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Wed1338 Wednesday, appropriately was United Nations Day

see Diana's Canada & the UN

2008

Tuesday 04 November 2008 Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says he will meet the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda to find ways to stop the military conflict in eastern Congo. Mr. Ban says Joseph Kabila of Congo and Paul Kagamé of Rwanda are prepared to meet him this weekend or early next week and that he's willing to travel to Africa for the meetings. Rebel leader Laurent Nkunda launched an offensive on Aug. 28 and led his fighters to the edge of the city of Goma last week before declaring a ceasefire.

Saturday 25 October 2008 UN head seeks crisis aid for poor
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calls for drastic measures to protect developing countries from the financial crisis.

Thursday 25 September 2008 UNITED NATIONS
World leaders and government officials at the United Nations General Assembly have pledged to help Africa to reduce poverty. The pledge came amid criticism by Arican governments that rich nations are not living up to previous aid promises. Eight years ago, the U.N. agreed to cut global poverty in half by 2015. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon says that progress has been made to improve health and education, but not one African country has made enough progress to meet the 2015 deadline.

Israel has accused Iran of publicly expressing anti-Semitism. During a speech at the United Nations on Tuesday, Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that a few deceitful Zionists were manipulating Americans and Europeans and controlling the world's financial systems. Israeli President Shimon Peres said that the speech was reminiscent of notorious anti-Semitic discourses. The Iranian president previously called for the destruction of Israel.

Tuesday 23 September 2008 The UN secretary general is meeting with heads of state, private business leaders, and development agencies all this week to assess the global fight against poverty. Ban Ki-moon chose the Millenium Development Goals as the keynote theme of this year's annual General Assembly gathering of UN members. This week's meetings in New York mark the midway point since global leaders first approved the Millenium Development Goals eight years ago. The goals are aimed at cutting hunger and poverty in half by 2015. The talks will focus on threats to progress caused by the upheaval in international markets and soaring food prices.

Friday 12 September 2008 SPAIN
The three-day Third World Social Forum on Migrations has begun in a suburb of Madrid. Delegates were expected to call on European nations to ratify the 1990 UN convention on migrants' rights. Participants are also expected to demand that a UN body be created to defend those rights globally.

Saturday 12 July 2008 The world body says that the International Criminal Court in The Hague will on Monday accuse Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir of crimes against humanity and genocide in the territory of Darfur. The UN says that the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, will also indict one or more new suspects. The sources also say they expect the prosecutor to present lesser charges against Vice-President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha. Mr. Moreno-Ocampo said last month that Sudan's "whole state apparatus" is involved in crimes against humanity in Darfur. Three-hundred-thousand people have died there since the conflict between the rebels and the Khartoum government began in 2003. The indictments could complicate the UN's efforts to mediate a peace in the wartorn region. The Khartoum government doesn't recognize the International Criminal Court's authority and has refused to arrest and send for trial two people charged with atrocities by Mr. Moreno-Ocampo last year.

Tuesday 24 June 2008 Security Council Urges Zimbabwe to Halt Violence
The United Nations Security Council issued a sweeping condemnation of the violence gripping Zimbabwe after the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, took refuge at the Dutch Embassy.
UNITED NATIONS — With Zimbabwe’s opposition under siege and its leader taking refuge at the Dutch Embassy, the Security Council on Monday issued its first sweeping condemnation of the violence gripping the nation, saying it would be “impossible for a free and fair election to take place.” w-n on ZIMBABWE

Saturday 31 May 2008 UN
The World Health Organization has called for a total ban on all advertising for tobacco products. The UN body issued its call on world tobaccoless day. The WHO says it wants to protect the health of 1.8 billion young people who are targeted by smoking ads. The organizations says that recent research shows that the more young people are exposed to such incentives, the more likely they are to end up smoking. The WHO published a report last February that indicates that 100 million people in the course of the 20th century died from having smoked.

