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GPF List-Serv
June 4 - 8, 2001
Greetings from Global Policy Forum!
Security Council Jottings
Bangladesh UN Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury, who has just assumed the rotating Security Council presidency, announced that he will lead a mission to Kosovo this month. The visit marks the first time that a council president and all 15 members tour a conflict area. The mission will leave for the Balkans 15 June and return 19 June. Despite initial reluctance from the US and UK, most council members agree that the visit is necessary in light of the escalating conflict in Macedonia.
In addition to trying increase the awareness of council members in conflict matters, Ambassador Chowdhury is also seeking to involve Member States not represented in the Security Council in the deliberative process on their respective regions. On Tuesday, Ambassador Chowdhury met with the Permanent Representative of Iraq. The next morning, he met with the Representative of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, followed by a meeting with the Permanent Representative of Djibouti on the question of Somalia—a possible agenda on the council's programme of work this month.
The council spent most of its time discussing reforms to the 11-year-old embargo against Iraq. Last week, the council voted to renew the oil-for-food program for a period of one month instead of the usual six-month period, in order to give the council more time to review proposals. In protest, the Baghdad government halted oil exports, arguing that that the renewal of the oil-for-food program should not be linked to the "US-British project" to revitalize sanctions. On Tuesday, France circulated a 20-paragraph draft resolution as an alternative to the US-backed British proposal. The French proposal recommends widening the reforms to permit foreign investment in Iraq's oil industry. France also wants to allow Iraqi civilian aircraft—currently grounded in Turkey and Jordan—to return to Iraq, and to allow these aircraft to fly to or from Iraq. The US and the UK will likely reject the French proposal because it will make it significantly more difficult to monitor the flow of goods into Iraq. The council will also be debating the 30-page list of "dual-use" items. This list includes all items that the US believes could be used to manufacture weapons of mass destruction. Under the current sanctions regime, the US has prevented such "weapons-related" items as antibiotics and cancer drugs from entering Iraq.
When the council was not discussing Iraq, it was debating other sanctions-related topics. In an effort to bolster the embargo against Liberia, the UN Security Council issued a list of 130 Liberian government officials who will not be permitted to travel outside of the country. The list—a virtual "Who's Who of Liberia"—includes President Charles Taylor and his family, an array of civilian ministers and their spouses, military personnel, the president's "inner circle", and dubious businessmen.
The council is also considering a "monitoring mechanism" aimed at strengthening the international arms embargo against the Taliban. The UN would set up offices in the six states bordering Afghanistan to monitor the flow of goods in and out of the country. Visibly upset by these proposals, the Taliban declared that will begin imposing its strict interpretation of Islamic law on foreign aid workers in Afghanistan. The decree further exacerbated tensions between the Taliban and the UN, leading to the closure of bakeries in Kabul that sold subsidized bread to 300,000.
Social/Economic Policy
The G7 leaders have agreed to adopt the New Deal on Debt - canceling the debts of the HIPCs (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) – at the G7 annual summit in Italy this July. While leaders of NGOs actively campaign for the support of a New Deal on Debt, the World Bank and IMF argue that the funds available constrains the possibility of debt cancellation, therefore total alleviation of HIPC debt would cripple the Bretton Woods Institutions. However, the Bank and IMF are very unlikely to be "crippled" as research reveals that they have substantial resources available to clear the debt of HIPCs.
We have posted an article interviewing the interim head of the UN's Department of Public Information, Dr. Shashi Tharoor. Working closely with the Secretary General, Kofi Annan, Tharoor expresses his determination to "re-energize DPI" through a more democratic and transparent information system.
Globalization
As the process of globalization continues, more and more people are living in urban rather than rural settings. The United Nations Center for Human Settlements (Habitat) launched its first reports on urban conditions and trends June 4th, stressing that more than 1.2 billion of the world's population of 6 billion live in inadequate housing. The global trend towards urbanization has unique consequences for those remaining in rural areas. A UN Meeting in Mongolia will address the social and economic challenges and opportunities faced by women in rural areas.
Who says access to technology always benefits the poor? A seminar in Madrid criticized the indiscriminate use of advanced technology from the North in developing nations. The application of energy-intensive technologies imported from the industrialized North may aggravate rather than solve the problems of the developing South.
In a major paper released by Oxfam this month, offshore tax havens are exposed to deprive governments in developing countries of the revenues they need to sustain investment in basic services and the economic infrastructure upon which broad-based economic growth depends. Six policy options are presented in the paper to stem tax evasion and reduce the negative impact of tax havens.
Global Taxes
In a fascinating article we have posted this week, Heikki Patomäki shows how a global currency transaction tax, contrary to intuition, would actually serve to strengthen and maintain state sovereignty rather than weaken it. Because individual states would be responsible for collection of the tax, More importantly, the tax would ensure that the process of globalization is made accountable to humanity.
International Justice
Draft legislation in Serbia on cooperation with The Hague for the extradition of war criminals, and more specifically, ex-President Slobodan Milosevic, left room for political interference, but nevertheless could have marked a major legal breakthrough. Unfortunately Yugoslavia's government failed to agree on the draft law, saying it wants to try him first at home for alleged corruption.
Defense counsel for an indicted Serbian officer, Dragan ("Yenki") Nikolic, alleged an illegal kidnapping, raising serious questions about the rights of the accused and procedures for arrest and transfer to The Hague. According to the defense, Nikolic was "kidnapped" deep inside eastern Serbia, and then illegally transferred by bounty hunters to Bosnia, where he was handed over to authorities in return for an award. The prosecutor characterized the issue as whether "the tribunal's otherwise valid jurisdiction over the accused is vitiated in some way by any alleged illegality that may have occurred in the circumstances of the accused's arrest."
UN Financial Crisis
UNESCO's Director General Koichiro Matsuura wants to close down Courier, the flagship publication of the organization, citing the lack of funds for a magazine with a steadily decreasing readership. He faces overwhelming opposition from member states and, of course, staff.
And now for this week's links: