Major UN Research Articles

Market failure at Durban's climate summit

The United Nations climate negotiations – especially the annual Conference of the Parties (COPs) that have taken place since the 1997 Kyoto Protocol – have failed to address what scientists agree is the world's greatest-ever threat to the human species and much other life on Earth. In Durban, South Africa, the December 2011 COP17 summit yet again turned to failing market mechanisms to address emissions cuts, without advancing beyond unambitious 2009 Copenhagen COP15 targets. Carbon markets continued to fall for weeks after the COP17, with the Clean Development Mechanism declared to be in crisis 9 months later when a major UN report on its future was issued by a committee chaired by former SA Environment Minister Valli Moosa. Unlike in Copenhagen, a learned helplessness was evident as state delegations from the most adversely affected areas failed to speak up when it became apparent that no climate-saving deal was possible (in contrast to comparable trade summits in Seattle in 1999 and Cancun in 2003, when African delegates objected to harmful deals, thus slowing multilateral neoliberalism). Durban was thus not a ‘huge success’ (as SA president Jacob Zuma claimed), but instead a step in the conscious acquiescence to Africa's worst genocide yet. The lessons for geopolitical, environmental and political–economic dynamics are important for geographers to consider given the discipline's interest in the technical details of financial fixes for ecological problems in hotly contested socio-political settings.

Millennium Consumption Goals (MCGs) for Rio+20 and beyond: A practical step towards global sustainability

In January 2011, the idea of Millennium Consumption Goals (MCGs) was first proposed at the United Nations, because unsustainable patterns of consumption and production have led to multiple problems threatening the future of humanity. The global economy driven by consumption already uses natural resources equivalent to almost 1.5 planets earth, with the world's richest 1.4 billion consuming almost 85% of global output, which is over 60 fold the consumption of the poorest 1.4 billion. The consumption of the rich is not only ecologically unsustainable, but also “crowding out” the prospects of the poor and exacerbating inequalities that increase the risk of conflict and global unrest. The MCGs provide an innovative future vision and complement the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that aim to help the world's poor. First, the MCGs seek to address the issues of global poverty and inequality by ensuring that the basic consumption needs of over 2 billion poor people are met. Next, the MCGs will provide benchmarks for the consumption of the rich, which will reduce the burden on the world's natural resource base. Instead of viewing the affluent as a problem, the novel approach of the MCGs would persuade them to contribute to the solution without having to reduce their quality of life. The MCGs apply even-handedly to the rich in all countries. The concept enjoys broad support worldwide and is being promoted by a global coalition called the MCG Initiative (MCGI). A bottom-up approach has already been started by many pioneering individuals, communities, organizations, firms, cities, regions and nations. They prefer not to wait for broad multilateral agreements and are acting now, to voluntarily pursue their own specific MCGs. A parallel top-down path is being pursued through mandatory agreements at the United Nations/international level, starting with the Rio+20 Earth Summit and beyond. The MCGs fit in with other major UN initiatives like Agenda 21, the MDGs, green economy, SCP and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Editorial: The Challenge of Civic Action for Development

Change usually comes with loss. Living in Europe right now, there is a sense of deep loss and uncertainty. For people living in other parts of the world pictures of burning houses and riots such as those in Athens over austerity measures are hardly surprising. The current struggles in Europe take their historic place alongside the Latin American debt crisis, the Asian crisis, the many and continuing upheavals in sub-Saharan Africa, the crushing lives in Central and Eastern Europe, and the recent regime changes in the MENA region. Europe’s governments and economies are tottering badly. One immediate sign of this are the abrupt cuts to development funding. Monti’s Italian government has slashed the development cooperation budget particularly the multilateral budget, which is practically ‘zeroed’, even if Rome is host to major UN agencies: FAO, IFAD andWFP. The Dutch, preeminent among the development donor community, are now considering whether to cut from 0.82 percent of GDP for development aid in 2009 to 0.6 or less in 2012. Such cuts are inevitably hitting the smaller European-based NGOs and networks dependent on small monies to do their work.With skeleton staff and lots of good will, these organizations are usually carrying out research, development education, policy and advocacy work in solidarity with partners in the South. I have been deeply saddened to learn that NetworkWomen in Development Europe in Brussels officially closed in December 2011and that the Irish women’s network (founded by among others Mary Robinson) Banulacht announced its closure March 2012. These organizations were, until the day they closed, actively engaged in major development social policydebates for human rights and gender justice.Their decision to close was not because they did not have work to do, on the contrary, the crises made them evenmore needed.Theyclosed partially because the general move to the right in Europe means that governments are not so willing to fund education policy, research or advocacy organizations. But they were hit also because development NGOs in Europe are structured in such a way that they could not continue without core funding (provided by the government grants) that allowed them to meet the obligations and rights of their employees. Tiny as they were, they were obliged to run with the same legal obligations as much larger entities. The inflexibility in the funding also meant that they were not Development, 2012, 55(2), (151–153) r 2012 Society for International Development 1011-6370/12 www.sidint.net/development/

