The year 2013 marks Indonesia's arrival on the global health diplomacy stage. In mid- June, the country's health minister became chair of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. The president is cochairing a high-level panel advising the UN secretary-general on the global development agenda beyond 2015 that will report to the UN General Assembly in September. The same month Indonesia will host a conference of Asia-Pacific finance and health ministers to discuss ideas for funding universal health coverage in the countries of the region.
Topic:
Development, Globalization, Health, United Nations, and Health Care Policy
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Reports of sexual abuse and exploitation by UN peacekeepers were a black mark in the history of United Nations Peacekeeping. The metamorphosis of peacekeepers to perpetrators has been part of almost all the discussions on peacekeeping in the last two decades. In the 1990s the discussions centred on the absence of rules and procedures for preventing sexual exploitation by the peacekeepers. The discussions have forced the United Nations to make some regulatory measures to prevent such actions and to form laws to penalize peacekeepers who violate these codes of conduct. The culmination of all these developments was the formation of Secretary General's Bulletin (SGB) commonly known as Zero Tolerance Policy (ZTP) in the year 2003. In the meantime, the discourse over the sexual exploitation has taken a new shape by debating pros and cons of the new rule.
A decade ago, on 24 September 2003, the UN and the EU signed a Joint Declaration on UN-EU Cooperation in Crisis Management. At the time, the two institutions had limited experience of one another, and apart from some cooperation between the European Commission and UN agencies dealing with development and humanitarian affairs, very little had brought them together in the field of crisis management.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, International Cooperation, United Nations, and Peacekeeping
The U.S. government seems outraged that people are leaking classified materials about its less attractive behavior. It certainly acts that way: three years ago, after Chelsea Manning, an army private then known as Bradley Manning, turned over hundreds of thousands of classified cables to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, U.S. authorities imprisoned the soldier under conditions that the UN special rapporteur on torture deemed cruel and inhumane. The Senate's top Republican, Mitch McConnell, appearing on Meet the Press shortly thereafter, called WikiLeaks' founder, Julian Assange, “a high-tech terrorist.”
At the beginning of The Dictator's Learning Curve: Inside the Global Battle for Democracy, William Dobson states a fact that is all too clear for anyone who studies history or reads the news: Authoritarian governments rarely fret over United Nations sanctions or interference from a foreign rights group that can be easily expelled. Indeed, the mere threat of foreign intervention, whether from the United States, the United Nations, or a body like the International Criminal Court, can be a useful foil for stirring up nationalist passions and encouraging people to rally around the regime. (p. 9)
The United Nations produced the Millennium Declaration in September 2000, recognizing a collective responsibility to work toward “a more peaceful, prosperous and just world.” The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) reaffirmed this vision and launched an ambitious global partnership for development. The MDGs set specific targets for 2015, using numerical indicators to measure progress. The United Nations is now formulating post-2015 goals to succeed the current MDGs. What should government authorities call for during the process of establishing these new goals to ensure they reflect national priorities, can be measured and are achievable, not purely aspirational?
Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University
Abstract:
In armed conflict around the world, hundreds of thousands of boys and girls face serious violations of their safety and human rights, including forced recruitment and abduction. Girls are often disproportionately affected by sexual violence, exploitation, and abuse in conflict zones. The day-to-day lives of children in areas of armed conflict are further impacted by attacks on schools and hospitals. Although the United Nations’ Children and Armed Conflict agenda has made tangible progress in recent years to hold perpetrators accountable and to prevent future violations, there remains an urgent need for more effective programs and policies to address the needs of children and families affected by armed conflict. The Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination with Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict and the Permanent Mission of Liechtenstein to the UN convened a workshop in February 2013 to address the current gaps in mandates related to the issue of children in armed conflict in UN Missions, particularly in Afghanistan and Somalia, with the goal of providing specific recommendations on how to strengthen the fight against impunity for persistent violators of the rights of children affected by armed conflicts. The workshop brought together academics, representatives of NGOs, and representatives of UN member states including members of the Security Council and the UN Secretariat for private discussion. The final report was issued as UN document A/67/794-S/2013/158.
Topic:
United Nations, Children, Conflict, Sexual Violence, and NGOs