Former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, and speakers from the Heritage Foundation and the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) launched a new book today which calls the current UN system “broken”.

The book, “ConUNdrum: The Limits of the United Nations and the Search for Alternatives,” underscores that billions of US tax dollars are invested in the UN yearly and produce little effect. The authors, including Bolton, offer new ideas to make the UN system viable including switching from the current mandatory assessment of dues to a system where monies would generate on a voluntary basis.

“In its current state, the UN system is broken,” said Austin Ruse, President of C-FAM.

The Ambassador of Fiji, who hosted the event, said “For those of us who come from small populations, it is quite frightening when you listen to some of the debates in the General assembly. There has been a great loss of family values.”

John Bolton said there must be a closer examination of the Mitchell-Gingrich report of 2005, a bi-partisan effort which attempts to illustrate the “right” approach to UN reform including a revamp of the Human Rights Council, peacekeeping efforts, and a simplification of UN funding and financing of programs.

Bolton also emphasized there is still no clear agreement on how the Security Council should be reformed. Many skeptics believe the five members (US, UK, France,  Russia and China) hold too much power and want to increase membership to African and Middle Eastern nations.

“To change the membership to reflect increased numbers  like ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council), well, then I don’t see any possibility for change at all. The Security Council was originally set up post WWII and the powers were given to the victors,” added Bolton.

Bolton outlined the Goldstone report of the Human Rights Council, criticizing Israel of human rights abuses in Gaza, has “undercut” peace efforts in the region.

He also said the Obama Administration is making a big mistake in “halting the UN reform effort.”

Little was mentioned of the restrictions imposed by the Bush Administration to investigate US human rights abuses in Guantanamo and Iraq and the elimination of massive amounts of funding to developing countries which administered family planning programs through the WHO and UNICEF, and on induced abortions if the woman/girl was raped or too young to deliver a healthy baby.

More women die in childbirth than in wars, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). And every minute, a woman dies in childbirth. This adds up to some 500,000 deaths across the globe per year.

This week, UNFPA organized a high level meeting of over 150 health ministers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to bring together decision makers to take the urgent action needed to tackle maternal mortality. In Ethiopia, there is only one midwife per 20,000 women of child bearing age. Most women in rural areas have to walk some 300 kilometers while in labor to get to the health center. Most die on the way, or face serious complications like obstetric fistula.

UNFPA hopes the Meeting will provide the opportunity for ministers to share best practices and lessons learned in reproductive health. UNFPA estimates by 2015, between $5.5 billion and $6.1 billion in additional funding will be needed from domestic and international sources to accomplish Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 to improve maternal health.

Results from the meeting will be shared with parliamentarians from across the globe at the International Conference for Population and Development (ICPD/15) which will take place in Addis Ababa later this week.

The Council of Europe and the United Nations joined forces today to call for an international convention to combat organ trafficking across the globe.  Trafficking in OTC (organs, tissues and cells) is a worldwide phenomena, and the group urged, very different to traditional human trafficking.

The report launched today points to the possibility of a high number of unreported cases due to the high price for victims. The report also highlights that trafficking in OTC is “transplant tourism” where wealthier nations acquire organs in countries where there are little or no measures to prevent the crime or to protect victims.

Countries ranked among the highest in OTC victims include China, Moldova, India, Pakistan, Mozambique and Kosovo, to name a few. Most often, these organs are trafficked into Western Europe, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Rachel Mayanja, Special Advisor to the UN on the Advancement of Women added:

“We see that women are statistically always the largest number of victims in trafficking–prostitution and trafficking for labor. It is still difficult to find out whether women are the biggest victims for organs as compared to men. But we are continuing our search.”

The authors of the report responded to a TRNS question about the famous “Body” exhibit–where body parts were proven to come from unwilling Chinese political prisoners in order to fulfill the mandate for bodies by the global exhibit organizers. Authors called this “ethical trouble”.

Victims report being drugged, then waking up naked in a bath tub full of ice with their kidneys removed. Many others are murdered for their kidneys, heart, lungs, liver and small bowel. Most of the victims come from developing nations and from a climate of poverty.