DISCOURSES ON ANTISEMITISM AND ISLAMOPHOBIA IN ARAB MEDIA

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the relationship between antisemitism and Islamophobia, focusing on debates in Arab newspapers in the wake of the Second Intifada and 9/11 and then in response to two issues of contention for Muslim communities in Europe, the Danish cartoon crisis in 2006 and the Swiss referendum on building minarets in 2009. The paper relates these debates to major UN and EU resolutions for combating racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism. The aim of this paper is to explore how far discussion of antisemitism and Islamophobia in the Arab world is dominated by those who see Islamophobia as the real danger in today's Europe and antisemitism as a Zionist ploy, and how far antisemitism and Islamophobia have become two competing terms relating to two communities that perceive themselves as victims of prejudice and racism and also of each other. The paper seeks to qualify this image. It acknowledges that the entanglement of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict adds a political aspect to the discussion of the two terms, intensifies competition between them for recognition as unique forms of racism and discrimination, and curtails the creation of positive ground for dialogue. However, it also demonstrates the presence of other voices which are more open to addressing both forms of exclusion.

Gender & Health: Towards a Consensus on Rights, Policy and Public Opinion

Social scientists have long held that gender differs from biological sex indicated by an ‘M’ or ‘F’ written on a birth certificate, since it encompasses constructs and roles assigned by different societies to each sex. The nature of gender and its effects on opportunities and outcomes in every social arena—health included—have fuelled academic and political debates and been the subject of four major UN conferences.

CHILD SURVIVAL AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

29 November 2010 Dear Editor, Due to unprecedented public-private global health partnerships particularly within the framework of the 2000–2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDG), there has been a consistent and appreciable decline in child mortality globally.1 The under-5 mortality dropped from 142 per 1000 live births in 1970 to 60 in 2009 while the total number of child deaths declined from 16.7 million to 8.1 million over the same period. Further decline in child mortality is envisaged in several poor countries with the renewed drive towards the MDG 2015 targets by the major UN agencies, donors and advocacy groups. This success story, however, comes with a new set of challenges yet to be reflected in the global health agenda. For example, of the 122 million annual births in the developing world, about 114 million (93%) will survive beyond their fifth birthday, but many will live in conditions that predispose to suboptimal early childhood development perhaps most aptly portrayed by the recent joint report by World Health Organisation and UN Habitat on global urbanisation.2 Maggi and colleagues are therefore on course in reminding us that child survival and child development are not mutually exclusive goals.3 Nowhere else in the world is the need for action most urgent than in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. These two regions not only account for the highest maternal and child mortality, but also have the highest population of undernourished and developmentally disadvantaged children globally.1,4 This is largely because the leading causes of infant and child mortality such as prematurity/low birth weight, birth asphyxia, infections and undernutrition are also associated with developmental disabilities in survivors.4–6 Infants who receive timely intervention against these fatal conditions may be spared the related long-term sequelae. However, these and similar conditions cannot be totally eradicated because of the underlying constellation of biological, health, social, environmental, economic and political risk factors. Neither can timely intervention be assured for all infants regardless of the financial outlay devoted to maternal and child health in these regions. Most governments are already overwhelmed by uncontrolled population growth, rapid urbanisation, manpower shortages and weak health-care systems. Without global concern and well-coordinated efforts, very little can be achieved in addressing the inevitable burden of childhood development especially for the beneficiaries of the current child survival initiatives. As the entire global health community races towards the MDG 2015 ‘finishing line’ and articulate the next maternal and child health agenda, perhaps now is the time to sound the clarion call for action to address the plight of developmentally disadvantaged children in the poorest regions of the world. It is sound economics to do so.

The responsibility to protect – much ado about nothing?

