"The United Nations today called on Iraq's Government to urgently assert control over the security forces and all armed groups in the war-torn country, saying February's attack on a shrine in Samarra had led to a worsening situation, resulting in hundreds of cases of killings, torture, illegal detention and displacement." [More]
"Violence is surging in Sudan's south as well as its western Darfur region, fueled by government inaction even after years of global attention, U.N. envoy Jan Pronk told the Security Council on Tuesday." [More]
"Britain's strategy for persuading Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions calls for sanctions that could be enforced militarily if diplomacy fails, but getting U.N. Security Council members Russia and China on board will be a struggle." [More]
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Agonist: "Security Council Fails To Reach Accord on Iran - WaPo - The Security Council's five permanent members and Germany failed to reach agreement at a meeting Monday on how to respond to the Iranian nuclear crisis but said they would forge ahead in the coming days to break the impasse. The deadlock comes as U.S. and European officials confirmed that Britain had presented the United States with a paper outlining a possible diplomatic strategy to resolve the crisis, including new talks and concessions. But the British representative at Monday's talks, John Sawers, said Britain had not made such a proposal at the meeting."
Tapped (Mark Leon Goldberg): "Finally, there's some good news out of Western Africa: The newly elected president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, formally requested that the government of Nigeria extradite former Liberian strongman Charles Taylor to the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity."
Huffington Post (Steve Clemons): "Anne-Marie Slaughter sums up the state of affairs regarding America's stance towards the new Human Rights Council beautifully. Slaughter, the dean of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton, outlines that although America voted "no" on the Council, word from the U.N. has it that Secretary Rice pushed hard to soften Bolton's stated opposition to the Council... Far more important, though, was the announcement later in the day that the U.S. would in fact help to fund the Council and would pledge support for making it "as strong and effective as it can be."
"A Congolese militia leader accused of conscripting children for war will be the first suspect to face trial at the International Criminal Court, the chief prosecutor of the ICC said on Saturday.... The U.N. children's agency UNICEF said Lubanga's arrest showed the international community would not tolerate the use of children in armed conflict."
"Senior diplomats from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany will meet in New York next week to try to break a deadlock on Iran's nuclear program, U.S. officials and U.N. diplomats said on Thursday.
The meeting is now set for Monday among foreign affairs officials from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, the envoys said.
"In contrast to earlier problems with Syrian cooperation, the United Nations panel looking into last year's assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri today reported progress in this "critical area," with a common understanding reached regarding access to individuals, sites and information." [Full Story]
"The United Nations will soon have a re-minted human rights body to monitor abuses worldwide after the full membership voted in favour of its creation yesterday ... The notion of a reformed council was proposed by Kofi Annan, the secretary general, last year and endorsed by the UN's 60th anniversary summit in September." More
"United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged the international community to remain focused on the protection of civilians in Sudan's strife-torn region of Darfur, saying that rising insecurity there had made it dangerous and volatile.
International efforts should aim to "contribute to the protection of civilians at risk with a view to creating an environment conducive to national reconciliation in a country where human rights are respected and internally displaced persons and refugees can return home," said Annan in his monthly update on Darfur, which was released to the Security Council on Tuesday." [Read more]