United Nations

Portrait of a TFF Associate • John Scales Avery is a theoretical chemist at the University of Copenhagen. He is noted for his books and research publications in quantum chemistry, thermodynamics, evolution, and history of science. His 2003 book Information Theory and Evolution set forth the view that the phenomenon of life, including its origin, evolution, as well as human cultural evolution, has its background situated in the fields of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and information theory. Since 1990 he has been the Chairman of the Danish National Group of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. Between 2004 and 2015 he also served as Chairman of the Danish Peace Academy. He founded the Journal of Bioenergetics and Biomembranes, and was for many years its Managing Editor. He also served as Technical Advisor to the World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe (1988-1997). A complete list of books and many of...

• The United Nations has saved millions of lives and boosted health and education across the world. But it is bloated, undemocratic – and very expensive. The United Nations has saved millions of lives and boosted health and education across the world. But it is bloated, undemocratic – and very expensive. By Chris McGreal, The Guardian It was Dag Hammarskjöld, the tragic second UN secretary general, who had it best. The United Nations, he said, “was created not to lead mankind to heaven but to save humanity from hell”. The kind of hell Hammarskjöld had in mind was not hard to imagine in the wake of world war and Hitler’s extermination camps, and with the atom bomb’s shadow spreading across the globe. How much of a part the UN played in holding nuclear armageddon at bay divides historians. But there is little doubt that in the lifetime that has passed...

By Vijay Prashad • In the final segment of Paul Jay’s interview with Vijay Prashad on Reality Asserts Itself, the subject is the undermining of international law and military interventions in the name of human rights. Watch the full episode… From The Real News Network Via youtube.com

• On September 25th 2015, countries adopted a set of goals to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda. Each goal has specific targets to be achieved over the next 15 years. For the goals to be reached, everyone needs to do their part: governments, the private sector, civil society and people like you. Do you want to get involved? You can start by telling everyone about them. We’ve also put together a list of actions that you can take in your everyday life to contribute to a sustainable future. What are the #globalgoals? The full list is here. Read more…  

By Richard Falk Via ahtribune.com A wide-ranging conversation with Richard Falk at the American Herald Tribune on October 5, 2017. Here a few excerpts: • Mohsen Abdelmoumen: You wrote the book “Achieving Human Rights”. Don’t you think that the many interventions of American imperialism, under the pretext of spreading human rights and democracy, have emptied the concept of human rights from its substance? Prof. Richard Falk: I would place the stress on the discrediting effects of the disastrous American imperial intervention, and subsequent occupation, of Iraq starting in 2003. Especially when the allegation of hiding stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction proved false, the United States justified the intervention as a textbook liberation of the Iraqi people, an exercise in what was called ‘democracy promotion.’ Even earlier, the U.S. Government attempted to justify its regime-changing intervention in Afghanistan as beneficial for women, as an undertaking that was described under such...

  s. That motivated Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to make a statement to the effect that “Mladic is the epitome of evil, and the prosecution of Mladic is the epitome of what international justice is all about.” But that statement is, if anything, the epitome of exemplary nonsense, pro-Muslim bias and something the UN S-G ought to distance himself from since it is a purely political statement. The media – in the West in particular – have of course lapped it up. Most media people today are too young to have any personal experience of the events some 25 years ago and would have to read thick books to understand some of it. The verdict’s political effect – whether intended or not – is to justify the horrible way the so-called “international community” intervened in the Yugoslav complex of intertwined conflicts with...

Analysis, critique and alternatives, 2006. /wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Oberg_EU_Promote_Peace-2.pdf

June 14 , 2004 The unanimous approval of UN Security Council Resolution 1546 about the transfer of sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government was a welcome move. It helped heal some of the wounds caused as the result of the illegal invasion of Iraq by US and UK forces, and has again put the United Nations at the centre of global politics. However, as far as the situation in Iraq is concerned, the resolution should only be regarded as the first step in a long process before a legitimate Iraqi government assumes power. The resolution went through a number of drafts but after a great deal of haggling and the incorporation of amendments proposed by France, Germany, China, Russia and a number of other countries, it was greatly improved. While the passing of this resolution provides a glimmer of hope for the hard-pressed Iraqis, the push for a UN mandate...