Wednesday May 14, 2008 UN Force Burmese aid: Canada

Wednesday 23 April 2008 UNITED NATIONS
The French UN ambassador says that France, the United States and Britain are drafting a U.N. Security Council resolution that would authorize countries to fight piracy off Somalia and elsewhere. A surge in maritime hijackings for ransom in the waters off the coast of lawless Somalia have made it one of the world's most dangerous shipping zones. Somali pirates hijacked a ship en route from Dubai Monday and Spain said it had sent a naval frigate after the seizure of a Spanish tuna fishing boat with 26 people aboard off Somalia. The attackers appear undeterred by the arrest by French troops in the desert last week of six Somali pirates who had seized a French luxury yacht and held its crew hostage for a week. They were captured and flown to France.

Sunday 30 March 2008 UNITED NATIONS: CANADA OPPOSES RELIGION RESOLUTION
Canada and EU states voted against a resolution that was adopted by the UN Human Rights Commission and had been proposed by Muslim member states. The resolution says the UN is concerned by the defamation of religions and urges government to prohibit such behaviour. The text of the resolution mentions only one religion, Islam, and contains eight paragraphs which refer to it. European diplomats had said before the vote that their countries oppose a trend to use the protection of religion as a pretext to limit free speech. The UN body is dominated by Arab and other Muslim countries.

Sunday 30 March 2008 UN investigators report that a network of individuals conspired to assassinate former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Harari and was linked to other political murders. It was the investigators' 10th report on the murder to the Security Council and the first since Canadian Daniel Bellemare took charge of the panel investigating the car bombing on Feb. 14, 2005, in which Mr. Harari and 22 others died in Beirut. The Council last year set up a tribunal to try eventual accused parties. The latest report also says that the network existed before the assassination and continued on a smaller scale to operate afterwards.

Wednesday Mar 26, 2008 UN backs feds' view on water
The Harper government can declare victory after a United Nations meeting rejected calls for water to...
Instead, a special resolution proposed by Germany and Spain at the UN human rights council was stripped of references that recognized access to water as a human right. The countries also chose to scrap the idea of creating an international watchdog to investigate the issue, choosing instead to appoint a new consultant to make recommendations over the next three years.

Tuesday is the first UN day of remembrance for slavery and the victims of the transatlantic slave trade. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says the African slave trade "one of the greatest atrocities in history." Mr. Ban saluted the courage of slaves who rose in revolt against their condition and that of the abolitionist movement that they inspired. The secretary general pointed out, however, that there are modern equivalents of slavery, citing forced labour, sexual exploitation and human trafficking, including forcing children to work under appalling conditions. The UN says 5.7 million children are victims of forced labour and 250,000 are child soldiers. The International Organization for Migration estimates that 700,000 people are trafficked across national borders every year.

Thursday 06 March 2008 The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights will leave her post when her four-year mandate ends in June. Louise Arbour announced her decision to her staff today. She'll make her decision public on Thursday at a UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva. During her term of office, Miss Arbour raised anger among national governments in Africa, Asia and the Middle East by criticizing what she saw as human rights abuses. Zimbabwe accused her of issuing edicts that everyone must follow. The Human Rights Commission operates independently of the 47-nation Human Rights Council. Miss Arbour has expressed concern that some countries want to take over control of the Commission. Miss Arbour was formerly a justice of Canada's Supreme Court.

Wednesday 27 February 2008 The world body's new envoy for the Middle East, Robert Serry, has told the Security Council in his first briefing that Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority must develop a new strategy to end Israel's blockade of Gaza and the firing of rockets into southern Israel from that territory. Mr. Serry says the three parties must devise a plan to end the rocket firing and suicide bombings. The envoy admonished Israel for inflicting "collective punishment" on the 1.5 Palestinian residents of Gaza, while criticizing the Hamas movement which controls the territory for not acting to prevent militants from firing rockets.