Five to ten percent of kidney transplants performed across the world are the result of trafficking.

Representatives of the Council of Europe said the international legislation in trafficking of human beings but does not cover OTC—and the goal is to increase the legal basis for tissues and cells as well. Organs can be from a living and dead donor–but for tissues and cells it is only possible to obtain from a dead donor.

The UN report calls for greater international cooperation for the protection of victims and the timely prosecution of traffickers:

“No financial gain should be used to steal and sell organs and most people who sell their organs do not escape poverty.”

Further attacks on the Indian embassy in Afghanistan today left seventeen people dead and dozens injured in a car bomb that detonated inside Kabul–a once secure area.  The attacks have spawned further debate on the government’s poor handling of security and whether officials will be able to mitigate the massive growth of insurgent groups throughout the country. This is the fourth such blast in the past eight weeks.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for both attacks this month—the UN World Food Program was attacked earlier this week which left five people dead in that suicide bomb blast.

In an interview this morning, Peter Galbraith, top American UN envoy who was sacked earlier this month after what he believes was “a cover-up” of fraud in the Afghan election, said the Taliban have gained complete control of the countryside and Afghanistan’s second largest city-Kandahar. He also added the north of the country is increasingly being controlled by pro-Taliban groups.

“People committed fraud on a massive scale…and selfish interests were ahead of national interests.”

Some polling stations were closed but reported receiving ballots–and many skeptics of the current leader, Hamid Karzai believe he is to blame for the election coup.

Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, announced that he dismissed Mr. Galbraith “in the best interest of the mission”.

“I think it’s astonishing that the United Nations would dismiss an official because he was concerned about fraud in a UN-funded and UN-supported election, Galbraith said earlier this month.

The increase in lawlessness throughout the country is being directly linked to the election fraud. Galbraith believes that the only way to mitigate the violence is to  support a runoff at the end of the month between Karzai and his opponent Abdullah Abdullah.

TRNS asked Secretary General spokesperson Michele Montas-on the SG’s position on a runoff:

“At this point we are waiting for the Afghan electoral commission and we have enough guarantees to know the independent electoral commission can complete the work.”

Galbraith called the independent electoral commission pro-Karzai and not neutral and said the Afghan electoral commission was corrupt as it was being led by Karzai’s government.

“Aside from my personal views, it is quite disturbing that a UN official was removed for expressing his views to his boss. This clearly undermines the credibility of the UN mission” he added.

With the horrific deaths of five of its staff members in Islamabad earlier this week, the UN’s World Food Program has a lot of explaining to do. Just how did a bomber swiftly pass through what was believed to be a topnotch security system?

The UN offices throughout Pakistan now remain closed pending an investigation- the Taliban have now claimed responsibility for the acts. Many outside the UN system are questioning the overall effectiveness of UN global security measures in dangerous or potential conflict zones. The World Food Program provides over 10 million people in Pakistan with food aid.

UN Secretary-General spokeswoman Michele Montas stated in response to a call for a full investigation:

“We are at a phase of assessment to see how vulnerable our offices are. Islamabad was one of the best protected UN centers in Pakistan.”

Some 50-80 personnel were believed to be inside the building. Footage from a UN security camera revealed the bomber walking through a door into the main entry hall while carrying a half-metre long cylindrical object.

Dozens of UN offices have been victim to attacks by opposition and insurgent groups in recent years including in Somalia, Iraq and Algeria– to name a few.

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said the bombing was a “terrible tragedy,” leaving many of skeptics wondering if this rhetoric is assurance enough to stop a growing and increasingly violent Taliban force inside Pakistan.

Secretary of State Hilary Clinton chaired a Security Council meeting today to adopt a resolution to combat sexual violence of women and children in armed conflict. The resolution 1888 of 2009, drafted by the United States, outlines actions the UN and Member States can take to help prevent conflict-related sexual violence and end impunity.

The Security Council’s action to adopt this resolution is part of the Obama Administration’s work to protect women and children in conflict situations.

