UN Security Council Needs To Enforce Human Rights On A War Footing

For the longest time the UN Security Concil has been my least liked aspect of the UN, a body I have tremendous respect for, primarily because of the existence of this thing called veto power. It is like the UNSC is King Mahendra, and the rest in the General Assembly are the powerless but numerous civilian politicians.

But the UNSC recent work on Human Rights brings some hope.

Respect for Human Righs has to be universal. No compromise can be made on that. Confrontation and humiliation are legitimate weapons to use. And, might I add, not entirely enough.

Human Rights are not ideology: they are basic. They are fundamental, elementary. They are starting points for human discourse. Culprit regimes need to be named and shamed and more. Gradually the enforcement mechanisms have to be made stronger. People anywhere on the planet should know should their human righs be violated, either by dictatorial regimes in power, or by "entrepreneurial" armed rebel groups, or private armies, or by warlords and their thugs, regardless of the underlying social, political, ethnic, religious and economic conflicts, the global community will not sit and watch. That safety net has to be put in place.

The concept of sovereignty and "internal matters" becomes moot at that point. The global body can intervene to find facts, and to stop the excesses, with immediate and total effects.

I hope the recent found zeal is but a starting point, and not a momentary hicuup.

Human Rights violations are never "private" and "internal" issues, any more than child and spouse abuse are, any more than violent crime is.

If the people in the far flung corners of the planet can not feel the UN's presence on this fundamental issue, does the rest matter?

Finally, finally, finally looks like the bad guys are about to meet their match.

In The News

• UN Votes To Monitor Child Soldiers, Abuses In War RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, Czech Republic ..... The UN Security Council adopted a resolution today to monitor nations or rebel groups that kill, maim, or sexually abuse children in war zones or recruit them as soldiers..... The resolution reaffirms earlier commitments that the council will consider imposing targeted sanctions, such as a ban on arms exports and imports, against parties that violate international law on the rights and protection of children in armed conflict...... UN figures show that, during the last decade, 2 million children have been killed during armed conflicts and another 6 million have been disabled or injured. ...... Burundi, Cote d'Ivoire, Congo Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, and Sudan. Next year, the monitoring will expand to Colombia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Uganda.
• King to lead team to UN's Sept meet Himalayan Times, Nepal September 14-16 in New York
• Session sees shrill rhetoric by 7-party front Himalayan Times, Nepal ... Koirala today said total democracy is a borderline between constitutional monarchy and a republican order .... stern warning came amid claims that efforts are underway to supersede the constitution ..... billed the action against NC (D) President Sher Bahadur Deuba as panic reaction ....... Madhav Kumar Nepal .... We need to be bold now. People are pushing us towards such a stage where the King is unwanted ..... Leelamani Pokharel said the government can declare the political parties as terrorist outfits even as he warned that people could switch over to the demand for a republican set-up if the King does not listen...... Narayan Man Bijukche of the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party (NWPP) said talks must be held with the Maoists, NC (D) President Gopal Man Shrestha said, Things were not good for the King. He may have to pay for the misdeeds. Nepal Sadbhavana Party leader Bharat Bimal Yadav said political parties may be banned and the current constitution superseded in the near future. We will be ruined if we do not do enough
• Economic and Social Council acts on wide range of human rights ... UN News Centre .... guidelines on victims’ rights to a remedy and reparation for gross human rights violations, as well as the creation of a working group to probe the use of mercenaries to derail human rights....... some 43 texts. ..... a vote of 43 in favour and none against, with 5 abstentions ..... Among country-specific decisions, texts were adopted relating to Myanmar, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Belarus, Sudan, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Nepal, Somalia, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Afghanistan and Haiti....... sought to exert political pressure on developing countries through confrontation and humiliation
• Security Council establishes first comprehensive monitoring ... ReliefWeb (press release), Switzerland .... a major and groundbreaking development, the UN Security Council today voted unanimously for a series of measures, including the establishment of a comprehensive monitoring and reporting mechanism, to ensure the protection of children exposed to armed conflict...... monitor grave violations by all parties, both governments and insurgents, focusing particularly on: killing or maiming of children; recruiting or using child soldiers; attacks against schools or hospitals; rape or other sexual violence against children; abduction of children; and denial of humanitarian access for children....... endorsed the continued naming and listing of all offending parties, both insurgents and governments...... the Council ordered offending parties which have already been listed, to prepare and implement right away, concrete action plans and timelines...... several months of intensive negotiations on a package ...... For the first time, the UN is establishing a formal, structured and detailed compliance regime....... United Nations-led task forces will be established in phases, ultimately covering all conflict situations of concern, to monitor the conduct of all parties, and to transmit regular reports to a central task force based at United Nations Headquarters in New York. These reports will serve as triggers for action against the offending parties...... The latest report lists 54 offending parties, governments, as well as insurgents, drawn from 11 situations of conflict. These included: the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) from Sri Lanka; Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) from Colombia; Janjaweed from the Sudan; the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-Maoist) from Nepal; Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) from Uganda; Karen National Liberation Army from Myanmar; and government forces from Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar and Uganda........ measures might include travel restrictions on leaders, and their exclusion from any governance structures and amnesty provisions, the imposition of arms embargoes, a ban on military assistance, and restriction on the flow of financial resources to the parties concerned....... Today, as never before, we have the necessary norms, institutions, and means ....... In the last decade, 2 million children have been killed in situations of armed conflict, while 6 million children have been disabled or injured. Over a quarter of a million child soldiers are being abused and exploited today in situations of armed conflict around the globe. Since 2003, over 11 million children have been displaced within their own countries, and 2.4 million children were forced to flee conflict and take refuge outside their home countries. Abductions are becoming more widespread, as witnessed, for example, in Darfur, northern Uganda, Nepal and Burundi. Thousands of children, particularly girls, are subjected to rape and other sexual abuses in situations of conflict. Landmines kill or maim 8,000 to 10,000 children every year...... promoting standards and measures for their protection in times of war, as well as their healing and social reintegration in the aftermath of conflict.
• The Secretary General's Report , Full Report
  
