to the Security Council on the situation in Darfur on 12 April, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated, “I am troubled by the rash of attacks during March on international personnel operating in Darfur. Three incidents stand out because of the apparent intent to do harm to, or kill, those who have come to help the people of the Sudan”. According to the UNMIS mandate, the UN is authorized to take necessary action in the areas of deployment of its forces and protection of UN personnel and humanitarian workers to protect civilians who face imminent physical violence. For further information, go to: Un.org
April 25, 2005
Posted 7:09 AM
by Mary
US army abuse forced out of his job By Nick Meo in Kabul 25 April 2005 The UN's top human rights investigator in Afghanistan has been forced out under American pressure just days after he presented a report criticising the US military for detaining suspects without trial and holding them in secret prisons. Cherif Bassiouni had needled the US military since his appointment a year ago, repeatedly trying, without success, to interview alleged Taliban and al-Qa'ida prisoners at the two biggest US bases in Afghanistan, Kandahar and Bagram. Mr Bassiouni's report had highlighted America's policy of detaining prisoners without trial and lambasted coalition officials for barring independent human rights monitors from its bases. Prisoners captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the region are held at US bases, often before being shipped to Guantanamo Bay. Human Rights Watch called on Saturday for a US special prosecutor to investigate the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, and Charles Tenet, the former-CIA director, for torture and abuse of detainees in jails around the world, including Abu Ghraib in Iraq. They should be held responsible under the doctrine of "command responsibility," it said. On Friday, the US army investigation into the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib cleared four out of five top officers of responsibility for the scandal which shocked the world when it broke a year ago. The only officer recommended for punishment is Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who was in charge of Iraqi prisons at the time. The UN eliminated Mr Bassiouni's job last week after Washington had pressed for his mandate to be changed so that it would no longer cover the US military. Just days earlier, the Egyptian-born law professor, now based in Chicago, had presented his criticisms in a 24-page report to the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. The report, based on a year spent travelling around Afghanistan interviewing Afghans, international agency staff and the Afghan Human Rights Commission, estimated that around 1,000 Afghans had been detained and accused US troops of breaking into homes, arresting residents and abusing them. Guardian
April 21, 2005
Posted 10:36 PM
by Mary
US Accused of Trying to Block Abortion Pills By Sarah Boseley The Guardian UK Thursday 21 April 2005 The US government is trying to block the World Health Organisation from endorsing two abortion pills which could save the lives of some of the 68,000 women who die from unsafe practices in poor countries every year. The WHO wants to put the pills on its essential medicines list, which constitutes official advice to all governments on the basic drugs their doctors should have available. Last month, an expert committee met to consider a number of new drugs for inclusion on the list. They approved for the first time two pills, to be used in combination for the termination of early pregnancy, called mifepristone and misoprostol. In poor countries where abortion is legal, doctors currently have no alternative to surgery. The Guardian understands that the US department of health and human services has been lobbying the director general's office at the WHO to block approval of the pills, in line with President George Bush's neoconservative stance on abortion. While the availability of pills might make abortion easier and could increase the number choosing it, the experts want them listed to reduce the deaths and damage caused by surgery. Every year, 19 million women have unsafe abortions - 18.5 million of those take place in developing countries. An estimated 68,000 women die as a result of botched or unhygienic surgery, while many others suffer long-term damage, including sterility. The WHO's own department of reproductive health proposed the addition of the abortion pills to the list. In a review of the drugs for the committee, a Brazilian professor of pharmacology, Lenita Wannmacher, wrote: "There is great concern about the effectiveness and safety of surgical methods that may be less effective and may increase the risk of infection, uterine perforation, cervical laceration, incomplete evacuation, haemorrhage, miscarriage, future sterility and even death." Guardian.uk via truthout
Posted 12:05 AM
by Mary
