Development Blogs.com

In this letter to the new secretary-general, Human Rights Watch identifies some of the key human rights issues that will help define Ban's success as secretary-general: implementating the "responsibility to protect" doctrine, putting pressure on China, taking a holistic approach to North Korea, mainstreaming women's rights within the UN system, and getting the Human Rights Council back on track. read...

from The Associated Press via GoogleBy FREDERIC J. FROMMER WASHINGTON (AP) — A United Nations anti-poverty program in North Korea paid $50,000 to a company with ties to North Korean weapons sales and left itself open to exploitation by the communist-led country, according to a Senate investigation released Wednesday.The report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations takes issue with the operation of the U.N. Development Program in North Korea, which was suspended last year. The report alleges that the UNDP made itself open to abuse by, among other things, paying the salaries of local staff directly to the government without verifying how they were disbursed, even though the agency suspected that the government was "skimming" money from the payments.Citing wire transfers...

from Mainichi Daily NewsKYOTO, Japan -- South Korea urged the Asian Development Bank on Sunday to consider communist North Korea a future client and start preparing to fight poverty in the isolated, desperately poor nation."With positive developments being made on the (North Korean) nuclear issue, I can envisage the international community's response to North Korea cautiously, but significantly improving," Kwon O-kyu, South Korea's governor to the ADB, said during the development bank's annual meeting in Kyoto."In this regard, I suggest that the ADB gear itself up to supporting the reform efforts of potential future clients like (North Korea), when conditions mature," he said.After a several-year standoff with the United States and neighboring nations over its nuclear weapons program,...