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On February 16, 2006, Pambazuka News, a weekly
forum for Social Justice in Africa, published an op-ed by
Open Society Institute Senior Policy Analyst for Africa, Akwe
Amosu. In her article, Ms. Amosu called for a mobilization
of African civil society to help shift the position of individual
countries within the African Group, pressing them to endorse
a requirement of direct, individual voting for countries who
wish to be members of the new Council, with a two-thirds majority
required for election and a pledge to cooperate with the Council
as a prerequisite for membership. Ms. Amosu remarked that
countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania or Mali could
make a real difference to the outcome of the Human Rights
Council negotiations if persuaded to back the "two-thirds"
proposal.
To read the full article, click
here.
On January 9, 2006, the International Herald
Tribune published two op-eds defending the need to create
a new, reinforced UN Human Rights Council. The first article,
written by Human Rights Watch global advocacy director, Peggy
Hicks, stressed that the United States should not squander
the current opportunity to create a new Council by linking
its establishment to immediate progress in the demanded management
reforms of the United Nations. The second article, by Nobel
Prize Winner Desmond Tutu, urged the Africa Group of UN member
states to play a leading role at the negotiations on the Human
Rights Council, to be resumed on January 11.
To read the full op-ed by Peggy Hicks, click
here.
To read the full op-ed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, click
here.
On October 11, 2005, former Democratic majority
leader of the U.S. Senate, George Mitchell, wrote an article
for the International Herald Tribune calling for stronger
U.S. support for the reform agenda laid down by the Outcome
Document of the UN World Summit. Mitchell presents four arguments
why the Bush Administration should be a driving force behind
the UN reform, emphasizing that the World Summit has only
set a framework for various reforms that need to be filled
with content in the coming weeks. The former Senator also
recognizes the importance of creating a UN Democracy Caucus
by stating that "effective and deep reform is possible
if there is a coalition of democracies, the United States
centrally among them, that will persevere in the development
of an accountable and effective United Nations."
To read the full article, click
here.
On June 14, 2005, former US Ambassadors to the
UN, including Madeleine Albright, John Danforth, Richard Holbrooke
and Jeane Kirkpatrick wrote a letter to Congressional Leaders
urging them to continue to support UN reform without witholding
dues.
To read the full letter, click
here.
On Tuesday, January 8, 2005, Loubna Freih, Director,
of the Geneva Office of Human Rights Watch wrote an article
for the International Herald Tribune on UN Reform. Freih calls
the Human Rights Commission a “six-week exercise in
desperate attempts to shield malefactors from criticsm.”
Freih criticizes members of a high-level panel on UN reform
for proposing universal membership to the Human Rights Commission
and states their proposal will further marginalize the body.
Freih calls on the Commission itself to take on the issues
of strengthening its commitment to human rights around the
world.
To read the full article, click
here.
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On January 1, 2005 NGO Coalition members Adrian
Karatnycky and Matteo Mecacci wrote an op-ed for the International
Herald Tribune praising the efforts of Chile, South Korea,
Poland, Portugal, Mail, India and United States creation of
a UN Democracy Caucus. They also note Romaina’s role
in sponsoring resolutions that strengthen international commitment
to democracy promotion and Hungary’s creation of a Democracy
Transition Center as “harbingers of serious efforts
to reclaim the UN for democratic values.” Despite these
advances, Karatnycky and Mecacci also note that real obstacles
remain, including the regional structure of the UN which allows
non-democratic countries to be nominated to key UN bodies
and the absence of Western European support for these changes.
To read the entire article, click
here.
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On June 13, 2004, Walter Cronkite wrote an op-ed
on efforts to improve the effectiveness and credibility of
the United Nations and endorses the efforts to prevent non-democratic
countries from getting a place on the UN Human Rights Commission.
To read the op-ed on the Denver Post website
click
here.
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“Making UN Fit
for Democracy”
by Emma Bonino and Gianfranco Dell’Alba, The Korea
Herald, 4 June 2003
“Today’s UN, which entrusts the protection of
fundamental human rights to countries that are themselves
among the prime violators of these rights, is no longer acceptable.
We must modify not only the working mechanisms of the UN,
but also its composition.”
To access the full article, click
here.
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“Changing the UN”
a Washington Post Editorial, 3 May 2003
In its May 3, 2003 editorial the Washington Post encourages
the UN to “to create…a democracy caucus that could
help fight the battle for human rights and unite countries
that otherwise seldom work together.” This effort would
help to change some of the more “moribund, corrupt,
or…ludicrous” elements of the UN.
To view the full article, click
here.
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“Take Back the UN:
Democratic Nations must form an independent caucus”
by Nancy E. Soderberg, Washington Times, 29 January 2003
“Just as the United Nations is preparing to face two
important tests of its relevance—how it will deal with
crises in Iraq and North Korea—one of its key bodies
just voted itself into irrelevancy. On Jan. 20, the 53-nation
Human Rights Commission elected Libya its 2003 chairman. Libya
is a country still under UN sanction for terrorism, with a
human- rights record that Human Rights Watch calls “appalling,”
and which will use its new position to block the committee
from taking any meaningful action. What's wrong with the United
Nations?”
To view the full article, click
here.
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Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi and Amir Attaran,
a law professor at the University of Ottowa, wrote an op-ed
in the June 16, 2004 edition of the New York Times
urging the World Bank to withhold money from anti-democratic
governments allowing the World Bank to give money to poverty-striken
democracies.
To read the op-ed on the New York Times
website (registration required), click
here.
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