time for a un emergency capacity What is the United Nations Emergency Peace Service? The United Nations Emergency Peace Service (UNEPS) was proposed as a permanent emergency response service designed to complement, not replace existing peace operations. UNEPS would have first in – first out capabilities that would supplement the UN’s capacity to provide stability, peace, and relief in deadly emergencies. UNEPS would recruit and train 10,000-15,000 individuals with a wide range of skills, including civilian police, military personnel, judicial experts, and relief professionals. This ensures that missions would not fail due to a lack of skills, equipment, cohesiveness, experience in resolving conflicts, or gender, national, or religious imbalance. The Service would have special expertise in conflict resolution, environmental crisis response, and emergency medical relief. Its military component would have two complete mission headquarters, each with military, police, and civilian staff, technical reconnaissance units, light armored reconnaissance squadrons, motorized light infantry, armored infantry, a helicopter squadron, an engineer battalion, and a logistics battalion. UN Department of Peace resolution in US House
April 17, 2005
Posted 8:30 AM
by Mary
Bolton wanderer; George Bush's appointments The Economist April 16, 2005 John Bolton's embarrassing confirmation hearings The confirmation hearings for George Bush's proposed ambassador to the United Nations have embarrassed the administration …Mr Bolton is a conservative's conservative, who once said it wouldn't make any difference if ten storeys were lopped off the UN's skyscraper headquarters in New York. His confirmation was always likely to be fiery. But it surpassed even these expectations and will make it harder to claim that the diplomats really are in charge of the embassy now. At the hearings, Lincoln Chafee, a liberal Republican senator from Rhode Island, asked Mr Bolton about a speech he had given in South Korea on July 31st 2003. In it he called Kim Jong Il a "tyrannical dictator" who had turned his country into a "hellish nightmare". …the speech's timing was awkward, to say the least. It came just before the first meeting in six-party talks designed to deal with North Korea's announced nuclear-weapons programme. Incensed, the North Koreans demanded to see Jack Pritchard, the State Department official responsible for the talks. …They threatened to walk away from the talks. Mr Pritchard told them that only the president and the secretary of state spoke for America… Mollified, the North Koreans agreed to show up. According to State Department officials, Mr Bolton (like the North Koreans) then went ballistic, apparently because Mr Pritchard had not defended his remarks to the Koreans. …[Mr. Pritchard] points out that the six-party talks were government policy, that he helped save them and that it was Mr Bolton who was "out of step" in his entire career at State… … As ambassador, Mr Bolton may have to brief the United Nations on American intelligence. This job will not be made easier by a reputation for denigrating intelligence officers who disagree with him. Perhaps the strongest argument for Mr Bolton's nomination is that his oft-repeated criticism of the UN makes him well suited to encourage the reforms launched by the secretary-general, Kofi Annan. But the hearing threw up some doubts here, too. In the past, Mr Bolton has opposed sending UN peacekeepers to conflicts that are not threats to international security. He has testified against UN involvement in Congo and criticised the notion that there is any "right of humanitarian intervention" to stop ethnic cleansing or genocide. Asked by Russ Feingold, a Democratic senator, whether, with hindsight, he would have worked to stop genocide in Rwanda had he been UN ambassador, Mr Bolton replied: "We don't know logistically whether it would have been possible to do anything different"—an answer which Mr Feingold thought "amazingly passive". It is still unclear whether Mr Bolton's nomination as UN ambassador was an imaginative, if risky, choice by the administration, or the product of an uneasy compromise between Ms Rice, who did not want him at State, and Dick Cheney, who insisted Mr Bolton have a high-level post. …it can hardly be a sign of confidence in him or amity in the administration that she has appointed her own adviser on UN reform, rather than relying on Mr Bolton. Full Text (Subscription Required): Economist.com
Posted 8:08 AM
by Mary
The world's most developed nations have reaffirmed the need to provide debt relief to poor countries. After talks in Washington, the G7 finance ministers said they were prepared to offer up to 100% relief on a case-by-case basis. But they failed to announce any concrete measures on how to do it. Development lobby groups criticised the G7 for "yet another missed opportunity" to deliver the debt cancellation they promised in London in February. How many children have to die before these seven men in suits develop a sense of urgency?" Jonathan Hepburn, of Oxfam International, told the AFP news agency. "There was complete silence from the G7 on the sale of gold. Yet the IMF has clearly said the gold can be sold to help cancel poor countries' debt," he said. The finance ministers' joint statement came after talks hosted by US Treasury Secretary John Snow and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.
