United Nations System Research Articles

Greening the United Nations Charter: World Politics in the Anthropocene

A revised version of this working paper has been published as: Biermann, Frank. 2012. Greening the United Nations Charter: World Politics in the Anthropocene. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development. May / June 2012. A constitutional turn is needed to bring the UN system in line with the urgent needs of planetary stewardship and earth system governance in the 21st century. Yet how this could be organized in practice remains a challenge and subject to political and scholarly debate. This paper contributes to this debate by outlining four reforms of the UN system that would advance global decision-making by addressing major shortcomings in the current system: Lack of integration of economic and environmental policies in the UN system; institutional fragmentation and weakness of the environmental pillar of sustainable development; lack of high-level regulatory competence and oversight regarding areas beyond national jurisdiction; and insufficient integration of scientific insights into political decision-making. The reforms proposed would together create an Earth Alliance in the UN system, consisting of a high-level UN Sustainable Development Council, a World Environment Organization, a UN Trusteeship Council for Areas beyond National Jurisdiction, and an UN Global Environmental Assessment Commission.

United Nations agencies forward together in the response to violence against women

Momentum is building to eliminate the most pervasive yet least recognized human rights abuse in the world—'violence against women. Studies show that 70 per cent of women experience some form of physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. Everywhere, communities, civil society and governments are mobilizing to end practices that harm the health, dignity, security and autonomy of women and negatively impact society as a whole. The United Nations system is working together to support partners in this effort.

Together Stronger: The Future of Sport: A Review of the 5th World Conference of Women and Sport

I had the opportunity to attend the 5th World Conference on Women and Sport in Los Angeles, California on February 16-19, 2012. The World Conference on Women and Sport is sponsored by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and was hosted by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games (SCCOG).The IOC World Conference on Women and Sport takes place every four years to examine the progress made within the Olympic movement and identify ways to improve and increase the participation of women in the world of sport. Approximately 750 participants with representation from 140 countries attended sessions devoted to leadership views on women in the world of sport, partnerships for progress, the business of sport, sustainable responsibility, Title IX, empowering women and girls through education, and growing up in a gender-balanced society. Participants included members of the media, educators, researchers, athletes, coaches, administrators, and representatives from National Olympic Committees, International and National Sport Federations, global companies, and the United Nations system. The theme for the 5th World Conference was Together Stronger: The Future of Sport. I am faculty in the Department of Health and Kinesiology at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. My research focuses on the social psychological experiences of women and girls in sport and their barriers to involvement. It is from this perspective that I write this conference review. Due to the number of concurrent sessions, I will highlight only those that I attended. A complete listing of presentations and presenters can be found at the conference website (www.wom-enandsport2012.com). Thursday's Opening Ceremony began in the evening at the Nokia Center and started with video footage from the Olympic Games. As this was the first set of images presented, it was surprising that all of the images appeared to be of male Olympians, a disturbing oversight for attendance at a conference celebrating and encouraging women's involvement in sport. As Christine Brennan, USA Today columnist and conference presenter, stated in her post-conference column, When an opening video flickered before [conference attendees] ... it was an IOC highlight reel of Olympic performances, but something was wrong with it. It included footage of one great male athlete after another. There were almost no women in it. Out of 34 athletes who appeared in that film, there were the recognizable images of just four women, and they went by so quickly that many conference attendees didn't think there were any at all (Brennan, 2012). As Brennan accurately suggested, When you watch footage like that, as I did as a speaker at the conference, you have to give the IOC credit for honesty: It didn't even try to fake its concern for the achievements of women in sport. Or perhaps it is simply cluelessness; the IOC doesn't know, or perhaps doesn't care, about how awful that opening video looked (Brennan, 2012). Welcome and opening remarks were made by Larry Probst, USOC President, Anita DeFrantz, IOC Women and Sport Commission Chair, Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles, and Jacques Rogge, IOC President. The 2012 Women and Sport Awards were then presented, with India's Manisha Malhotra winning the World Trophy for her commitment to helping disadvantaged girls progress through sport. The five continental winners included Peninnah Aligawesa Kabenge (Africa-Uganda), the Bradesco Sports and Education Progamme and Centre (Americas-Brazil), Zaiton Othman (Asia-Malaysia), Aikaterini Nafplioti-Panagopoulos (Europe-Greece), and Roseline Blake (Oceania-Cook Islands). Each recipient was recognized for her role in getting more women and girls involved in sport as athletes, administrators, leaders and members of the media (for more information on each recipient, go to http://www. …