Thursday 21 February 2008 The Security Council has voted to extend the mission of African Union peacekeeping troops in Somalia by six more months. The resolution mandates them to do everything possible to protect wartorn Somalia's infrastructure and to create the conditions needed for the delivery of humanitarian aid. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is to deliver to the Council a report on alternatives to the present situation in Somalia, one of them being a UN force.

Sunday 17 February 2008 The United Nations is going to give money to developing countries to fund programs against human trafficking. The announcement was made at the end of a major UN conference on human trafficking in Vienna. Twelve-hundred police officers, business leaders and former victims of human trafficking attended. The UN estimates the number of victims of human trafficking in any year at two-and-a-half million. Most are women and children. It's estimated that the exploitation of victims of human trafficking generates more than $31 billion in illegal profits annually.

Sunday 03 February 2008 LOS ANGELES: DELEGATES OPTIMISTIC OVER CLIMATE TALKS
United Nations officials and delegates from the European Union and 16 nations, including Canada, are optimistic that their latest talks on the world environment will lead to an action plan. The delegates ended two days of meetings in Hawaii on Thursday. They said they will move forward toward reaching a new agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions sometime next year. The delegates discussed a framework plan that was drawn up amid vigourous debate at a United Nations-sponsored conference in Indonesia last year.

Thursday 31 January 2008 The UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, has endorsed a proposed pan-Arab human rights charter that conflates racism and Zionism. Ms. Arbour, a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, issued a statement describing the new Arab Charter as an important step toward the protection of human rights. The charter, designed specifically to reflect the Arab cultural heritage, demands the respect of signatory nations for a host of internationally recognized human rights. But its reference to Zionism has prompted troubled responses from such organizations as Amnesty International, UN Watch and the International Commission of Jurists. UN Watch has written to Commissioner Arbour asking her to clarify her support for the charter. In 1975, the UN General Assembly was accused of anti-Semitism for a resolution equating Zionism with racism. The resolution was rescinded 16-years-later.

Wednesday 30 January 2008 MOSCOW: UNITED NATIONS REFUTES RUSSIAN'S ALLEGATIONS
The United Nations nuclear agency has dismissed allegations by a former Russian Intelligence service agent who claims that he manipulated the U.N.'s Iraqi oil-for-food program and recruited a Canadian nuclear expert. The International Atomic Energy Agency says the allegations are baseless. Sergei Tretyakov, a former deputy head of intelligence at Russia's U.N. mission says that he oversaw an operation that helped Russia illegally take profits from the program. He also says that he recruited spies for Russia, including a Canadian nuclear expert. Mr. Tretyakov and his family defected to the United States in 2000. Russia's foreign intelligence disputes the allegations.

01 January 2008 Libya Assumes Presidency of UN Security Council

Libya has assumed the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council, another step in Tripoli's move to renew diplomatic ties with the West.

Libya takes over the presidency of the 15-nation body from Italy, and will serve in that role through the end of the month.

In October, the U.N. General Assembly elected Libya, Vietnam, Burkina Faso, Croatia and Costa Rica as non-permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. They will serve two-year terms beginning Tuesday.

Libya - long criticized in the West for state-sponsored terrorism - has been seeking reconciliation with Europe and the United States since renouncing terrorism and nuclear weapons in 2003. Western governments began lifting sanctions against Libya a year later.

Countries preside over the Security Council for one month. The rotation goes in English alphabetical order by country name.

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.

2007

Wednesday 19 December 2007 The UN refugee agency says more than 1,400 migrants drowned off Yemen this year trying to cross the Gulf of Aden on rickety boats. The agency says most of them were from Somalia and Ethiopia, who paid money to smugglers to take them to Yemen. The figure includes nearly 200 people who are believed drowned last weekend after one vessel capsized off the coast of Yemen and another broke up after hitting a shoal. UN aid workers say desperate passengers have been beaten, pushed overboard and had acid thrown at them while crossing the Gulf this past year. The UN agency also says that 28,300 mainly Somalis and Ethiopians have managed to make it to Yemen's shores this year.

