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UN Chronicle - Volume 45, Issue 3, 2009
Volume 45, Issue 3, 2009
A must-read for every concerned world citizen, the United Nations Chronicle is a quarterly, easy-to-read report on the work of the United Nations and its agencies. Produced by the United Nations Department of Public Information, every issue covers a wide range United Nations related activities: from fighting the drug war to fighting racial discrimination, from relief and development to nuclear disarmament, terrorism, and the world-wide environmental crisis. Written in English and in French, this issue of the Chronicle examines the eighth goal of the UN Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) - to develop a global partnership for development.
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Are human rights universal?
Author: Navanethem PillayOn 10 December 2008, the United Nations led worldwide celebrations to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Six decades ago, the international community affirmed that the strength of shared ideas and a common vision of respectful and peaceful coexistence could prevail over brutality, hatred and destruction.
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Women’s rights as human rights
Author: Zehra F. Kabasakal AratHuman rights are rights claimed against the State and society by virtue of being a human being. However, the human rights of most people have been continuously violated all around the world. Since all civilizations have been patriarchal, regardless of the overall human rights conditions maintained in a society, women have been subject to more human rights violations than men. Women constitute the poorest and the least powerful segments of their communities. They are denied equal access to education, job training, employment, leisure time, income, property, health care, public office, decision-making power and freedoms, as well as control over their own body and life. Cultural norms, laws and philosophies, including those that are considered progressive and emancipatory, have usually discriminated against women.
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Losing 25,000 to hunger every day
Author: John HolmesDuring the past two decades, population growth, improvement in incomes and diversification of diets have steadily increased the demand for food. Prior to 2000, food prices were in decline, largely through record harvests. At the same time, however, public and private investment in agriculture, especially in the production of staple food, decreased, which led to stagnant or declining crop yields in most developing countries. Rapid urbanization has led to the conversion of farmland to non-agricultural uses, and low food prices have encouraged farmers to shift to alternative food and non-food crops. Long-term unstable land use has also caused land degradation, soil erosion, nutrient depletion, water scarcity and disruption of biological cycles.
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Feeding the hungry in Africa: Not all is lost
Author: Ruth K. Oniang’oAfrica. This one word is sufficient to evoke images of a doomed people. Africa’s population is largely ill-insured against external shocks brought about by natural disasters, adverse climate, war and conflict. It is here too that the ravages of the aids pandemic have been most felt. Indeed, the region is plagued by many problems which hurt its ability to ensure food and nutrition security for its people. The situation seems to repeat itself year in, year out. Yet not all is bad in Africa: it is probably the most bountiful continent in terms of natural resources.
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The spectre of the Khmer Rouge over Cambodia
Author: Benny WidyonoAfter 27 years of international amnesia over bringing the Khmer Rouge to justice, and following six years of intense negotiations between the United Nations and the Government of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge tribunal, officially known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (eccc), was established in 2006. The tribunal is a UN-assisted national court, with international participation of prosecutors and judges.
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Biofuels are no villain
Author: Luiz Inácio Lula da SilvaFood security has always been at the top of my agenda. Upon taking office, my government launched a major domestic programme aimed at eliminating—not just alleviating—hunger at home. In 2003, the pioneering Zero Hunger programme has allowed millions of extremely poor Brazilians to have three square meals a day. Its success has encouraged me to believe that similar goals can be achieved at the global level, where millions fall victim to hunger every year. I have therefore put the fight against poverty at the top of Brazil’s international agenda.
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An era of unprecedented opportunity?
Author: Jacques DioufThe world is experiencing a dramatic rise in food prices. It began gradually in 2006 and has now escalated into a massive surge. It has caused hunger, protests, riots and even fears for international security. Low-Income Food- Deficit Countries have been hardest hit but the problem is global. Reports of the impact of dearer food on the poor in many developing countries have led to calls for international action to reverse the slide towards increasing poverty and malnutrition. Aid agencies have encountered difficulties in meeting the higher costs of purchasing food for distribution and have appealed for additional funds.