Resolution 1888 states that “ending impunity is essential if a society in conflict or recovering from conflict is to come to terms with past abuses committed against civilians affected by armed conflict and to prevent future such abuses.”

The new resolution takes from lessons learned in previous Security Council resolutions, 1820 and 1325, which were central to raising the issue of sexual violence in conflict regions. More specifically, it calls for among others– the appointment of a Special Representative to lead efforts to end conflict-related sexual violence against women and children, and demands action from the Secretary-General to submit annual reports on the implementation of both resolution 1888 and 1820, as well as for more systematic reporting on conflict-related sexual violence.

The United States mission to the Untied Nations states:

“Conflict-related sexual violence against women and children continues in many areas around the world.  Many of the survivors of sexual violence are children, particularly girls.  In the Democratic Republic of Congo approximately 1,100 rapes are being reported each month, with an average of 36 women and girls raped every day.  In addition to these rapes and gang rapes, of which there have been hundreds of thousands over the duration of the conflict, the perpetrators frequently mutilate the women in the course of the attacks.”

President Obama issued a statement in support of the adoption of the resolution:

“I am pleased that the Security Council, chaired by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, unanimously approved a US-sponsored resolution that will increase the protection of women and children in conflict. In particular, the resolution focuses on one of the most abhorrent features of modern war: the use of rape as a weapon, and other forms of sexual violence against women and children.”

It was a win-win day for Obama as he hosted a historic Security Council Summit on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. This was the 6,191 meeting of the Security Council. The five permanent and ten rotating members of the Security Council (including to name a few– Uganda, Austria, Croatia, Mexico and Libya (although Qaddafi did not show) voted unanimously in support of Resolution 1887.

The Resolution affirmed the Council’s commitment to the goal of a world without nuclear weapons and to ensure nuclear safety and security. Obama said he’d hoped the Resolution would strengthen the global nonproliferation regime. He added that he wanted all countries to stop producing nuclear materials within four years. Obama underscored the United Nations institution was created at the “dawn of the atomic age.” But now, the goal should be a global partnership to commit to put an end to the production, smuggling, trade and financing of nuclear materials.

“Once more, the United Nations has a pivotal role to play in preventing this crisis.  The historic resolution we just adopted enshrines our shared commitment to the goal of a world without nuclear weapons.  And it brings Security Council agreement on a broad framework for action to reduce nuclear dangers as we work toward that goal.  It reflects the agenda I outlined in Prague, and builds on a consensus that all nations have the right to peaceful nuclear energy; that nations with nuclear weapons have the responsibility to move toward disarmament; and those without them have the responsibility to forsake them.”
The United States is expected to host a summit next April to keep nations on the four year agenda. The Summit proceedings further isolated North Korea and Iran and President Sarkozy of France emphasized that Iran has violated five security council resolutions and must be sanctioned and held accountable. He reiterated that North Korea has also threatened global security with the launch of missiles in April–and by ignoring several warnings by the Security Council to stop building its nuclear program.

United Nations US Ambassador Dr. Susan Rice met with reporters directly following the opening session:

“So we are very pleased at the outcome today. We view it as building important momentum going into next year’s Nonproliferation Review Conference, going into the president’s own Nuclear Security Summit next year. And of course, we had Secretary Clinton as well here today speaking before the CTBT session, underscoring our commitment to ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.”

The Ugandan representative said Africa was not interested in nuclear weapons but nuclear energy–which he said costs only 4-5 cents compared to 14 cents use in solar energy.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown from the United Kingdom added:

“Today we are at a watershed moment…a future of arms race or arms control.”

In a provocative speech delivered to the United Nations General-Assembly, President Mahmood Ahmadinejad of Iran called for an end to intimidation by western nations. He questioned how a small minority of countries had control over the economic policies of so many developing nations.

“I have talked about the two conflicting outlooks prevailing in our world; one that is based on the predominance of its materialistic interests through spreading inequality and oppression, poverty and deprivation, aggression, occupation and deception, and tends to bring the entire world under its control and impose its will on other nations. This outlook has produced nothing but frustration, disappointment and a dark future for the entire humanity.”

