UN Week – 2/27/12
This blog entry is written by members of our blogging community and expresses those experts’ views alone.
by John and Douglas Carey www.unweek.blogspot.com
Contents of this issue: Crime in West Africa; Responsibility to protect.
Crime in West Africa.
On February 21st, US Ambassador Susan E. Rice spoke in these terms to the Security Council: “Transnational organized crime is a scourge every-where, but West Africa and the Sahel are plagued by a particularly insidious version. Criminal networks corrupt societies that face pressing development-al challenges in a region emerging from years of conflict. The Security Council must address the situation using a holistic approach, in tandem with the African Union, sub-regional organizations and other actors.
“Governments in West Africa and the Sahel have made significant efforts to fight organized crime, through the Economic Community of West African States, the West Africa Coastal Initiative, and numerous other bilat-eral and sub-regional partnerships. However, the dangers continue to grow. West Africa and the Sahel face increasingly complex and sophisticated criminal activities, including terrorism, embezzlement of public funds, and the illicit trafficking of drugs, arms, oil, people and counterfeit goods, which threaten regional stability by inflaming conflicts and undermining development.
“Drug trafficking remains a principal threat. As we have heard, according to UNODC, the UN Office for West Africa, and reports provided to the Security Council, drug trafficking is increasingly intertwined with other forms of trafficking in the region. The United States continues to support the West Africa Coastal Initiative through UNODC in order to address border and corruption issues in an area of the world where an estimated $1 billion in cocaine is trafficked annually – a number more than twice the GDP of many West African nations.
“Criminals that conduct kidnap-for-ransom operations have substantially supported terrorist networks in the Sahel. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has demonstrated its ability to carry out criminal activities and attacks against soft targets across significant distances.
“Illicit arms trafficking is another serious aspect of transnational crime in West Africa and the Sahel. Poorly secured stockpiles of conventional weapons and ordnance are a potential source for arms smugglers in the region. In October 2011, the United States completed a project in Guinea-Bissau that destroyed over 80 metric tons of obsolete military ordnance at the request of the host nation.
“We encourage states to assist, where possible, governments in North and West Africa to destroy surplus, obsolete or poorly secured weapons and ammunition stockpiles. The Libyan crisis has introduced a new set of cross-border challenges. We remain concerned about the risk of weapons, includ-ing man portable air defense systems or MANPADS, moving across borders. As Secretary of State Clinton announced in Tripoli last October, the United States is providing $40 million to assist Libya in securing and recovering its weapons stockpiles. So far, we have scoured over 1,500 bunkers and helped to identify, recover, and secure approximately 5,000 MANPADS and components.
“We appreciate the financial and technical assistance provided, including by the UK, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Italy. We support the work of the United Nations Sanctions Committee Panel of Experts assessment on MANPADS and other proliferation threats, and we encourage states that have exported MANPADS to Libya in the past to share information with the Libyan authorities to assist them in accounting for unsecured missiles.
“Finally, we note with appreciation the decision by this Presidency to hold a separate session on piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, since piracy and armed robbery at sea also increasingly threaten the peace, security and sta-bility of West Africa and the Sahel. And we look forward to that discussion about this topic on February 27.” Today is the 27th; we will see what comes.
Responsibility to protect.
Also on February 21st, the following statement was made by Elizabeth Cousens, Principal Policy Advisor at the US Mission to the UN, on “our common commitment to the Responsibility to Protect (R2P).
“Seven years ago, all member states of the United Nations came together to endorse and accept a shared responsibility to protect populations from genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. While aspects of this principle would need to be elaborated further, we embraced a principle of protection anchored in the essential responsibility of States to protect their own citizens, our shared responsibility to take appropriate steps to assist States in exercising that solemn duty, and our preparedness to take timely and decisive action where national authorities manifestly failed to do so. The consensus agreement in 2005 reflected a recognition of our common humanity and a new clarity in our collective conscience that certain actions could not be allowed to stand.
