Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), issued a statement on the murder of journalist Adnane al-Safi.
"The murder of Adnane al-Safi strikes yet another blow against peace and democracy in Iraq...His killers stand condemned in the eyes of the world, and I call upon the authorities in Iraq to do their utmost to bring those responsible to justice."
Some 40 media professionals have been killed this year alone in Iraq.
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The Washington Institute on Near East Policy just released a very even-handed assessment of the peacekeeping force deployed to Lebanon following a ceasefire brokered through the Security Council one year ago this week.
The post-2006 UNIFIL is regarded as more robust than its predecessor, with units that include tanks as well as armored fighting vehicles. It also has ships in a maritime task force working in collaboration with the Lebanese navy. UN Security Council Resolution 1701 authorizes "all necessary action in areas of deployment of [UNIFIL's] forces," qualifying this by also stating "as it deems within its capabilities." Both Israeli and UN officials have reported that weapons are being smuggled to Hizballah across the border from Syria, although not in UNIFIL's area of operations below the Litani river in the south.According to the report, Unifil's single greatest challenge is maintaining a visible presence and cordial relationship with the local population, despite the understandable urge to scale back patrols following a suicide car bombing that killed six peacekeepers two months ago.
Some UNIFIL officers favor adopting a more population-centric approach, working to build up personal relationships with the villagers of southern Lebanon and even local Hizballah representatives. Others seem content to simply wait out the rest of their tours in southern Lebanon behind the razor-wire fences encircling their bases. At the root of the problem is UNIFIL's greatest strength -- the fact that it comprises soldiers from so many different countries...The different contingents do not just vary in training and equipment, but also in the way they conduct themselves within their own sectors..Success in Southern Lebanon is not a foregone conclusion. There is growing concern, for example, that Unifil may be targeted in the future, possibly to intimidate the international community as the Lebanese Special Tribunal gets off the ground. Still, it is worth recalling that just one year ago a barrage of rockets rained down on northern Israel while thousands of Lebanese civilians became displaced by Israeli bombing. But through diplomacy at the UN, catastrophe was contained.
The UN Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), which promotes socially and environmentally sustainable housing, has launched a new worldwide alliance with water operators to improve to clean water and basic sanitation.
The new Global Water Operators Partnership Alliance is designed to strengthen the capacities of the public water operators that provide more than 90 per cent of water and sanitation services in developing nations.More
According to press reports the Dutch government is putting the final touches on a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations over hosting the Lebanese Special Tribunal. The only thing that needs to be resolved, says the Dutch government, is an agreement by a second country to imprison people convicted by the tribunal, which will try those responsible for a wave of political assassinations in Lebanon, including the 2005 car bombing that killed Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The tribunal's precise location in Holland is still being decided. One option may be the facilities of the International Criminal Court, which are being used by the Special Court for Sierra Leone's trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor. (Like the Taylor trial, if the Lebanese Tribunal is held at the ICC the tribunal will operate under its own rules, not those of the ICC.)
It deserves mentioning that both the Hariri tribunal and the Special Court for Sierra Leone were created by the Security Council with strong American backing. The ICC is an independent institution that does not enjoy American support. But by hosting the Taylor trial--and potentially holding the Hariri Tribunal--the ICC may be tacitly showing skeptics that it can, in fact, be a useful institution to support.
One month after floods devastated Bangladesh, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is still providing food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities and shelter to those affected.
UNICEF has also deployed 10 mobile water treatment plants for communities needing safe water in concert with the country’s Department of Public Health and Engineering. The agency said in its latest update, released yesterday, that deaths resulting from diarrhoea have been avoided to date – despite 15,000 reported cases – thanks to the availability of oral rehydration salts to treat dehydration.More
I just came across Steven Levitt's Freakonomics post from Monday suggesting that man-made tornadoes or some other silver bullet will likely be the cure for climate change; we needn't fret. His reasoning:
Technology and human ingenuity have solved just about every problem we’ve faced so far; there is no obvious reason why global warming shouldn’t succumb as well.
In sub-Saharan Africa, one in every 16 women will die in pregnancy or childbirth. In Afghanistan and Sierra Leone, pregnancy and birth complications kill one in every six women. To take on the millions of maternal deaths worldwide, the UN is backing a landmark global conference set to take place in London this October.
At Women Deliver, more than 2,000 people will come together to strategize new ways to save women's lives and tackle other issues that impede women's access to care such as poverty.
Today, in the Council on Foreign Relations' Daily Analysis, deputy editor Robert McMahon does a good job summarizing a common thread that runs through the foreign policy agendas of the leading '08 candidates:
What is striking so far about the candidates’ foreign policy presentations is the consistent desire, expressed by Republicans and Democrats alike, to have the United States improve and deepen its engagement with the world.Although the suggested methods of engagement differ, it is clear that the candidates are tapping into the sentiments of American voters, who are becoming increasingly tired of costly, and largely ineffective, unilateral action.
Writing in Foreign Policy, Idean Salehyan takes umbrage with this weeks-old op-ed by Ban Ki-moon in which the Secretary General cites climate change as a contributory factor to the violence in Darfur. The author doesn't doubt the science behind climate change, rather Salehyan quips that pointing out the relationship between conflict and climate change is bad politics. Talking about this link, says, Saleyhan is tantamount to excusing belligerents for starting armed conflict:
[A]rguing that climate change is a root cause of conflict lets tyrannical governments off the hook. If the environment drives conflict, then governments bear little responsibility for bad outcomes. That's why Ban Ki-moon's case about Darfur was music to Khartoum's ears. The Sudanese government would love to blame the West for creating the climate change problem in the first place. True, desertification is a serious concern, but it's preposterous to suggest that poor rainfall--rather than deliberate actions taken by the Sudanese government and the various combatant factions--ultimately caused the genocidal violence in Sudan. Yet by Moon's [sic] perverse logic, consumers in Chicago and Paris are at least as culpable for Darfur as the regime in Khartoum.First, Ban never said that climate change, alone, is to blame for the conflict in Darfur. This is what he wrote (emphasis mine.) "Amid the diverse social and political causes, the Darfur conflict began as an ecological crisis, arising at least in part from climate change." These are important qualifiers. But more importantly, Salehyan questions the political utility of highlighting the ecological roots of conflicts like Darfur. I think the answer is a resounding yes, for doing so adds another layer of urgency to international efforts to redress climate change. It is entirely appropriate, for example, for delegates at the coming UN summit on climate change to note that progress they make has real-world consequences for global security. Simply stating the truth of the matter--that desertification of the sahel has sparked new competition of over resources in Darfur--does not excuse Khartoum and rebel groups for causing a humanitarian crisis. It does, however, help bring to light that our actions on climate change can help mitigate future crises.