Yesterday the Carter Center announced that the run-off Presidential election held on October 29, 2006, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was "extremely orderly and peaceful" and "very well executed." This is a remarkable piece of good news for the inhabitants of this war torn country and those of the entire region, which has been destabilized for more than a decade due to almost non-stop cross-border clashes. And it is an example of one of the myriad ways in which the United Nations is fostering peace and prosperity around the world.
As reported in the Washington Post today, the U.N. General Assembly has suspended voting for a week as it tries to find a solution to the deadlock caused by competing bids for membership on the Security Council from Venezuela and Guatemala. Guatemala, backed by the United States, has led over 35 rounds of voting, but has yet to secure the necessary two-thirds majority. Some have predictably and irrationally labeled this as an example of UN inaction. This claim not only betrays a basic misunderstanding of the workings of international politics but of the overwhelming benefit of multilateral versus unilateral outcomes both for the United States and the rest of the world.
Amidst reports of growing political and security uncertainties in Iraq, the United Nations is still tending to the crucial and monumental task of bringing international donors to the table. Part of that effort includes the International Compact for Iraq, initiated by the UN at the request of the U.S. and Iraqi governments to spur political, economic, and social development.
Bolton Watch: "Public officials cannot be responsible for the opinions of the people who interview them. But they can be judicious with whom they choose to grant interviews. It is therefore a wonder why Ambassador John Bolton would grant an interview to Pamela Oshry, proprietor of the anti-Muslim hate website "Atlas Shrugs."
Glenn Greenwald: "U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, on Saturday, in the middle of the most pressing crisis the U.N. has faced since he was appointed to that position, decided to sit for an hour-long, one-on-one "interview" and chose as his journalistic interrogator . . . LGF commenter Pamela "Atlas" Oshry of the blog AtlasShrugs, whose views are so far outside of what is mainstream, in equal parts inane and despicable, that it would be impossible to describe fully."
Think Progress: "'Violence against women in Afghanistan is widespread and mainly happens inside victims' homes,' according to a report from the U.N. Development Fund for Women. 'Acts of violence (against women) are happening with impunity,' the report said."
From the UN Foundation:
Our post-tsunami water and sanitation reconstruction partnership with The Coca-Cola Company has been selected as a finalist for the US Chamber of Commerce's "Partnership Award." After the tsunami, the UN Foundation partnered with The Coca-Cola Company to find ways to contribute to longer-term recovery efforts, with a focus on community-based water and sanitation needs. Working in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme UNDP), the partnership is responding to long-term water and sanitation needs in remote, tsunami-hit areas of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Thailand. To learn more about the partnership and to vote click here: http://www.unfoundation.org/features/tsunami_partnership.asp
"Senate Democrats unleashed a sharp volley of criticism of President Bush's foreign policy yesterday, arguing that John R. Bolton has done more harm than good as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and does not deserve an extended term. If Bolton's style were less divisive, they said, he might have achieved more reforms at the United Nations and tougher sanctions against Hezbollah and North Korea." [Full story]
Bloggers weigh in:
FDL
Washington Note
Think Progress
From Media Matters: "During his July 20 interview with U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John R. Bolton, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly repeatedly lashed out at the U.N., putting Bolton in the position of defending the U.N. and its Security Council. O'Reilly called Security Council actions "a joke," accused the U.N. of not being "able to do anything," and declared that "I just think the whole place [the U.N.] is a rat's nest." In response, Bolton -- who, before being appointed ambassador to the U.N., had made comments that were harshly critical of the organization -- criticized some U.N. actions but defended many others, attempting to explain what was "worthwhile" about U.S. involvement with the U.N."
"Every day 1,200 people, half of them children, are killed in the conflict-hit Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) because of violence, disease and malnutrition, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in a report issued today.
The report, Child Alert: DRC, also states that more children under age five die each year in the African country than in China -- a country with 23 times the population. It draws attention to the appalling fact that the total countrywide death toll every six months is similar to that for the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed more than 230,000 people in 12 countries." [More]
Watching the President's comments this week complaining "about [UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's] approach to the crisis, and for holding the view of many leaders [at the G-8 summit] that Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah should ceasefire and hash out their differences," one might think that the President is upset about the role that the UN is playing in the current crisis in the Middle East. Nothing could be further from the truth. Monday afternoon White House Press Secretary Tony Snow clarified the President's position saying that he "has been supportive from the very start of the U.N. mission to the region."