Tuesday was the UN's International Migrants' Day. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon marked it by calling on nations to sign the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers. Only 37 countries have ratified the convention so far. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour of Canada, says that migrants are among the world's groups most exposed to human rights violations in the 21st century. Human rights advocates denounced abuses committed against Asian migrant workers in some emerging nations in Asia and the wealthy oil kingdoms, citing working conditions, unpaid salaries and mistreatment. The UN proclaimed International Migrants Day in 2000 to draw attention to their contribution to the economies and well-being of both their host nations and homelands.

Tuesday 11 December 2007 Iraqi President Nuri al-Maliki has asked the UN Security Council for a 12-month extension from Dec. 31 of the mandate of the U.S.-led military coalition, with the proviso that his government could ask for the mandate to end even before that. The president's letter to the Council says this will be the last extension, noting that the country's own armed forces are steadily improving. The number of insurgent attacks has fallen 55 per cent since the security "surge" due to the reinforcement of 30,000 U.S. troops became fully operational in June. Improvement is due in part as well to U.S.-backed neighbourhood police units organized by Sunni tribal sheiks.

Wednesday 28 November 2007 0:50 OTTAWA: UN CRITICIZES CANADA ON ENVIRONMENT
A UN report has called on developed nations to start fulfilling their promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to provide tens of billion of dollars to help the world's poor countries to adapt to global warming. The 2007 Human Development Report says wealthy nations should not only take the lead in cutting emissions but also come up with $86 billion by 2015 to assist their less advantaged neighbours on the planet. The report says that developed countries aren't fulfilling the emissions reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, describing Canada as an extreme example. Canada became a signatory of Kyoto under the previous Liberal Party government but the present Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, while not abjuring Kyoto, has said its targets are impossible to achieve. At the Commonwealth summit last weekend in Uganda, Mr. Harper said Kyoto was fatally flawed because it doesn't apply to such polluters of the developing world as India and China. Federal opposition parties reacted by calling the prime minister an environmental saboteur. Next week, the UN will hold an international environmental conference in Indonesia to lay the framework of a new world accord on global warming to take effect after Kyoto expires in 2012.

Tuesday 23 October 2007 MONTREAL: REPORT SAYS CANADA BID FOR UN HEADQUARTERS
A Montreal newspaper reported Saturday that the United Nations recently turned down an invitation from the Canadian government to move its headquarters from New York to Montreal. La Presse said a $2.2-billion proposal to bring the world body north was drawn up by public and private investors. Project supporters said a move to Montreal would be more advantageous to the UN. The UN plans to undertake an estimated $1.9 billion in renovations to its existing buildings in Manhattan. The newspaper said government sources confirmed an `informal' project was presented to UN officials. A spokesman for the UN would not comment on the offer. The plan reportedly called for offices to be constructed near Montreal's Old Port.

Saturday Jun 30, 2007 UN, NORTH KOREA REACH NUCLEAR REACTOR AGREEMENT
The UN nuclear watchdog and North Korea have reached an agreement on how the agency will monitor and verify shutdown of the country's main nuclear reactor, a top official said Friday.

Thursday Jun 21, 2007 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is disappointed with the decision of the UN Human Rights Council to single out Israel's activities in the occupied Palestinian territories are a permanent subject of concern given the "scope of allegations around the world." Mr. Ban also objected to the Council's decision to abolish the special human rights rapporteurs for Cuba and Belarus, saying the Council needs to be aware of all nations where human rights are violated. The Council voted 46-1 on Tuesday against an attempt to reopen the compromise which members had reached to meet a midnight deadline on Monday imposed by the General Assembly, Canada's being the only negative vote. Canada's representative on the Council said he was not part of the "consensus" reached concerning its rules and functioning. The U.S., which isn't a Council member, said on Tuesday that while it focuses almost exclusively with Israel it fails to consider rights violations in such countries as Burma, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Belarus and Cuba.