• Former PM of Nepal fights jail term for corruption Scotsman, United Kingdom "There is no basis for this case. This is political assassination. We will fight it politically," Deuba said as he was taken back to the prison after the verdict. He has been in custody since April.
• Maoists shut down tea estates in Eastern Nepal Kantipur Online, Nepal 45, 000 workers jobless .... Chief District Officer of Ilam Bijayaraj Poudel said that only three tea estates were closed in the district..... In Jhapa, Chief District Officer Prem Narayan Shah said that workers and proprietors have agreed to open the factories.
• Maoists close down eastern tea estates Kathmandu Post At a time when tea workers should be busy collecting green tea leaves, all government and private tea estates and factories in Ilam and Jhapa districts in east Nepal, have been shut down since Monday, following Maoist threats..... 15,000 workers have been rendered jobless while thousands of kilograms of green leaves, which used to be supplied to the factories daily, is on the verge of going waste..... Increase in salary, other perks and facilities of the workers, immediate release of workers who were detained on charges of being Maoists, are among the 15-point demand put forward by the ANTUF.
  
• Nepal's former Parliamentarians condemn Commission's verdict Outlook (subscription) former parliamentarians today condemned as "politically biased" and "unconstitutional" the anti-graft commission's verdict ..... The meeting of ex-Parliamentarians or the "Third Parliament" unanimously passed a resolution terming the commission's decision sentencing Deuba to two years in prison and imposing a fine of Rs 5.5 crore as "politically biased" and "unconstitutional".....
• Indian police nabs Maoist commander Kantipur arrested an injured Maoist commander at Barahi village of Madhubani district in Bihar .... Swarnim Lama, 24, hailing from Solukhumbu..... section commander of the Maoists and that he was injured during clashes in Udayapur two months ago.... at a nursing home in Darbhanga
• Maoists hurl bombs at public gathering; 16 injured Kantipur Maoists hurled socket bombs at a public gathering in Doti district ..... The Maoists themselves had forced the locals for the gathering ..... The incident occurred after locals tried to rescue a person who was being beaten by the Maoists...... The locals during confrontation nabbed four Maoists and were handed over to the security forces at the district headquarters..... at least 150 locals have reached district headquarters after fear of reprisal by the Maoists in the village