The other, he espoused, was in the belief and teachings of God.

Western powers, he cites, are “using the ugliest methods of intimidation and deceit under the mantle of freedom as a democratic practice, and approaches through which sometimes dictators are portrayed as democrats, lack legitimacy and must be totally rejected.”

Ahmadinejad argued in defense of Palestinians and said they had the right to arm themselves in self-defense. He also voiced strong support for Iraq’s right to self-governance. He emphasized reform and restructure of the United Nations as a central path to building partnerships globally.

Outside the UN, hundreds of anti-Ahmadinejad protesters voiced anger at his participation in the General-Assembly. Many still question his legitimacy as President of Iran.

Amidst a packed room full of security guards, press and dignitaries, President Obama spoke about global responsibilities and shared values among peoples in the world. This speech received a warm applause juxtaposed to a tepid reception to his United States action plan to tackle climate change at the UN Climate Summit held yesterday.

Obama identified four key pillars where the United States will focus in the coming years: 1) non proliferation, 2) promotion of peace and security, 3) preservation of the planet, and a 4)  global economy that advances opportunity for all people.

“When America acted unilaterally–this fed into reflexive anti-Americanism–I will never apologize for defending my nation and people–but it is my belief that in 2009-the interests of people are shared.”

He emphasized the use of technology to interconnect the world’s common goals, interests and responsibilities. He added now is the time for all the world to interconnect on a shared global response to genocide, mass atrocities, melting ice caps, persistent poverty and pandemic disease.

“Now, like all of you, my responsibility is to act in the interest of my nation and my people, and I will never apologize for defending those interests.  But it is my deeply held belief that in the year 2009 — more than at any point in human history — the interests of nations and peoples are shared.  The religious convictions that we hold in our hearts can forge new bonds among people, or they can tear us apart.  The technology we harness can light the path to peace, or forever darken it.  The energy we use can sustain our planet, or destroy it.  What happens to the hope of a single child — anywhere — can enrich our world, or impoverish it.”

Obama said he was mindful of the tough challenges ahead and was determined to lead the United States in the right direction. He added that political differences have caused many in the world to view Americans with skepticism and mistrust.

“On my first day in office, I prohibited — without exception or equivocation — the use of torture by the United States of America. I ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed, and we are doing the hard work of forging a framework to combat extremism within the rule of law.  Every nation must know: America will live its values, and we will lead by example.”

UN Secretary_General, Ban Ki-Moon underlined that now is the time to act to put “united” ” back in the United Nations and to recognize green growth is the lifeline in the 21st century.”

The Secretary-General also touched on promoting democracy in Myanmar:

“We need friends and neighbors to do much more in the interest of its people so elections to be held next year will be seen as credible and open to all.”

The Secretary General has held a miserable record on Myanmar–many of the key government representatives have refused to meet with him upon his previous visits to the country.

The new 64th UN General Assembly President, Libyan Ali Abdussalam Treki said the question of the Arab and Israel conflict still remained unresolved and there is now “universal recognition that with rapidly deteriorating conditions in the Occupied Territories, the situation has become unbearable.”

Following Obama and his fellow Libyan, Muammar Qaddafi, shocked General Assembly hall participants–over 190 countries represented. He held up a copy of the United Nations Charter and slammed the preamble–citing hypocrisy and massive contradiction. He underlined the UN was created with the goal of preventing another World World II.

“We were not present at the time” he added. Now, “… You are like a decor. Like Hyde Park. You make your speech and then disappear. The General Assembly is the parliament of the world.”

Qaddafi underlined that the United Nations is tailored to the three countries that created the United Nations-namely the United States, United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. “We are rejecting the UN charter and veto the charter. Since the preamble, 65 wars have broke out with millions of victims. And the Security Council members enjoy a veto given to themselves and not by election. Of the five permanent members–(US, UK, France, Russia and China)–only China was democratically elected.”

Qaddafi called for a full reform and breakdown of the Security Council and to turn the power over completely to the over 190 members of the General Assembly. “The Security Council is terrorism. We cannot leave it to the superpowers, this is terrorism in itself.”