Global Elders bring clout to bear on humanitarian issues
The Independent (London)

The Global Elders -- an elite group of leaders including former South African President Nelson Mandela, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, UN Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, and Myanmar activist Aung Sun Suu Kyi (in absentia) -- seek to bring attention to humanitarian crises worldwide. However, the efficacy of the group is up for debate: The Global Elders were refused visas from Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe banned them from entering on a recent diplomatic mission.

World Bank, IMF Heads Under Fire for Skipping Summit
By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 25 (IPS) - The chief executive officers of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), two financial institutions based in Washington, have come under heavy fire for their decision to skip a major U.N. conference on Financing for Development (FfD), scheduled to take place in the Qatari capital Doha over the weekend.

"They are not coming," Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, president of the 192-member General Assembly, told reporters Tuesday.

Without identifying the United States by name, he said the two Bretton Woods institutions "are controlled by a member of the United Nations who is anti-United Nations." "It's a shame," he added.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick and IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn have both opted to skip the U.N. conference, even though it has been upgraded to a summit meeting.

The conference, which is a meeting of the General Assembly, will be attended by over 40 heads of state and heads of government, and is scheduled to take place in Doha, Nov. 29-Dec. 2.

As of last week, the list included political leaders from France, Spain, South Korea, Turkey, South Africa, Japan, Australia, Mexico, and possibly Brazil, Indonesia and Italy, along with the head of the European Commission.

The relevant U.N. resolution on FfD calls for the conference to "be held at the highest possible political level, including with the participation of Heads of State or Government, ministers, special representatives and other representatives, as appropriate."