The Politics of Impartiality: The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in the Soviet Union, 1946–7

Officials from the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) were among the world’s first international civil servants charged with impartially implementing a humanitarian assistance programme in a contentious political environment. Using the underexploited papers of Richard Scandrett and Marshall MacDuffie, this article explores the story of UNRRA in the Soviet Union and assesses its significance in forging an ethos of international public service and humanitarianism in the United Nations system. I argue that this animating spirit has its roots in the first-hand exposure of UNRRA personnel to the destruction wrought by the war, and in the personal rapport UNRRA officials established with their Soviet counterparts. Meanwhile, a strong reaction against multilaterally administered relief arose in the USA, forcing the organization to vigorously defend its performance. In response, UNRRA staff rejected the politicization of relief and became more committed to the broader goal of strengthening international institutions in order to address global problems. UNRRA staff concluded that the impartiality of international relief work should be protected as a vital asset in alleviating human suffering. As today’s humanitarian workers face an increasing threat of violence in places like Afghanistan and Sudan, the lessons on UNRRA’s experience are worth remembering.

Using the SNA and SAMs for a Better (Socio-)Economic Modelling

The Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) can be considered a tool to be used for measuring a society’s activity. It provides a description of that activity, which can be either empirical or theoretical, depending on whether it is presented in a numerical or an algebraic version, respectively. Special attention will be paid here to the numerical version, and a method will be proposed for its construction from the United Nations System of National Accounts (SNA). After the first and most fundamental contribution made by Richard Stone, the SNA (with its successive improved versions, from 1953 to 2008) has established a set of rules for measuring a society’s activity, which the statistical offices of countries or groups of countries have adopted and adapted to their specific realities, thus defining their own systems. Through an application of the SAM to Portugal, a basic structure, based on the SNA, will be proposed for this matrix, and its consistency within the whole system will be studied. Possible disaggregations, extensions, aggregates, indicators and balances will be calculated and other aspects beyond that basic structure will also be examined. It will be concluded that using the SNA in a SAM-based approach contributes towards a better modelling of (socio-)economic policy, emphasizing the importance of that approach as a valuable support in policy decision processes.

The Committee on Enforced Disappearances: Challenges Ahead

The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance was adopted on 20 December 2006 by the United Nations and opened for signature in Paris on 6 February 2007. The Convention entered into force on 23 December 2010. A new treaty-monitoring body within the United Nations system, named Committee on Enforced Disappearances , is entrusted with the implementation of the Convention. The establishment of this new human rights mechanism at a time when the whole system of human rights treaty bodies is being reviewed was extensively debated during the negotiations for the Convention. Nevertheless, the position of those that favoured the creation of a new committee eventually prevailed. The article aims at examining the various functions entrusted to the Committee, some of which are of an especially original nature compared to other United Nations treaty-monitoring bodies. Reference is made to good practices developed by other human rights mechanisms (both treaty bodies and special procedures within the United Nations, as well as regional human rights courts) that the Committee on Enforced Disappearance could consider, as well as potential mistakes to be avoided. The article will analyze both substantive matters relating to the interpretation of the provisions of the Convention, and more practical details concerning the functioning of the Committee, its methods of work and rules of procedure.