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Where food and energy compete
Author: Ling ZhuSince 2007, global food and energy prices have been increasing steeply, hitting economies reliant on energy and food imports with great force like a “silent tsunami”. Rising food costs have led to social unrest in some 30 countries. Food and energy security is more closely connected with political stability than ever before. How to balance food security and energy needs is becoming a burning topic in the international community. China, India and other Asian countries have responded promptly to the global food and energy crisis with a number of measures, including export bans, price intervention and subsidies. However, despite the short-term effect of reducing inflationary pressure by export and price intervention, very little seems to slow the momentum of rising prices. In fact, the intervention would probably distort subtle price adjustments and mislead resource allocations, which could in turn be the potential cause for a real crisis at a later stage.
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The case for state intervention
Author: Madhura SwaminathanIn India, the problems of chronic hunger and malnutrition persist on a massive scale. The prevalence of malnutrition is one of the highest in the world, higher than in some very poor countries of sub-Saharan Africa. According to the 2007 Progress for Children Statistical Review by the United Nations Children’s Fund, the proportion of underweight children below the age of five—an indication of malnutrition— was 28 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa and 42 per cent in South Asia (43 per cent in India). The Report on State of Food Insecurity in the World 2006, by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, confirms that no country comes close to India in terms of the sheer number of people living in chronic hunger.
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The United Nations must manage a global food reserve
Authors: Corazon T. Aragon, Flordeliza A. Lantican and Eden S. PiadozoMore than half of the world’s 6 billion people eat rice as their staple food. Global rice prices have been rising since early 2003. Moderate increases of 9 per cent in 2006 and 17 per cent in 2007 were recorded, but since the beginning of 2008 international rice prices have shown a steep upward trend, reflecting a limited supply available for purchase. In March 2008, the high quality Thai 100 per cent B (white rice) was quoted at $562 per tonne, which was 74 per cent higher than in March 2007, and rose to $898 per tonne by mid-May 2008. Likewise, Thai A1 Super, fully broken rice, markedly increased by 94 per cent, from $263 per tonne in March 2007 to $522 in March 2008 and surged to $764 per tonne two months later. By May 2008, world rice prices were more than double their May 2007 level.
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Tracing the maize-tortilla chain
Author: Kirsten AppendiniMexico is the original source of maize and home to a wide biodiversity. Maize has always been the main staple food of Mexicans and the principal crop cultivated by its farmers for millennia.
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Bailing out humankind from its social insensitivity
Author: Aakangshita DuttaAhost of world leaders met at UN Headquarters in New York on 12 and 13 November 2008 for an interreligious and inter-cultural dialogue on a “Culture of Peace”, at the initiative of King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia. Among the Heads of State and Government, including senior officials, from some 60 countries who spoke were UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, King Abdullah, President Shimon Peres of Israel, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, Jean-Louis Cardinal Tauran, President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue of the Holy See, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad of the Palestinian National Authority, President George W. Bush of the United States and President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan.
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Rape as a war crime; Saving succeeding generations
Author: T. Vishnu JayaramanConcerned over the security of women and girls in situations of armed conflict, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated that rape was a crime that could never be condoned; yet, women and girls around the world had been subjected to widespread and deliberate acts of sexual violence. Chairing in June 2008 a thematic debate of the Security Council on women, peace and security, Ms Rice said that “we affirm that sexual violence profoundly affects not only the health and safety of women, but also the economic and social stability of their nations”.
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Living modified organisms, at your nearest store
Authors: Erie Tamale and Ulrika NilssonOver the last two decades, there has been rapid advancement in the development and application of modern biotechnology—a technology that involves taking genetic material from one organism and inserting it into another to give it a desired characteristic. This new technology is complex and arouses much debate.
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The oxford handbook on the United Nations
Authors: Thomas G. Weiss, Sam Daws and Anthony McDermottHandbook is something of a misnomer for a work of this genre. The Oxford Handbook on the United Nations’ contents and informed analysis are on a scale that makes it invaluable to hand for learned reference. But a handbook, as such, it is not. Rather it contains essays, drawing on the writing skills and participatory experience of 47 well-established practitioners, academics, analysts and writers. Their seams of varied and above all readable knowledge might have filled several volumes. It is, as the editors point out in their introduction, above all a handbook on, not of, the United Nations. It is a tribute to the variety and substance of its content, which makes it hard to read for review. To ease this task, this reviewer has been influenced by a fine idea to help reach conclusions through an informal critical conversation with the well-informed.
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