“The United States was then and is now a strong supporter of the concept of Responsibility to Protect. R2P raises complex issues both in the abstract, as we are speaking today, and in specific situations, particularly when violence is escalating, good choices are narrowing, and tough judgments about collective action need to be made. Brazil’s contribution to this debate can help us refine and advance our shared commitment to R2P.
“There is much in the spirit of Brazil’s paper with which we agree. We agree that ‘violence against civilian populations must be repudiated wherever it takes place;’ that ‘prevention is always the best policy’ and preventive diplomacy needs to be strengthened; and that it is always preferable when States live up to their sovereign responsibilities to protect their own populations. We believe that force should only be resorted to when peaceful means are inadequate, and that the use of force has costs and risks that must be weighed judiciously, including against the costs and risks of inaction or different actions. And, we appreciate the paper’s acknowledgment that all three pillars of R2P are integral to the concept.
“There are also important elements with which we disagree, two of which we would highlight here. We believe it is a grave error to equate ‘manifest failure’ with strict chronological sequence. Appropriate decision-making in this area requires not just ‘temporal’ considerations but a comprehensive assessment of risks and costs and the balance of consequences, as the paper calls for elsewhere. We further regret any implication that in those circumstances where collective action is necessary, diplomacy should be considered ‘exhausted.’ We should not eliminate the possible role of diplomacy, even – perhaps especially – in situations where forceful action is required.
“The United States is committed to working with international part-ners to advance the concept of R2P. We are also looking at how to improve our own capacity to address situations at risk. Last August, President Obama affirmed that ‘preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the United States.’ He directed a government-wide review of U.S. ability to prevent and respond to mass atrocities and mandated creation of a new Atrocity Prevention Board to coordinate our internal efforts, with priority on prevention. This initiative emphasizes the need to mobilize a full and diverse range of tools. It also puts a premium on enhanced cooperation with international partners, including the United Nations.
“Situations where the risk of mass atrocity is high can be volatile, un-predictable, and fast-moving. In the early 1990s, the civil war in Rwanda had so few casualties that it wasn’t even counted by the annual reports that track armed conflicts. Yet in just four months in 1994, nearly a million people were slaughtered, according to deliberate plans for their extermination. At any point in a swiftly moving catastrophe, we will need to ask ourselves when events are approaching a threshold of enormity that warrants collective action and assess the balance of cost and consequence between action and inaction. We all have to carry in our conscience the stain of collective failure in the spring of 1994. We will also always have to make judgments in the absence of certain answers.
“There are no easy solutions when we confront the gravest of threats to innocents. But we cannot bind ourselves to inaction based on an unreal-istic prerequisite of assured success. We welcome the opportunity for on-going dialogue and continued work together with Brazil and other international partners to fulfill the Responsibility to Protect that we embraced in 2005.”
Angelique Kidjo at the UN, supporting program to end FGM
On February 28, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Angelique Kidjo, a daughter of Benin, presented a concert supporting work by UN agencies and private foundations and NGOs to end harmful cultural practices, including female genital mutilation, in the General Assembly Hall. Click below to view the evening’s event, including the concert!
RAISE YOUR VOICE TO END FGM
UN Week – 2/20/12
This blog entry is written by members of our blogging community and expresses those experts’ views alone.
by John and Douglas Carey www.unweek.blogspot.com
Contents of this issue: US Efforts for Women and Girls Worldwide
What follows is a real “scoop,” meaning that, important though it is, you probably won’t find it even mentioned in newspapers, on the radio or on network TV. It is a significant statement by a high-ranking US Government official on where our country stands concerning women’s rights. The official is Esther Brimmer, US Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs. Here is part of what she said on February 15th at Spelman College:
“It is truly an honor for me to be in Atlanta at America’s oldest historically black college for women, particularly during Black History Month, to discuss some of the many ways the President and Secretary of State are supporting the empowerment of women and girls globally. * * *
“Women and girls around the world face a breadth of challenges – lack of education and basic literacy skills, sexual and gender-based violence, rampant discrimination, the lack of economic opportunities and political participation, and more. – * * * Read more…
UN Secretary-General Report’s 2012
by Ana Carolina Magalhaes, UNA-USA intern
On January 30th 2012, in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched his report of the High-level Panel on Global Sustainability.