May 23, 2007 Environmentalists doubt UN's billion-tree scheme will ease warming
UNITED NATIONS - An ambitious United Nations plan to oversee the planting of one billion trees worldwide - including 50 million in Canada - moved ahead Tuesday despite mounting criticism from arguably unexpected quarters.
Officials at the Nairobi headquarters of the UN's environment wing declared that groups and governments around the world have pledged to exceed the goal - and said the initiative will help fight climate change and poverty.

Saturday 19 May 2007 U.N. Professor Says Climate Change Is Creating New Refugees Who Deserve U.N. Protection
UNITED NATIONS -- Increasing global temperatures and land degradation are forcing more people to migrate, creating a wave of environmental refugees who need U.N. protection, a professor at the United Nations University said.
Janos Bogardi on Wednesday urged the United Nations to recognize that droughts, earthquakes, hurricanes and other environmental factors -- many of which are worsening because of climate change -- have played a role in the migration of millions of people worldwide.

Sunday 13 May 2007 Aviation industry in eye of climate-change storm
In wake of a huge increase in air travel, UN body begins effort to figure out what to do about aircraft and the environment

Monday May 7, 2007 UN hopes to save world from asteroids
The countdown begins this week for the United Nations to take on the task of saving the world - not ...

Sunday 06 May 2007 ts Global climate crisis requires global action
O ur planet can be saved from a full-scale environmental disaster at a manageable cost if – and it's a big if – urgent action is taken right away, says the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its latest report on global warming.

Wednesday 31 January 2007 UN mulls global summit to break Kyoto impasse
Support grew on Tuesday for United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to seek to break the deadlock over climate control by convening a world summit aimed at finding a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

Tuesday 30 January 2007 UN Convention to Desertification in Global Sustainable Development Goverance by Pierre Marc Johnson

Tuesday 30 January 2007 UN report confirms climate change
The United Nations' scientific brain trust is poised to say that climate change, once a theoretical future scare story, is real, urgent and warming our air and water right now.

Parliament resumes with heated debate
Parliament resumed Monday with a clear indication that federal polticians have been reading the polls showing Canadians are concerned about climate change.

Saturday 13 January 2007 China and Russia have vetoed a Security Council resolution that calls on the Burmese military junta to end its persecution of minorities and political opposition groups. The draft resolution was introduced by the United States. At issue was whether rights violations are a danger to peace and security in the region, which is the council's mandate. China and Russia believed they did not pose such a danger and therefore felt the matter should be dealt with by the General Assembly. Neither country disputed the junta's persistent violation of human rights. The military has run Burma (Myanmar) since 1962, ignoring a 1990 landslide election victory by the National League for Democracy party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate, who has been in prison or under house arrest since then. Thousands of her supporters have been jailed. Russia and China have not cast a double veto at the U.N. Security Council since September 1972 when they opposed a proposed amendment to a resolution calling for observance of a cease-fire in the Middle East.

MONDAY, JANUARY 01, 2007

Ban Ki-moon

UN chief appoints key aidesSouth Korean Ban Ki-moon, the new UN secretary-general, has announced his first two appointments after weeks of speculation and mystery about his intentions.
Vijay Nambiar of India, a special adviser to Ban's predecessor, Kofi Annan, will be his chief of staff and Michele Montas, an award-winning Haitian broadcaster, will head the spokesman's division, replacing Stephane Dujarric of France, a UN statement said on Sunday.

2006

Thursday 28 December 2006 UNITED NATIONS: LEWIS READY TO BACK NEW CAUSE
The United Nations will be deciding whether to create a new super-agency for women's issues in the new year. The idea has the support of Stephen Lewis, the Canadian social activist who is stepping down next week at the UN Special Envoy on HIV/AIDs in Africa. The proposal is one of the recommendations of a UN panel looking into reforming UN. Some developing nations are concerned such an agency could lead to interference in their internal affairs. However the idea has received broad support. Mr. Lewis says the new agency would deal with violence against women in development countries as well as the effects of HIV/ADS on women living in Africa.

