Greetings from Global Policy Forum!
After a pause of three weeks, we are back. GPF has been relative quiet during these weeks, though we have posted quite a lot of new information to the site. Executive Director, Jim Paul, took a well deserved vacation on a farm in rural Indiana. UN headquarters has been generally quiet and slow paced - getting some rest before the busy fall season.
We hope our last message about the Millennium Mobilization has inspired you to organize an event on October 23 to demand full funding for the UN. The Millennium Mobilization will be a worldwide day of education and a call to action. Already, we have confirmed over a dozen events in the US and Europe. A number of our current postings reflect a rising level of public concern about the funding issue.
GPF's new Millennium Mobilization section and our UN Financial Crisis portfolio provide resources and information to get you started on a Millennium Mobilization project in your community. Email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and let us know what you are planning. We will post your information on the Millennium Mobilization section of the site in order to build a network of groups working on the issue.
Though much of the UN has been quiet, the Security Council has been very busy, since crises have taken no holiday this summer. Ambassador Robert Fowler of Canada has been especially active, as he works to strengthen the Council's Angola sanctions against UNITA. On Thursday, August 26, Amb. Fowler convened the first meeting of two new expert panels that will provide technical advice to the Council. Composed of ten members, mostly African, the panels include experts on customs, diamonds, arms, financial controls, intelligence and more. A reception at the Ambassador's residence on Thursday evening introduced the panel members to Council delegations and a few NGOs. Well-informed sources are guardedly optimistic that this latest Canadian initiative will have an important long-term impact.
Another center of summertime action at the UN has been the second PrepComm for the International Criminal Court (ICC). Though the statute was agreed at a conference in Rome last summer, negotiations continue in order to work out details of how the court will be organized and function. Negotiations began on July 26 and continued intensely for three weeks -- through August 13. Nearly 800 NGOs now belong to the NGO Coalition for the ICC and more than 80 NGO representatives from 60 organizations were present in New York for the PrepComm. As in prior phases of this process, NGOs played a key role. The United States, though not a signatory to the statute and hostile towards it in Rome, actively participated in the negotiations and tried to water down some of the key provisions. Many observers noted, though, that the US position has changed from open hostility to partial accomodation, as it has become obvious that the Court will come into being.
In another accomodation to reality, Harvard economist Jeffery Sachs has written an article in the Economist quietly calling for "a very small" global tax on carbon-emitting fossil fuels. A high priest of neo-liberalism, known for his disastrous "shock therapy" nostrums for Russia, Sachs has long argued that markets work best when unhindered by political intervention. We applaud his belated realization that the invisible hand does not always promote human welfare. And we agree with his remark about global taxes that there is "no better time to start than as the new millennium begins."
Shortly after we read Sachs' article, we learned that StudyWeb, an educational resource for students and teachers, had selected the GPF web site section on global taxes as a "Featured Site." StudyWeb tells us that their imprimatur will increase the visibility of our site and attract many new visitors. Tens of thousands of US school children may be exposed to the idea of global taxes this way. Senator Helms will not be pleased.
We have added a number of new graphs as well as several colorful cartoons to the site. We are sure you'll enjoy the cartoons, which mostly come from Ian Williams' book "The UN for Beginners". Ben Holt, who did most of this work, and Olivia Tecosky, who further developed our global taxes site, have served GPF admirably as interns this summer. We were sorry to see them head off in mid-August for a bit of vacation before the fall semester begins. Ben returns to Brown University and Olivia to Macalester College (alma mater of Secretary General Kofi Annan).
A final note: we have installed a system to allow donors to make contributions to GPF directly on the web site. Using this sytem, which is completely encrypted to insure confidentiality, you can support GPF by making a charge on your credit card, no matter where you live in the world. The special server can be accessed through the "Membership" button on GPF's home page or through the link at the bottom of every new page posted to our site. We hope that this handy new arrangement will prompt you to take out a membership and to give your support to Global Policy Forum. Our work depends on the help of many generous individuals. Please consider making a contribution now!