AbstractDespite its newness, the concept of the responsibility to protect (R2P) looks back at a stellar career. It has been the subject of numerous conferences and academic publications and has been affirmed by the major UN bodies. Indeed, if one were to assess the development of an international norm by the amount of academic attention and general rhetorical support it enjoys, one could be inclined to believe that the responsibility to protect is rapidly evolving into a norm of customary international law.This article subjects the R2P hype to critical scrutiny and asks probing questions about R2P's viability as a norm. Beneath the thin veneer of rhetorical acceptance of R2P lies a range of hotly disputed issues – in particular but not exclusively regarding the concept's implications for the use of force – which are unlikely to be resolved in the near future. In this article I examine R2P's potential to ‘ripen’ into an international norm. I argue that in the absence of an intersubjective consensus about what R2P actuallymeans, the concept's chances to ‘harden’ into a norm of customary international law are remote. I posit that R2P cannot be considered a ‘new norm’ or an ‘emerging norm’ as it is frequently called, because the vast majority of states simply does not want to be legally bound to save strangers in remote regions of the world.

Rhetoric from Brussels and reality on the ground: the EU and security in Africa

This article overviews the development of African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) to date and examines EU involvement in this. The European Union is the major financial partner in both military and non-military assistance to the African Union (AU). Europe has shifted from being a major UN troop contributor towards the funding of African-led peace operations, as well as the emergence of time-limited, high-impact, missions. With the exception of Somalia, these ESDP operations have provided little direct security benefit to Europe and their success has been limited. They have provided experimentation opportunities of ESDP capabilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad and Guinea Bissau. Events in the eastern Congo in late 2008 demonstrate that the EU needs to consider carefully when it intervenes militarily in Africa: non-intervention and coordinated bilateral diplomatic efforts by EU member states can be more effective.

Respecting Human Rights in Central Asia: Will this stabilize or destabilize the region?

AbstractAll five Central Asian states have signed most of the major UN Human Rights Conventions. However, due to poor implementation the level of fulfillment of Human Rights — although varying from country to country — is unsatisfying. Poverty, violations of basic economic and social rights, torture, violence against women, lack of freedom of media and freedom of assembly, arbitrary arrests, wide-spread corruption, restrictions regarding freedom of religion, child labor and lack of protection of refugees are the key problems. Poor quality of election, restriction of political and religious freedom, and non-realization of economic and social rights on the long run will contribute to destabilize societies and fuel extremism. Kazakhstan, the first post-Soviet country to take over the OSCE chairmanship in 2010, fails to meet many agreed standards for democratic elections and respect of human rights. It therefore would be over-optimistic to expect that Kazakhstan will become a driving force in promotion and protection of Human Rights. However, the very fact that Central Asia for a certain period will be in the spot light and that Kazakhstan's domestic human rights policy will be closely monitored and scrutinized provides a window of opportunity to advocate for improved respect of Human Rights in Central Asia.

The role of harm reduction in controlling HIV among injecting drug users.

Injecting drug users (IDU) now account for one in 10 new HIV infections world wide. Yet it has been known since the early 1990s that HIV among IDU can be effectively, safely and cost-effectively controlled by the early and vigorous implementation of a comprehensive package of strategies known as 'harm reduction'. This concept means that decreasing drug-related harms is accorded an even higher priority than reduction of drug consumption. Strategies required involve: explicit and peer-based education about the risk of HIV from sharing injecting equipment; needle syringe programmes; drug treatment (including especially opiate substitution treatment) and community development. Many countries experiencing or threatened by an HIV epidemic among IDU have now adopted harm reduction but often implementation has been too little and too late. Although coverage is slowly improving in many countries, HIV is still spreading faster among IDU than harm reduction programmes while coverage in correctional centres lags far behind community settings. The scientific debate about harm reduction is now over. National and international support for harm reduction is growing while almost all the major UN organizations responsible for drug policy now support harm reduction. Only a small number of countries, led by the USA, are still vehemently opposed to harm reduction. Excessive reliance on drug law enforcement remains the major barrier to increased adoption of harm reduction. Sometimes zealous drug law enforcement undermines harm reduction. A more balanced approach to drug law enforcement is required with illicit drug use recognized primarily as a health and social problem.