December 20, 2006 New UN Chief Heads an Organization That Faces Both Skepticism and Support
Surveys in 15 Countries Find Most Have Favorable Views of the Agency - Though Not in the Middle Eas

Dec 18th 2006 | NEW YORK ec

A secretariat under a cloud Sep 7th 2005

Kate Reid

Annan Criticizes White House in Farewell
We would also point to the flip side of the criticism leveled at the departing Secretary-General by some in the room, which was reported widely in the U.S. media and warrants our consideration. "In response to a question after his remarks, Annan said he was appealing for cooperation and leadership, not criticizing the United States. 'What I am saying here is that when the U.S. works with other countries in a multilateral system, we do extremely well,' Annan said. The U.S. has a special responsibility to the world because it continues to have extraordinary power, he said".]

Friday 15 December 2006 The new secretary general of the United Nations has been sworn in. Ban Ki-Moon replaces Kofi Annan, who had led the UN for the previous 10 years. Mr. Ban was South Korea's foreign minister. He becomes the UN's eighth secretary general, and the first from Asia in more than 30 years. Mr. Annan formally leaves next month, but his successor is being sworn in now before UN delegates go home for the holidays. Mr. Ki-Moon will officially begin his duties on Jan 1.

Saturday 09 December 2006 The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour of Canada, says it's too soon for critics to claim that the six-month-old UN Rights Council is as politically biased as its abolished predecessor, the UN Rights Commission. Critics says the existing body is prone to the same political posturing and manipulation. Mrs. Arbour says the Council hasn't lived up to its potential but shouldn't be written off. Since June, the Council has held three special sessions to condemn Israel and on Friday passed a seventh resolution to the same effect. Mrs. Arbour says the fact that the Council will hold a special session on Tuesday concerning the situation in the Sudanese territory is a positive sign that it can address matters other than the Middle East. She says the fact that African, Arab and Muslim states which had previous tried to prevent criticism of the Sudanese government are emerging from "this present state of denial" about what's happening in Darfur is encouraging. Mrs. Arbour works with the Council but is independent of it.

Monday 13 November 2006 A new international treaty came into force on Sunday aimed at reducing the devastating effects of cluster bombs and other unexploded devices left behind in conflict zones. Under this new law, countries are expected to clear up their unexploded ordinances or pay teams of experts to do so. The treaty on explosive remnants of war covers ordnance such as land mines and cluster bombs. Meanwhile in Geneva, a U.N. arms review conference is under way. There is growing pressure on member states to discuss a total ban on cluster bombs. Aid agencies say that such bombs should be banned, not just cleaned up. There are thought to be billions of cluster bombs stockpiled around the world.

The United States vetoed a resolution in the United Nations Security Council on Saturday that sought to condemn Israel for a deadly attack on Gaza earlier this week. Eighteen Palestinians were killed. Seven children were among the victims. The U.N. resolution also urged a quick withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. Nine Council members voted in favour of the resolution, but the United States veto immediately killed it. Four Council members abstained---Britain, Denmark, Japan and Slovakia. The resolution was formally proposed by Qatar and supported by Arab and non-aligned nations. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., John Bolton, regretted the loss of life in the attack, but said that the resolution was 'biased against Israel and politically motivated.' In response to the veto, the Palestinian government led by the Hamas militant faction said that the United States was condoning its support of Israel's military action and encouraging further attacks.

