Thalif Deen

As the international community reaches the midpoint between the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000 and the target date of 2015, the United Nations on Monday released a 36-page report, described as "the most comprehensive global assessment of [MDG] progress to date".

The legitimacy of a much-ballyhooed Security Council meeting on climate change has been challenged by developing nations that argue that the threat to the global environment is not a subject within the purview of the UN’s most powerful political body. There is "no role" envisaged for the Security Council on climate change, Pakistan’s ambassador said.

When United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon took office in January, he made a public commitment to revamp the UN secretariat, inculcate high ethical standards and make his new administration fully transparent and accountable. "My watchword will be meritocracy, with due regard for gender balance and geographical representation," he pledged, speaking of impending appointments of senior officials.

A coalition of more than 140 international NGOs and women’s groups is gratified that United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is expressing public support for the creation of a new UN agency for women. The proposal for a new UN women’s agency was made last November by a 15-member "High-Level Panel on UN System-Wide Coherence".

The torture of Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad and the wilful abuse and humiliation of terror suspects in the United States detention facility in Guantánamo Bay have been interpreted by human rights activists as violations of the 1987 UN Convention against Torture.

When former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan criticised the United States military invasion of Iraq as an "illegal" act, he was blasted by right-wing neo-conservatives in the US. Since history has a way of repeating itself, the international community is now faced with a parallel situation in Somalia.

Less than six weeks before he steps down as Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan has come up with a political scorecard on the successes and failures of the UN’s much-touted development agenda. The good news is that official development assistance — from rich to poor countries — is reaching a new high.

The United Nations says that international aid work is one of the world’s most hazardous professions, in which humanitarian workers are constantly threatened with — or victims of — kidnappings, harassment, detention and deadly violence. A UN study points out that hundreds of aid workers and UN humanitarian personnel continue to face risks in some of the world’s major trouble spots

The United Nations, which is struggling to redeem its public image over charges of nepotism and mismanagement in its $64-billion now-defunct Oil-for-Food Programme in Iraq, has admitted to another growing scandal relating to its procurement activities.