The People 'vs' The Bomb

In this video, Ken appears in a promo for the Hiroshima Day report alongside US Presidential Candidates Barack Obama and John McCain, together with Michal Gorbachev, Christie Brinkley and Ted Turner amongst others.



This report by UN World Opinion Forum correspondent, Kevin Sanders updates and expands an earlier program on the failure of the last Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference at the UN in 2005, when the Bush Administration blocked discussion of earlier agreements on nuclear disarmament. The next NPT Review will not be until 2010.Then-Secretary-General of the UN Kofi Annan called the failure "a real disgrace."

Justice Policy - Making Good

Definitions

Introduction

Vision

Key Principles

Specific Policy Points

1. Restorative justice
2. Righting wrongs and compensating victims of crime
3. Sentencing alternatives
4. Access to courts and the justice system
5. Maori justice
6. Youth justice
7. Prison management
8. Women in prison
9. Independent Prison Inspectorate
10. Independent Judicial Appointment Commission
11. Domestic/family violence
12. Gun control
13. Supporting a just society
14. Freedom of information
15. Privacy and surveillance issues
16. Police issues
17. International justice

The newsletter of United Nations University and its international network of research and training centres/programmes

Is regional security the path to better global governance? That's the question underlying a new UNU Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS) research project investigating how regional security affects global governance with particular emphasis on the relationship between the UN Security Council and regional agencies.

"With the world in turmoil over the issue of security right now, there is a need to explore new ways of handling conflict prevention and management," said project directorDr. Ken Graham, of the UNU Peace and Governance Programme. "This is directly linked to the issue of UN reform."

Graham noted UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's recent comments on the need to find "unity of purpose based on a common security agenda with a global consensus on the major threats."  Multilateral institutions, Annan said, may not be strong enough to cope with all of the challenges facing them and some may be in need of "radical reform."

According to UNU-CRIS, this reform could involve a more clearly-defined and effective role for regional agencies in conflict management.  In the 1990s an over-burdened UN encouraged such roles, hosting a number of meetings with regional agencies and developing a framework for cooperation with a set of guiding principles. But the questions remains whether this has improved the operational relationship on the ground.

Success in reaching a global consensus on modern security issues, says UNU-CRIS Director Dr. Luk Van Langenhove, "depends on forging reconciliation in threat perception and response between the world's various regions."

"While the fundamental interests of humanity – survival, basic freedoms and sustainable development – are shared by all, cultural differences still exist in values and perceived interests," he said. "These differences are broadly correlated along regional geo-strategic lines.  It might be that the UN approach to conflict management is best served by close collaboration with regional organisations."

The first report on the project, which is partly funded by the Institute for European Studies (IES-VUB), will be available in a month or so but in January a mid-term presentation was organised at the UN secretariat in New York.  Preliminary research results were discussed by the panel of experts pictured below and an audience of about 150 representatives of UN agencies and missions.

Pictured at the presentation in New York (from left): Jean-Marc Coicaud, acting head, UNU office at the United Nations; Jean de Ruyt, Belgian Ambassador to the UN; Kennedy Graham, senior research fellow, UNU Peace and Governance Programme; Omotayo Olaniyan, African Union permanent observer at the UN; Fernando Guimaraes, coordinating officer, Peacekeeping Best Practices Unit; and Luk van Langenhove, director of UNU-CRIS.

THE PLANETARY INTEREST Edited by: Kennedy Graham

The Planetary Interest

David Capie
THE PLANETARY INTEREST Edited by: Kennedy Graham Published by: University College London (UCL) Press, London, 1999, 289pp.

In the past ten years the lexicon of international relations has seen a remarkable proliferation in concepts of security. In an attempt to deal with the challenges of the post-Cold War agenda notions of common, co-operative, comprehensive and human security have been put forward.