April 14, 2005
Posted 11:07 PM
by Mary
UN slams Israeli methods GENEVA: The UN Commission on Human Rights yesterday condemned Israel's use of force against Palestinian civilians and called on the Jewish state to stop building settlements in the occupied territories. The 53-member state body, at its annual session, adopted three resolutions on Israel presented by Arab countries. The US, Israel's main ally, and Australia were alone in voting against both the resolution on settlements and one on the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. Britain, Canada, Germany and Italy were among those joining the US in voting against a text condemning Israel for use of force, including executions, and "continued systematic violations" in the West Bank and Gaza Strip occupied since 1967. Israel, which has no vote at the six-week forum, rejected the resolutions as "one-sided".
April 13, 2005
Posted 8:05 AM
by Mary
Earlier this week, the Senate quietly passed the Boxer-Snowe Amendment to an appropriations bill that would end the Global Gag rule, which prohibits the US Government from giving aid money to health organizations which even tangentially mention abortion. More inside. The Boxer-Snowe Amendment repeals the Global Gag Rule, which President Bush established by executive order on his first working day in office in 2001. Also known as the Mexico City Policy, the Global Gag Rule denies U.S. international family planning assistance to organizations that use their own privately raised funds to counsel women on the availability of abortion, advocate for changes to abortion laws, or provide abortion services. The amendment passed 46-52; Murkowski, Specter, Stevens, Warner, Snowe and Smith crossed party lines to vote yea with the entire Democratic caucus (minus Kennedy, who apparently wasn't present) and Jeffords.
April 4, 2005
Posted 8:29 AM
by Mary
U.S. says Israel must give up nukes By Amir Oren The State Department yesterday called on Israel to forswear nuclear weapons and accept international Atomic Energy Agency safeguards on all nuclear activities. This is the second time in about two weeks that officials in the Bush administration are putting the nuclear weapons of Israel, India and Pakistan on a par. The officials called on the three to act like Ukraine and South Africa, which in the last decade renounced their nuclear weapons. The similar phrasing used by the officials refers to Israel's military nuclear capability, as distinct from "nuclear option," which is to be rolled back, although not necessarily in the "foreseeable future." The rare use of these terms contradicts the custom of senior administration officials to avoid any possible confirming reference to Israeli nuclear weapons. The officials, who hold middle-level and lower ranks, are Jackie Wolcott Sanders, ambassador, Conference on Disarmament and special representative of the president for the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and Mark Fitzpatrick, acting deputy assistant secretary for nonproliferation. Haaretz.com
April 2, 2005
Posted 8:22 AM
by Mary
Council's Resolution on Atrocities in Sudan Is Passed UNITED NATIONS, March 31 -- The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution Thursday night authorizing the International Criminal Court to prosecute Sudanese war criminals for large-scale atrocities committed in Darfur, Sudan, since July 2002, dealing a setback for U.S. efforts to limit the reach of the tribunal. The resolution passed by a vote of 11 to 0, with four abstentions -- by the United States, Algeria, Brazil and China -- and marked the first time the 15-nation council has endorsed a role for the Hague-based tribunal. The administration relented and agreed to abstain after the resolution's chief supporters, France and Britain, offered to include a provision that would shield nationals from the United States and other countries that have not ratified the 1998 treaty establishing the world court from prosecution by any foreign court. Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Elfatih Erwa, declined to say whether his government would cooperate with the court but warned that its work in Sudan would complicate the country's effort to implement a landmark peace agreement between Khartoum and the country's southern rebels. He also accused the Security Council of engaging in a "double standard" by punishing poor countries while providing immunity to the world's superpower. WashPost
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"War does not determine who is right--only who is left." - Bertrand Russell
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