Reproductive Health: A Right for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons

Continued political and civil unrest in low-resource countries underscores the ongoing need for specialised reproductive health services for displaced people. Displaced women particularly face high maternal mortality, unmet need for family planning, complications following unsafe abortion, and gender-based violence, as well as sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. Relief and development agencies and UN bodies have developed technical materials, made positive policy changes specific to crisis settings and are working to provide better reproductive health care. Substantial gaps remain, however. The collaboration within the field of reproductive health in crises is notable, with many agencies working in one or more networks. The five-year RAISE Initiative brings together major UN and NGO agencies from the fields of relief and development, and builds on their experience to support reproductive health service delivery, advocacy, clinical training and research. The readiness to use common guidance documents, develop priorities jointly and share resources has led to smoother operations and less overlap than if each agency worked independently. Trends in the field, including greater focus on internally displaced persons and those living in non-camp settings, as well as refugees in camps, the protracted nature of emergencies, and an increasing need for empirical evidence, will influence future progress.RésuméLes troubles politiques et civils dans les pays à faibles ressources soulignent le besoin de services spécialisés de santé génésique pour les personnes déplacées. Les femmes déplacées souffrent en particulier d’une mortalité maternelle élevée, de besoins insatisfaits de planification familiale, des complications d’avortements non médicalisés et de la violence sexiste, ainsi que d’IST, notamment le VIH. Les institutions d’aide humanitaire et de développement et les Nations Unies ont préparé du matériel technique et introduit des changements politiques positifs dans les environnements de crise et elles s’efforcent d’améliorer les soins de santé génésique. Des manques importants n’en demeurent pas moins. La collaboration pendant les crises est bonne, beaucoup d’institutions travaillant dans un ou plusieurs réseaux. L’initiative quinquennale RAISE rassemble les principales institutions des Nations Unies et ONG spécialisées dans l’aide humanitaire et le développement, et se fonde sur leur expérience pour soutenir la prestation de services, le plaidoyer, la formation clinique et la recherche en santé génésique. Ces organisations ont accepté d’utiliser des directives communes, de définir conjointement les priorités et de partager les ressources, permettant ainsi de mener des opérations plus harmonieuses et de réduire le nombre d’activités qui se chevauchent. Les progrès futurs seront influencés par les tendances dans ce domaine, notamment la priorité accrue accordée aux personnes déplacées à l’intérieur de leur pays et qui vivent hors des camps, en plus des réfugiés des camps, la durée prolongée des urgences et le besoin croissant de données empiriques.ResumenEl continuo descontento político y civil en países con pocos recursos recalca la necesidad continua de proporcionar servicios especializados en salud reproductiva para personas desplazadas. Las mujeres desplazadas en particular afrontan una alta tasa de mortalidad materna, necesidad insatisfecha de planificación familiar, complicaciones después del aborto inseguro y violencia basada en género, así como enfermedades de transmisión sexual, incluido el VIH. Las organizaciones de socorro y desarrollo y organismos de la ONU han elaborado materiales técnicos, realizado cambios positivos a las políticas, específicos a los ámbitos de crisis, y están trabajando para proporcionar mejores servicios de salud reproductiva. Sin embargo, aún existen importantes brechas. La colaboración en el campo de la salud reproductiva en crisis es notable, ya que muchos organismos trabajan en una o más redes. La Iniciativa RAISE de cinco años reúne importantes organismos de la ONU y ONG de los campos de socorro y desarrollo, y se basa en su experiencia para apoyar la prestación de servicios de salud reproductiva, actividades de promoción y defensa, capacitación clínica e investigación. La buena disposición para utilizar documentos de orientación en común, determinar prioridades conjuntamente y compartir recursos ha propiciado mejores actividades y menos traslapo que si cada organismo hubiera trabajado independientemente. Futuros avances serán influenciados por las tendencias en el campo, como un mayor enfoque en las personas desplazadas internamente, aquéllas fuera de los campamentos y los refugiados en los campamentos, la prolongada naturaleza de las urgencias y la creciente necesidad de evidencia empírica.

"Global Civil Society" and the Political Depoliticization of Global Governance

Activists, officials, and academics alike have often linked observations about an emerging global civil society to an incipient democratization of world politics. Global civil society is assumed to bring public scrutiny and “bottom-up” politics to international decision making “from outside” formal political institutions. Based on an analysis of uses of the concept of global civil society in 1990s global governance discourse (especially related to the major UN world conferences), this paper argues that the presumed democratization of world politics is better understood in terms of a double movement: on the one hand, “global civil society” depoliticizes global governance through the promotion of “human security” and “social development”; on the other hand, the emerging international public sphere (in the UN context) operates as a subsystem of world politics rather than opposing the system from outside. Practices of depoliticization are thus part of the political logic of (neo-)liberal global governance. The argument draws on Luhmann’s systems theory and Foucault’s analysis of governmentality.

