"U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland asked for the fund after the tsunami, and the General Assembly approved it last December. The idea is to give the world body the ability to quickly send emergency supplies to areas hit by natural disasters and other humanitarian crises, without having to wait for international donors to send checks.
"Warning that the proposed Human Rights Council could "unravel" if Member States made the wrong moves in the ongoing negotiations over the body, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today that the Council was of utmost importance to all nations and the stakes in the ongoing debate were "very high."
Mr. Annan told reporters that he was "chagrined" by reports that Washington opposed the proposed text to set up the Council, aimed at replacing the much-criticized Human Rights Commission, but said that this was not an issue about isolating the United States from the rest of the world and he repeated his call for an agreement as soon as possible."
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Paper Chase: "EU supports UN rights council proposal despite US opposition - The 25-member European Union (EU) has issued a statement of support for a draft resolution [PDF text; JURIST report] proposing a new UN Human Rights Council to replace the generally-discredited Human Rights Commission, which has been severely criticized for not preventing rights violators from using their membership to protect one another from censure."
Sudan Watch: "Feb 28 2006 Bloomberg report reveals the UN's top envoy to Sudan Jan Pronk said intelligence shows there are "persons in Khartoum who were not there before," meaning al-Qaeda terrorists who have threatened his life and would act against any UN troops, particularly non-Africans."
"The average age of sexual debut is just 12, according to government research. In a few traditional communities, girls are forced to have sex with older men as part of rites initiating them into adulthood. But most have their first experience with a friend or relative.
Girls who have lost one or both parents to HIV/Aids are especially vulnerable to exploitation. In cities like Blantyre, it is not unusual for them to have several "boyfriends" who support them, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) in Malawi. This in turn exposes them to the risk of infection with HIV, the virus that causes Aids.
Some older men will marry young girls after their wives die of HIV/Aids because they believe sex with a virgin will "cleanse" them, says Banda. It is also traditional in some cultures for a man to marry his wife's younger sister if she dies." [Full story]