Tuesday 31 October 2006 A new report from the United Nations says more than 850 million people worldwide are going hungry. The report comes 10 years after world leaders pledged to do something about global hunger. But the report does have good news, saying that regions like Asia and Latin America have seen an overall reduction in the number and percentage of undernourished people. China, India, Indonesia and Brazil are the countries showing a decline in hunger. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization says there needs to be a stronger political will to battle hunger. A goal of cutting the number of the world's hungry in half by 2015 was set at the World Food Summit in 1996.

maisonneuve.org ARE THE UN'S MUSCLES ATROPHIED?
by Philippe Gohier
October 16, 2006

One nuclear test and a corresponding Security Council resolution later, the international community still hasn't made up its mind about what to do with North Korea. In a rare show of unity, the fifteen members of the UN Security Council flexed their diplomatic muscles on Saturday, unanimously approving Resolution 1718 which, according to the Star, calls for an embargo on large weaponry sales to North Korea, a freeze on the assets of those connected to the nuclear weapons program, and the inspection of all cargo entering and leaving North Korea. According to the Globe, the call for inspections has already generated "sharp divisions." China is wary of conducting them, for fear of aggravating regional tensions. Its reticence was registered in the final draft of the resolution, which the Post reports renders that provision "less mandatory." The US has responded with a vehement defence of the Security Council sanctions. According to the Post, US ambassador to the UN John Bolton and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have both called for China's active participation in the sanctions' enforcement, noting that China can exert considerable influence on its communist ally and trading partner.
But China isn't the only country concerned about the potentially destabilizing scope of the resolution. According to La Presse, South Koreans are cool to the idea as well. La Presse reports that a poll conducted by the Korea Times found that 43 percent of respondents felt the US was responsible for North Korea's actions, while only 37 percent put the blame on Kim Jong-Il's regime in Pyongyang. According to a separate article in the Star, South Korea has long preferred "a conciliatory approach," and though it did pledge to abide by the resolution's terms, it "did not say how." The criticism of the US is even being echoed inside the world's lone superpower: La Presse cites Jimmy Carter's Op-Ed piece in the New York Times last week, in which the former president says that North Korea's admittedly "ill-advised" withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty was a direct response to the perception that "American positions posed a serious danger to their country and to its political regime." And the Globe reports that inside the US Congress, "leading US Senate Republican" Chuck Hagel is calling for direct talks with Pyongyang despite the White House's commitment to the stalled six-party talks. The growing dissent over an apparently unanimous Security Council decision begs the question: if the UN passes a resolution and no one steps up to enforce it, does it really matter?

Thursday 12 October 2006 rci The U.S., Britain, France and Japan met at the UN on Wednesday afternoon to decide whether to draft a new resolution for the Security Council to punish North Korea for having carried out a nuclear arms test. China has reservations about the draft resolution which the U.S. circulated on Tuesday. That version would forbid trade with North Korea in materials that could be used to make weapons of mass destruction and require other states not to let the North Koreans use their territory for arms proliferation. The resolution would refer to "Article 7" of the UN Charter which would allow the world body to enforce a resolution with sanctions including military action. China prefers more limited sanctions involving North Korea's nuclear program alone, and wants a particular clause of Article 7 applied that would remove the threat of blockade or military attack.

Tuesday 10 October 2006 rci South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon has been formally nominated as the next United Nations secretary general. The 192-member UN General Assembly is expected to endorse Mr. Ban later this month as the eighth secretary-general since 1946. He replaces Kofi Annan of Ghana, who ends 10 years in office on Dec. 31.

Friday 06 October 2006 South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon now appears headed to become the next UN secretary general because the only three remaining other contenders have withdrawn from the competition. On Monday, 14 of the 15 Security Council members, including all five veto-bearing permanent members, in an informal poll voted for Mr. Ban. The Council is expected to confirm their choice in a formal vote next Monday, and the General Assembly as well is expected to confirm his nomination in a vote on Oct. 9.

Tuesday 03 October 2006

In the week that has seen the new UN Secretary-General virtually annointed by the Security Council straw poll , we are rightly preoccupied by the question of what is leadership. Therfore, we would amend the question we proposed ten weeks ago and ask Mr. Dion what he believes to be the essential qualities of leadership - and whether they differ according to the country and time in which they are exercised.