How can international organizations (IOs) like the United Nations (UN) and their implementing partners be held accountable if their actions and policies violate fundamental human rights? This book provides a new conceptual framework to study pluralist accountability, whereby third parties hold IOs and their implementing partners accountable for human rights violations. Based on a rich study of UN-mandated operations in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Kosovo, the EU Troika's austerity policy, and Global Public-Private Health Partnerships in India, this book analyzes how competition and human rights vulnerability shape the evolution of pluralist accountability in response to diverse human rights violations, such as human trafficking, the violation of the rights of detainees, economic rights, and the right to consent in clinical trials. While highlighting the importance of alternative accountability mechanisms for legitimacy of IOs, this book also argues that pluralist accountability should not be regarded as a panacea for IOs' legitimacy problems, as it is often less legalized and might cause multiple accountability disorder.

Law and Practice of the United Nations: Documents and Commentary combines primary materials with expert commentary demonstrating the interaction between law and practice in the UN organization, as well as the possibilities and limitations of multilateral institutions in general. Each chapter begins with a short introductory essay describing how the documents that ensue illustrate a set of legal, institutional, and political issues relevant to the practice of diplomacy and the development of public international law through the United Nations. Each chapter also includes questions to guide discussion of the primary materials, and a brief bibliography to facilitate further research on the subject. This second edition addresses the most challenging issues confronting the United Nations and the global community today, from terrorism to climate change, from poverty to nuclear proliferation. New features include hypothetical fact scenarios to test the understanding of concepts in each chapter. This edition contains expanded author commentary, while maintaining the focus on primary materials. Such materials enable a realistic presentation of the work of international diplomacy: the negotiation, interpretation and application of such texts are an important part of what actually takes place at the United Nations and other international organizations. This work is ideal for courses on the United Nations or International Organizations, taught in both law and international relations programs.

The Security Council, the all-powerful UN body for maintaining world peace, remains mired in its World War II origins. The victors, the US, Russia, China, Britain, and France, continue to control it with their permanent membership and the veto. Their confrontations emasculated the Council during the Cold War and their cooperation spawned questionable military actions thereafter. The book traces the origins of international security cooperation and scrutinizes the moorings of the Security Council's powers in international law. It critiques the permanent five's manipulation of the Council to aggressively strengthen their global dominance and legitimise their exercise of power. Their doctrines and actions in countries like Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Libya have hindered the Council's evolution as a responsible body which has the trust of a globalising world. This book is an essential read for practitioners and scholars to understand the Security Council and the failure to reform it.

Graduation is the process through which least developed countries (LDCs) cease to be members of the LDC category, in recognition of their advances in development. In principle, it marks a shift from dependency to a greater degree of self-sufficiency and emergence from the development "traps" which beset LDCs. However, the loss of access to international support measures (ISMs) tied to LDC status at graduation can give rise to important economic costs, including an estimated 3-4 per cent of export revenues in the case of trade preferences. During the 45 years since the establishment of the LDC category, only four countries have graduated from LDC status; and the Report's projections indicate that the target of half of the LDCs graduating by 2020 is unlikely to be met. This partly reflects the inadequacy of the existing ISMs. The projections also suggest a fundamental shift in the composition of the group, which by 2025 will consist almost entirely of African countries and include only one small-island economy. The Report argues that graduation should be viewed as part of a longer and broader development process, and emphasizes the need for "graduation with momentum" - an approach which goes beyond fulfilment of the statistical criteria for graduation to lay the foundations for future development. This means prioritizing structural transformation of the economy, development of productive capacities, upgrading technology and raising productivity. The Report highlights several policy areas essential to achieve "graduation with momentum" - rural transformation, industrial policy, science, technology and innovation policy, finance and macroeconomic policy, employment generation and women's empowerment. It calls on the international community to contribute by fulfilling their commitments in areas such as aid and technology. It also suggests possible revisions to the graduation criteria to reflect more appropriately issues such as structural transformation, environmental sustainability and gender equality.

