"Government,
Geography, and Growth: The True Drivers of Economic Development," Foreign
Affairs, September/October 2012.
Friday, 19 October 2012
How to Advance the Rule of Law (Hint: Outside the UN)
At the United Nations,
support for the rule of law has the aura of mom’s apple pie: Everybody loves
it. Unfortunately, consensus ends there. UN member states can’t agree on how to
define it, much less how to advance it globally. It’s unsurprising, then, that
last week’s “High-Level UN Meeting on the Rule of Law” (perhaps you missed it?)
was a bust. The meeting’s final declaration was a festival of empty blather,
even by UN standards. And that is a wasted opportunity. For as my friend and
colleague Mark Lagon points out in a just released policy innovation memorandum
from the Council on Foreign Relations, improving the rule of law worldwide may
be the critical step in improving prospects for human dignity and prosperity in
the twenty-first century. The lesson of
the last week is that this effort can’t be left to the United Nations.
United Nations wants more power
The president of the
United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday called upon nations to grant the UN
more authority over global affairs.
“In reviewing the many
statements that have been made, I have been struck by how much common ground
exists on a wide range of issues," said Assembly President Vuk Jeremic of
Serbia. "Obviously, significant differences of opinion remain to be overcome.
Nevertheless, I believe there is room for optimism.”
Iran sets up secret team to infiltrate UN nuclear watchdog, say officials
… Mr Afarideh, reported to have close links with Iran
's ministry of intelligence, is in regular contact with a team of Iranian nuclear engineers seconded to work at the
IAEA's Vienna headquarters…
Greenwash, Sustainable Development and Saving the Planet: Reasons to be both hugely disappointed and very excited
... Do you think that UNIDO has an important role as a bridge between the UN,
governments and the business sector?
The UN is increasingly
ignored or written off by many observers, including in the private sector,
either because it isn’t responding to the key challenges ahead, or is seen as
excessively slow and bureaucratic. While the UN needs to remain sensitive to
these critiques, I think it still has a huge and not fully exploited role to
play. There is no other global institution with the legitimacy, wealth of
expertise and experience of the UN system. This gives it a unique moral and
political leadership role. The UN Secretary-General’s Sustainable Energy for
All Initiative (which is chaired by UNIDO Director-General, Kandeh Yumkella)
and UNIDO’s Green Industry Platform, which was recently launched at the Rio+20
Conference, are pioneering a new level of global issue focus and partnership
with industry. Initiatives such as these are essential to drive the transition
to a new model of sustainable development and economic growth, which draws on
the combined strengths of the public, private and civil society sectors. I am
personally a big supporter of UNIDO’s Green Industry Platform, which I think
represents a historic opportunity to bring together United Nations bodies with
the business community to profile and promote best practices and inspire policy
and technology innovations to advance Green Industry. This is our best hope of
delivering, not only the continued development and economic growth needed for
poverty alleviation and job creation, but also of preserving and restoring the
ecosystems on which our collective future depends...
Is Afghanistan too dangerous for the U.N. Security Council?
... At the request of Susan
Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations -- who also favored postponing
the trip -- attendance at today's meeting was restricted to the top Security
Council ambassadors.
One council diplomat said
that the official reason for the trip's cancellation is that no dates had ever
been set and the consensus was that it would be better to postpone until the
new year. But the "obvious reason," the official said, "is that
you don't want to go to these dangerous places when there are threats."
US warns European governments against supporting Palestinians at UN
Private memo
threatens 'significant negative consequences' if Palestinian Authority succeeds
in obtaining enhanced status
Palestinian U.N. status likely to be debated in November
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -
The United Nations is likely to hold a debate on whether to upgrade the
Palestinians' U.N. status to a sovereign country in mid-November - after the
U.S. election, the president of the 193-member U.N. General Assembly said on
Wednesday.
Having failed last year to
win recognition of full statehood at the United Nations, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas said last week he would seek a less-ambitious status upgrade at
the world body to make it a "non-member state" like the Vatican.
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