China and UN environmental policy: institutional growth, learning and implementation

The focus of this article is on whether, and to what extent, the major UN bodies for environmental issues—the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), the Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD), and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF)—have had any impact upon how China addresses and approaches its environmental issues. The UN bodies seem to have had some degree of day-to-day influence in a range of fields. UNEP has provided assistance in terms of policy formulation, technical assistance, training of personnel, public awareness and networking. The CSD seems to have made fewer practical and concrete contributions to China’s environmental policies; it serves as an arena for learning and discussion of environmental issues, rather than as a body for policy implementation. The GEF, on the other hand, has been an important source for the implementation of environmental policies in China. As to China’s contribution to environmental issues on the global arena, China does not seem to give priority to the international level of environmental policies. It is an active participant and stakeholder in international bodies such as UNEP and the CSD, but it is currently not providing any leadership. This is in clear contrast to domestic policy, where environmental issues are becoming increasingly important, attracting the attention of the media, policy-makers and the public. The article concludes that should this trend consolidate, establishing the management of the environment and natural resources as major issues in Chinese politics, it is reasonable to expect that China will in the future aim to play a leading role in environmental politics at the international level.

Organizational culture and knowledge sharing at the United Nations: using an intranet to create a sense of community

AbstractThis paper describes the impact that the United Nations' (UN) intranet has had on enhancing internal communications in the organization during a period of organizational change, examining in particular the role of a community of content providers. The UN's intranet, called iSeek, was revamped and redesigned in 2005, just before the launch of a major UN reform package. An Internal Communications Unit (ICU) was set up to coordinate a more participatory and dynamic approach to communications and encourage dialog at all levels. A sense of community has been fostered by the creation of a network of focal points providing content across the organization worldwide, which was reinforced during a workshop organized to develop a strategy for the intranet. This community approach has helped encourage knowledge sharing and a transition toward a more collaborative organizational culture. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Outsider or frontrunner? Recent developments under international and European law on the status of the European Union in international organizations and treaty bodies

Much of the European Union’s foreign policy credo focuses on the promotion of effective multilateralism. The Council of the European Union put this notion at the heart of the European Security Strategy (2002), and the European Commission referred to the EU as a “frontrunner” in the UN system in its communication on EU-UN relations (2003). Whereas the world organization with its wide net of specialized agencies offers a most important platform for multilateral diplomacy for EU Member States, it is less flexible as regards the participation of the European Union itself. Membership in the main organization is still confined to States only (Art. 4(1) of the UN Charter). True, in 1991, the first UN specialized agency, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), adopted the necessary constitutional modifications to allow membership of the European Community. However, since then no major UN specialized agency has welcomed the EC as a member.

The Cardoso Report on the UN and Civil Society: Functionalism, Global Corporatism, or Global Democracy?

The Report of the Panel of Eminent Persons on United Nations-Civil Society Relations was published in June 2004. It strongly endorsed the case for wider participation of civil society in all aspects of the UN's work, both at the headquarters and at the country level. However, the Panel members displayed little understanding of the existing NGO consultative arrangements. Many of its recommendations were impolitic or impractical. The report was intellectually incoherent because it embodied three competing theoretical frameworks: functionalism, neocorporatism, and democratic pluralism. The functionalist emphasis on expertise and the neocorporatist emphasis on engaging stakeholders cannot offer criteria for participation on an all-embracing democratic basis. Reform is needed provide facilities and resources enhance participation by marginalized groups. KEYWORDS: nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), United Nations, global civil society, Cardoso Report, functionalism, neocorporatism, legitimacy, participation. ********** Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have been important participants in the United Nations system since 1945. They have access intergovernmental meetings, present written statements, make speeches, and lobby for specific texts be adopted. For the first twenty-five years, fewer than 400 NGOs were registered with the UN, and at any particular meeting only a few of these were active, mainly behind the scenes. During the 1970s, a series of major UN conferences stimulated a tremendous growth in the number of NGOs, the range of issues addressed, the types of activities undertaken, the amount of media coverage, and the extent of influence achieved. Now more than 3,000 NGOs are registered as having consultative status, and many more have some involvement in UN policymaking. However, NGOs are still predominantly limited conferences and the subsidiary bodies of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). (1) They have no formal status within the General Assembly, the Security Council, or the international economic institutions. Many NGOs want their participation rights be extended these forums, but there is significant opposition this among the UN's member governments. A second problem is the imbalance within the NGO community at the UN between the numbers of individuals from North America and northern Europe and the lower numbers from other parts of the world, particularly from Africa. In this article, I analyze the conclusions of a review, known as the Cardoso Report, that was intended address these limitations the consultative arrangements and generate new ideas for civil society engagement with the UN. (2) There are three normative arguments for enhancing NGO participation in policymaking: the functionalist appeal for the use of expertise; the corporatist desire involve the affected interests; and the pluralist belief in democratic policymaking. The three arguments are all clearly present in the Cardoso Report, but confusion results because they are not compatible with each other. The first two approaches represent a threat the NGO participation rights that have been operating for the last sixty years at the United Nations. The only morally sound and politically feasible basis for legitimizing wider NGO participation in the UN system is the democratic claim for all voices be heard in global policy debates. The goals of extending ECOSOC participation rights other forums and of increased participation from civil society in developing countries will be analyzed below in this light. The Cardoso Panel on United Nations--Civil Society Relations The work of the Cardoso Panel must be seen as part of the reform process that Kofi Annan initiated as soon as he took office in January 1997. His first report launch the reforms called for the United Nations to engage civil society and make it a true partner in its work. (3) Progress was slow and many new ideas met with opposition. …