The final report, “Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing,” was formulated by a 22-member high-level panel, established by the Secretary-General in August 2010. It contains 56 recommendations to put sustainable development into practice so that they can become part of economic policy as quickly as possible. To read the full report click on the following link: http://goo.gl/6MRE7
A 20-page summary of the report is available here: http://goo.gl/O3kXp
UN Week – 2/13/12
This blog entry is written by members of our blogging community and expresses those experts’ views alone.
by John and Douglas Carey www.unweek.blogspot.com
Contents of this issue: Syria in the General Assembly; El-Araby visits our home; human rights defenders.
Syria in the General Assembly.
Today the General Assembly takes up Syria. In the Security Council, Russia and China were able to block approval of the Arab League’s proposed peace plan by exercising their veto power. In the GA there is no veto.
If nine members of the Security Council had invoked the Uniting for Peace procedure under Assembly resolution 377V, by calling for an emergency special session of the Assembly to consider a subject blocked by veto, then the Assembly could by majority vote adopt a resolution like what was blocked in the Council, or an even stronger resolution. We shall see. Read more…
UNA-USA 4th Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference / Members Day at the UN
We look forward to welcoming all who registered for the conference. (Registration closed on February 7.)
http://www.unausa.org/conferenceschedule
NOTE THIS CHANGE IN TIMING:
The Conference will take place in the beautiful and presitigious General Assembly Hall of the UN, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 pm. Please arrive early, as the conference will start on time. Registration opens at 8:30 a.m. in the Visitors Lobby.
Despite the shortened timeframe (because the General Assembly needs to meet from 3 to 6 pm), we will cover all the topics, and hear our keynote speakers.
We look forward to seeing you at the UN on Friday. Look for tweets @MembersDay2012
UN Week – 1/30/2012
This blog entry is written by members of our blogging community and expresses those experts’ views alone.
by John and Douglas Carey www.unweek.blogspot.com
Contents of this issue: UN’s Holocaust Remembrance Day; Coping with space debris
On January 27, Deputy US Permanent Representative Rosemary Di Carlo spoke these words:
“The theme of this day of remembrance is particularly apt, and particularly painful. Usually, when we remember the Holocaust, we remember the adults who perished. After all, they had left some record of their lives. They had made some impression on the world. They had done things that could be remembered, and so they were remembered – by many, and above all, by the family members and friends who had escaped being devoured. Read more…
UN Week – 1/23/2012
This blog entry is written by members of our blogging community and expresses those experts’ views alone.
by John and Douglas Carey www.unweek.blogspot.com
Contents of this issue: Security Council due process; US proposals.
Security Council due process.
In a lengthy presidential statement on the rule of law issued January 19th, the Security Council clamed, inter alia, that it “remains committed to ensure that fair and clear procedures exist for placing individuals and entities on sanctions lists and for removing them, as well as for granting humanitarian exemptions.” S/PRST/2012/1. Let’s see just how committed the Council has been so far. Read more…
“TAKE ACTION” Links
by Daniel Vellone, Intern
For a quick way to sign up to action and to receive updates, click on the following links:
UNA-USA (United Nations Association of the USA Take Action email page)
Better World Campaign (On the middle of the homepage is a column that reads “Stay Informed.” There you can sign up for e-mail updates about the work of the UN)
The UN FOUNDATION (United Nations Foundation page to sign up to receive updates)
The directions below (“read more”) lead to more detailed information; they will help you become informed about United Nations and development-related causes and to learn how you can take action to help. The United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA, (a program of the UN Foundation), the Better World Campaign and the United Nations Foundation all offer you ways to get involved with toward achieving social justice and improved quality of life for all. Read more…