International and European Security Law

Security law, or more comprehensively conflict and security law, on the international level represents the intersection of three distinct but interrelated fields: international humanitarian law (the law of armed conflict, jus in bello), the law of collective security (most identified with the United Nations (UN) system, jus ad bellum) and arms control law (including non-proliferation). Security in this sense is multifaceted - interest security, military security and, as is often referred to in the context of the EU, human security. As such, the law covers a wide range of specific topics with respect to conflict, encompassing the use of force, including choice of weapons and fighting techniques, extending to the rules applicable in peacekeeping and peace enforcement, and yet also dictating obligations outside the context of conflict, such as safeguarding and securing dual-use materials (those with both peaceful and military applications) to prevent malicious use.

The Functions and Role of the United Nations Secretariat in Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea

Abstract This article provides an overview of the functions entrusted to the Secretary-General of the United Nations under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and performed on his behalf by the United Nations Secretariat, namely the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea of the Office of Legal Affairs. In accordance with the commemorative spirit of this special issue, the article seeks to chronicle the major institutional steps through which the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea came into existence and was assigned with unique tasks in ocean and sea-related matters within the United Nations system. The functions of the Division are then briefly discussed.

Responsibility to Protect and the United Nations System: The Difficulties in Creating and Enforcing Universal Norms

Responsibility to Protect and the United Nations System: The Difficulties in Creating and Enforcing Universal Norms

IPSAS adoption by the World Food Programme: an application of the contingency model to intergovernmental organisations

This paper intends to contribute to the body of literature that explores the drivers and reasons for public sector organisations' accounting reforms. In 2009, the World Food Programme (WFP) became the first United Nations system organisation to successfully implement International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) and full accruals accounting. This paper reviews the applicability of the contingency model (Lueder, 1992) and its subsequent version (Financial Management Reform model; Lueder, 2002) to intergovernmental organisations such as those making up the United Nations system. The WFP's case is presented through the conceptual lens of the contingency framework and the case study findings are then used to further develop the contingency model for application to accounting reforms in intergovernmental organisations.

In Defense of Smart Sanctions: A Response to Joy Gordon

In her recent article in this journal, Joy Gordon provides an astute history and critique of the evolution and application of smart sanctions within the United Nations system since the mid-1990s. Her analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the discrete types of smart sanctions is part of a growing discussion among both academics and practitioners about the future and the utility of these measures. As always, her continued skepticism about the effectiveness and ethical dimensions of economic sanctions deserves serious consideration and evaluation. In particular, Gordon raises three central concerns: (1) smart sanctions are no more successful than traditional trade sanctions; (2) each type of targeted mechanism has serious flaws; and (3) targeted sanctions did not end the humanitarian damage or the related ethical dilemmas that are embedded into sanctions design and implementation.

Due Process Rights at the United Nations: Fairness and Effectiveness in Internal Investigations

International organizations have a duty to combat frauds and other wrongdoings in their midst – with due respect for the rights of their staff members. Internal investigation is a tool for administration of internal justice and oversight. There are currently discussions within the United Nations System regarding who should conduct these investigations, and most importantly how. Discussion topics include discretionary authority to initiate an investigation and to outline its appropriate scope, standard of evidence, legal representation, timing of the disclosure of evidence and other due process considerations. This contribution discusses the cost of some selected due process policies and calls for balancing fairness and effectiveness objectives in investigation, keeping in mind both the rights of staff members and the public good objectives for which donors entrust funds to international organizations.