The 2005 World Summit: UN Reform, Security, Environment and Development

This article reviews the negotiations leading up to the High-Level Plenary Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, which centred on United Nations reform, a review of the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and a follow-up of major UN conferences. The article considers the human security concept and the different perspectives of developed and developing countries in environmental negotiations. It provides an overview of the negotiations in the months before the Summit. The final part of the article considers the outcome of the World Summit and institutional questions related to the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and the new UN Peace-Building Commission.

Militarization Without Civil War: The Security Dilemma and Regime Consolidation in Haiti

This essay examines why paramilitary forces have become increasingly critical to Haitian politics over the past half century as an attempted solution to political instability during the previous 150 years since the 1804 independence. The repeated interruptions at democratization in the past two decades have accelerated instability and reliance on paramilitary forces. The strategy worked during much of the Duvalier dictatorship (1957–86) by institutionalizing the state paramilitary, which became known as the Tons Tons Macoutes. The abolition of the Macoutes after the end of Duvalierism in 1986 did not halt the reliance on paramilitary coercion by the state. As paramilitary forces were used by the opposition, as well as the state, paramilitaries escalated insecurity and human rights violations by all sides. Particularly during his second presidential term, Jean Bertrand Aristide (2001–04) feared another coup and exile such as occurred during his first term (1991–94). His paramilitary came from urban gangs, which led to increases in arms wielded by proliferating, corrupt forces on all sides. The second major UN peacekeeping mission (2004–present) provided relative stability during the 2006 elections but, along with the interim government (2004–06), failed to disarm the urban gangs and rural armed groups.

Towards more effective peace building: a conversation with Roland Paris

Since the early 1990s, the international community has become increasingly involved in efforts to (re-)build states that have been torn by war and violent conflict. Today, the United Nations alone is engaged in more than ten political and peace-building missions around the world. Roland Paris's most recent work, At War's End: Building Peace after Civil Conflict (2004) examines 14 of the major UN peace-building missions launched between 1989 and 1999. In particular, Paris questions whether the predominant models of peacekeeping, with their emphasis on rapid democratisation and market liberalisation, are appropriate in fragile post-conflict contexts. In this interview, Roland Paris shares what can learned from the peace-building record about its effectiveness as a means of preventing the recurrence of violence in post-conflict situations.

Women's NGOs at UN Conferences: The 1992 Rio Conference on the Environment as a Watershed Event

SUMMARY Before the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) was held in Brazil in 1992, the involvement of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in UN conferences was limited. NGOs participate in UN conferences in two ways, at a non-governmental forum usually convened simultaneously with an official UN conference, or as accredited observers to the official conference where government delegations meet and make decisions. Only 200 NGOs were granted access to the official portion of the Decade for Women Conference held in Nairobi in 1985, whereas 1,400 organizations were accredited to attend UNCED in Rio in 1992. And while only a small portion, about 5 percent, of those were women-oriented NGOs, they had a significant impact on the outcome. An entire chapter on women and environmental issues was added to the official conference document, and cross-cutting references to women were included throughout the document. This achievement reflects the work of several uniquely placed women, in and outside governments and the United Nations system, working together to build an international network of women and bring their voices to the table. Moreover, the techniques they developed have been used by women at every major UN conference held since 1992.