At UN anti-trafficking forum, participants raise awareness of tainted goods
14 February 2008 – As couples celebrated Valentine’s Day around the world with gifts of chocolate and cut flowers, participants at a United Nations forum in Vienna on human trafficking today worked to raise awareness of how the problem is tied to these commodities.

Behind the romantic gestures of roses and chocolate “is often a chain of trafficked human beings delivering disposable commodities to affluent consumers. Many are children toiling in inhumane conditions or women trapped in near-slavery,” the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a news release issued in conjunction with the Vienna Forum to Fight Human Trafficking.

Conference participants wore upturned heart lapel badges called the “upset heart” as a sign of solidarity with the victims. Their aim was to raise consciousness and affect the buying decisions of consumers just as the “blood diamond” and Fair Trade certifications have fostered ethical choices on diamonds. The campaign was also the subject of a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York this week.

“Take exploitation out of your bottom line,” said UNODC Antonio Maria Costa in his opening speech to the Vienna Forum yesterday. “Make sure that the supply chain is not tainted by blood, sweat and tears of modern slaves.”

“On this Valentine’s Day, spare a thought for those whose lives have been turned upside down by human trafficking,” he said.

Gates Foundation’s Influence Criticized
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

The chief of malaria for the World Health Organization has complained that the growing dominance of malaria research by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation risks stifling a diversity of views among scientists and wiping out the world health agency’s policy-making function.

In a memorandum, the malaria chief, Dr. Arata Kochi, complained to his boss, Dr. Margaret Chan, the director general of the W.H.O., that the foundation’s money, while crucial, could have “far-reaching, largely unintended consequences.”

Many of the world’s leading malaria scientists are now “locked up in a ‘cartel’ with their own research funding being linked to those of others within the group,” Dr. Kochi wrote. Because “each has a vested interest to safeguard the work of the others,” he wrote, getting independent reviews of research proposals “is becoming increasingly difficult.”

Also, he argued, the foundation’s determination to have its favored research used to guide the health organization’s recommendations “could have implicitly dangerous consequences on the policy-making process in world health.”

Dr. Tadataka Yamada, executive director of global health at the Gates Foundation, disagreed with Dr. Kochi’s conclusions, saying the foundation did not second-guess or “hold captive” scientists or research partnerships that it backed. “We encourage a lot of external review,” he said.

The memo, which was obtained by The New York Times, was written late last year but circulated this week to the heads of several health agency departments, with a note asking whether they were having similar struggles with the Gates Foundation.

A spokeswoman for the director general said Dr. Chan saw the memo last year but did not respond to it. It is “the view of one department, not the W.H.O.’s view,” said the spokeswoman, Christine McNab. The agency has cordial relations with the foundation, and the agency’s policies are set by committees, which include others besides Gates-financed scientists, she said.

UN Chief Seeks Bush's Support

3 days ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told President Bush on Friday that "I need your strong support" to resolve global problems.

Meeting in the Oval Office, Bush expressed strong backing for Ban and his efforts "to make the United nations a constructive force for good."

Bush at times has had strained relations with the U.N., particularly when he sought unsuccessfully the U.N.'s blessing for the U.S.-led war in Iraq. At the time, Bush questioned whether the U.N. was relevant and said it was time for it "to show some backbone and resolve."

But Bush was unreserved in his praise of Ban, thanking him for his efforts to deal with the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, turmoil in Myanmar and violence in Kenya.

"I appreciate your vision," the president said. "And thank you for your leadership and your friendship."

Ban, in turn, thanked Bush for the support he has shown over the past year.

"I've been trying my best to make the United Nations more trustful, transparent and accountable and a more effective organization," he said.

"The United States is the country with the most ability for technology and financing capacities," the secretary-general said. "I count on your leadership and active participation."

He said a strong partnership between the U.S. and U.N. "is the crucial and important element in carrying out my duty as secretary general, and also making the United Nations organization more strengthened in carrying out the common challenges we share together."

This week, US military prosecutors decided to seek the death penalty for six Guantanamo Bay detainees who are "to be charged with central roles" in the 9/11 terror attacks. One detainee, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, allegedly "conceived the attack, got approval and funding from Osama bin Laden, and oversaw the training of the hijackers." Others aided in the training and financing of the hijackers. While the charges are serious, the detainees deserve fair trials. But under the Military Commissions Act (MCA), such justice appears unlikely. In 2006, a previous system was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, but months later, President Bush and the conservative-run Congress "resurrected the tribunals in an altered form" in the 2006 MCA. Under this system, four other defendants have been charged by the military commission; only one has pled guilty. In place of military commissions, Ken Gude of the Center for American Progress advocates the use of the criminal justice system, which, "coupled with standard military trials when necessary, has and can further law enforcement, intelligence, and prevention efforts without undermining our fundamental liberties or our long-term efforts to combat
WFP, Vodafone to work on emergency communication
13 Feb 2008 09:46:00 GMT
Source: AlertNet
By Kate Holton

LONDON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has joined forces with Vodafone to work on a standard telecommunications system for aid agencies around the world to improve logistics and response times to disasters.

In natural disasters or attacks such as the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, communication systems can be damaged, destroyed or severely restricted due to heavy demand.

The two groups believe a system where all agencies are trained in the same way to work together to re-establish communications could improve response times to major emergencies and allow agencies to better reach those affected.

"In an emergency, the ability to communicate saves lives," WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran told Reuters in an interview.

"To us this is central to our work, we're the global 911 and we have to be able to respond, we have to be able to active everyone who has these capabilities."

The WFP is the lead United Nations agency on providing communications in emergency situations.

The United Nations Foundation and the Vodafone Group Foundation have pledged $4.3 million between them while the WFP has pledged a further $1.8 million to develop a training programme open to all humanitarian relief organisations.

Over the next three years, 500 information and communication technology workers will be trained to deploy quickly. Sheeran said they would ensure that all the agencies were able to work on the same communication system, and this would also allow smaller, local agencies, to be involved quickly.

"Sometimes we'll have up to 2,000 partners working on any given situation and there's many local NGOs that are part of the network and can be called on as part of the response," she said.

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Global arms trade as an interactive map
see
http://armstrade.sipri.org/ at the Stockholm Peace Institute for data, and here is the map
http://www.sipri.org/contents/armstrad/output_types_TIV.html