The analysis of un activities in resolving the issue of Kosovo and Metohija

After the Security Council had established the international administration in Kosovo on grounds of the Resolution no. 1244 of 10 June 1999 for the construction and reconstruction of the legal and economic systems, the support and protection of human rights, the provision of humanitarian and other assistance, it adopted the conclusion that the achievement of a political settlement for the southern Serbian province would primarily depend on the development and consolidation of peace and security. Accordingly, in May 2001, the international administration adopted the Constitutional Framework for Provisional Self- Government in Kosovo, which defined the status of the Serbian southern province as a whole and indivisible territorial entity under the interim international administration. The Constitutional Framework is regulated as a substantial transfer of state responsibilities by the peoples of Kosovo and Metohija to the provisional institutions of self-government and it should ?enjoy substantial autonomy within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia?. This institutional development is aimed at establishing constructive cooperation among various ethnic communities in order to build a common democratic state. Since this solution is not quite legally balanced, it could not go without any negative consequences in terms of national sovereignty. The suspension of sovereignty of the Republic of Serbia in Kosovo and Metohija has eventually contributed to creating of the conditions for the socalled unilateral declaration of independence of the Republic of Kosovo. The analysis of the activities undertaken in the field of resolving the status issue after the unilateral declaration of independence of 17 February 2008 suggests that the solution for the Kosovo and Metohija should be primarily sought within the United Nations system.

Heritage interpretation and human rights: documenting diversity, expressing identity, or establishing universal principles?

This article highlights the central role of public interpretation in helping to integrate human rights concerns in the evaluation and management of World Heritage sites. Beginning with a brief survey of the relationship of cultural heritage to human rights in the United Nations (UN) system, it will then analyse the evolving concepts of culture in UN and United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization policy. The paper will identify three distinct culture concepts and associated interpretive approaches that are of potential relevance to rights-based heritage management: (1) interpretation as the accurate, objective documentation of heritage sites; (2) interpretation as an expression of collective identity; and (3) interpretation as promotion of the universal value of cultural diversity. The paper will conclude with an assessment of how the systematic integration of all three approaches may serve to enhance current heritage practice with a concern for human rights.

Práticas de governo das crianças e dos adolescentes propostas pelo UNICEF e pela UNESCO: inquietações a partir das ferramentas analíticas legadas por Foucault

O artigo em pauta é resultante de fala em mesa-redonda proferida no Colóquio Internacional Michel Foucault, a judicialização da vida, realizado, em outubro de 2011, na Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro. O texto ora descrito é parte de análises realizadas há anos em pesquisas documentais, com as ferramentas de Michel Foucault, com relatórios de agências multilaterais ligadas ao sistema Nações Unidas, em especial, UNICEF e UNESCO, no Brasil. Buscamos interpelar estas práticas e descrever como as mesmas são prescritivas de conduta e são estratégias de governo neoliberal, articulando a promoção, defesa e garantia de direitos à economia política, em nome da defesa da vida e da construção da paz e segurança mundial.

Strengthening crisis information management in a networked world: A call for vision, leadership, and collaboration

How do we respond? How do we know when to respond? Two fundamental questions drive not only humanitarian relief and aid work, but also all responses to a wider range of emergencies and crises that the United Nations system is geared to prevent, mitigate and help recover from. The underlying principle of all UN operations is to help save lives, prevent unnecessary deaths and, in cases where mass scale atrocities have been committed, hold perpetrators accountable for their actions. As we move into the second decade of the twenty-first century, we realize that knowing implies having access to and leveraging information and communications technology (ICT), ranging from the web and the Internet through personal computers, to the mobile web through smartphones and Short Message Service (SMS). The human condition is now inextricably entwined with the availability of information online, from basic services to personal shopping, from banking and commerce to education and healthcare. Nations with better ICT infrastructure invariably show better human development indicators and stronger economic prosperity. At the same time, the recent riots in London (fanned by the use of web-based social media and ICT), the growing instances of cybercrime, online hate speeches, identity theft, data loss, surveillance by repressive regimes, and propaganda through digital media are but a few aspects of the flip side of our networked societies.

On the Original Understanding of the Crime of Genocide

This article is an extended exercise in 'genocide originalism.' To wit, some leading genocide scholars have propounded a supposedly “legal” definition that is unduly narrow. Purportedly based on the drafting history of the Genocide Convention, this narrow definition actually rests upon incomplete and selective references to legal sources. This narrow definition also has important effects on debates concerning whether partial genocides, such as by 'ethnic cleansing' may constitute the crime of genocide. In this article, I survey evidence that the drafters and ratifiers of the Genocide Convention did not adopt a requirement of genocidal intent that would be nearly impossible to satisfy, namely an intent to totally destroy a race. Efforts to equate genocidal intent with total racial destruction have been disturbingly common within the United Nations system over the past decade, including in the findings of International Court of Justice (ICJ) on genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina, of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur (ICID) on genocide in western Sudan and eastern Chad, and of the trial chamber of the U.N.-backed International Criminal Court (ICC) on genocide in Darfur. At the root of this misunderstanding is the equation of the intent to destroy a group required by Article II of the Genocide Convention with a deliberate plan or policy of a state to exterminate the members of an entire racial group, or a total genocide. Contrary to this distortion of the Convention, its drafters rejected efforts to limit genocide to total destruction, a plan or policy of destruction, or a motive of racial hatred. This article contends that the original understanding of the crime of genocide did not require a total genocide, and that this original understanding is reflected in the text of the Genocide Convention, the 'travaux preparatoires', and the course of performance of the treaty by the United Nations and its member states.

Paradoxes of power: Indigenous peoples in the Permanent Forum

In the United Nations (UN) Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (PF), indigenous political subjectivities take shape in the power relations that not only make indigenous peoples subjects but also subjugate them. This article discusses the process and the possibilities of resistance that open up for indigenous peoples within it. The approach taken acknowledges the limiting political environment of the UN for indigenous peoples, because it is a non-indigenous political system based on state sovereignty. Yet, it does not view the situation of those peoples in the PF as totally determined by the states and their dominant discourse. The theoretical framework of the article draws on the work of Michel Foucault and his conceptions on power, resistance, subjectification, technologies of domination and of the self. The power struggles in the PF, described through the complex of sovereignty, discipline and government, and the resistances within them engender paradoxical indigenous subjectivities: colonized/decolonized, victim/actor, traditional/modern, global/local. Indigenous peoples are able to engage both in resistance that is a reaction to states’ exercise of power or the creative use of its tools and in indirect resistance that ‘stretches’ the UN system and constitutes action on its own terms.

Resolution 1325 and Post-Cold War Feminist Politics

Social movement scholars credit feminist transnational advocacy networks with putting violence against women on the United Nations (UN) security agenda, as evidenced by Resolution 1325 and numerous other UN Security Council statements on gender, peace and security. Such accounts neglect the significance of superpower politics for shaping the aims of women's bureaucracies and non-governmental organizations in the UN system. This article highlights how the fall of the Soviet Union transformed the delineation of ‘women's issues’ at the UN and calls attention to the extent that the new focus upon ‘violence against women’ has been shaped by post-Cold War US global policing practices. Resolution 1325's call for gender mainstreaming of peacekeeping operations reflects the tension between feminist advocates’ increased influence in security discourse and continuing reports of peacekeeper perpetrated sexual violence, abuse and exploitation.

Non-governmental organizations in world politics: the construction of global governance

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from Amnesty International and Oxfam to Greenpeace and Save the Children are now key players in global politics. This accessible and informative textbook provides a comprehensive overview of the significant role and increasing participation of NGOs in world politics. Peter Willetts examines the variety of different NGOs, their structure, membership and activities, and their complex relationship with social movements and civil society. He makes us aware that there are many more NGOs exercising influence in the United Nations system than the few famous ones. Conventional thinking is challenged in a radical manner on four questions: the extent of the engagement of NGOs in global policy- making; the status of NGOs within international law; the role of NGOs as crucial pioneers in the creation of the Internet; and the need to integrate NGOs within mainstream international relations theory. This is the definitive guide to this crucial area within international politics and should be required reading for students, NGO activists, and policy-makers.