This landmark publication in the field of international law delivers expert assessment of new developments in the important work of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) from a team of renowned editors and commentators.The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations and plays a central role in both the peaceful settlement of international disputes and the development of international law. This comprehensive Commentary on the Statute of the International Court of Justice, now in its third edition, analyses in detail not only the Statute of the Court itself but also the related provisions of the United Nations Charter as well as the relevant provisions of the Court's Rules of Procedure. Six years after the publication of the second edition, the third edition of the Commentary embraces current events before the International Court of Justice as well as before other courts and tribunals relevant for the interpretation and application of its Statute.The Commentary provides a comprehensive overview and analysis of all legal questions and issues the Court has had to address in the past, and looks forward to those it will have to address in the future. It illuminates the central issues of procedure and substance that the Court and counsel appearing before it face in their day-to-day work. In addition to commentary covering all of the articles of the Statute of the ICJ, plus the relevant articles of the Charter of the United Nations, the book includes two scene-setting chapters: Historical Introduction and General Principles of Procedural Law, as well as important and instructive chapters on Counter-Claims, Discontinuation and Withdrawal, and Evidentiary Issues.

The Security Council, the all-powerful UN body for maintaining world peace, remains mired in its World War II origins. The victors, the US, Russia, China, Britain, and France, continue to control it with their permanent membership and the veto. Their confrontations emasculated the Council during the Cold War and their cooperation spawned questionable military actions thereafter. The book traces the origins of international security cooperation and scrutinizes the moorings of the Security Council's powers in international law. It critiques the permanent five's manipulation of the Council to aggressively strengthen their global dominance and legitimise their exercise of power. Their doctrines and actions in countries like Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Libya have hindered the Council's evolution as a responsible body which has the trust of a globalising world. This book is an essential read for practitioners and scholars to understand the Security Council and the failure to reform it.

An ethnography on early-career workers facing job insecurity at the United Nations. This ethnography focuses on the work and lifeworld at the United Nations in Geneva and Vienna. By emphasizing the perspectives of entry-level workers, this book addresses the increasing flexibility and job insecurity for those at the beginning of their potential UN careers. It explores questions such as: How do career aspirants reconcile their narratives with the organization's image built over the past decades? How can we understand institutional power and individual agency through the lens of ritual theory and the theory of social orders? This study finally examines the entangled discourses around privilege and prestige on the one hand and the precarity and vulnerability of a growing number of UN workers on the other hand. It shows that these phenomena are not contractionary but two sides of the coin. Using the UN as an example, the study considers mechanisms of flexible and unstable work environments in times of cognitive and affective capitalism.

The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) remains the cornerstone of global ocean governance. However, it lacks effective provisions or mechanisms to ensure that all ocean space and related problems are dealt with holistically. With seemingly no opportunity for revision due to the Conventions burdensome amendment provisions, complementary mechanisms dealing with such aspects of global ocean governance including maritime transport, fisheries, and marine environmental sustainability, have been developed under the aegis of the United Nations and other relevant international organizations. This approach is inherently fragmented and unable to achieve sustainable global ocean governance. In light of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goal 14, the IMLI Treatise proposes a new paradigm on the basis of integrated and cross-sectoral approach in order to realise a more effective and sustainable governance regime for the oceans. This volume focuses on the role of UN as the central intergovernmental organization responsible for global ocean governance. It examines the ocean governance challenges and how the present legal, policy, and institutional frameworks of the UN have addressed these challenges. It identifies the strengths and weaknesses of UN legal structures and offers tangible proposals to realize the ambition of a global ocean governance system.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is the first international agreement setting out freedoms, rights and entitlements for all humanity to claim. It emphasises the inextricable relationship between fundamental freedoms and social justice, and their connection with peace and security. The General Assembly of the United Nations proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping the UDHR constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

The United Nations Secretary-General and the United Nations Security Council spend significant amounts of time on their relationship with each other. They rely on each other for such important activities as peacekeeping, international mediation, and the formulation and application of normative standards in defense of international peace and security - in other words the executive aspects of the UN's work. The UN Secretary-General and the Security Council fills an important lacuna in the scholarship on the UN system. Although there exists today an impressive body of literature on the development and significance of the Secretariat and the Security Council as separate organs, an important gap remains in our understanding of the interactions between them. Bringing together some of the most prominent authorities on the subject, this volume is the first book-length treatment of this topic. It studies the UN from an innovative angle, creating new insights on the (autonomous) policy-making of international organizations, and adds to our understanding of the dynamics of intra-organizational relationships. Within the book, the contributors examine how each Secretary-General interacted with the Security Council, touching upon such issues as the role of personality, the formal and informal infrastructure of the relationship, the selection and appointment processes, as well as the Secretary-General's threefold role as a crisis manager, administrative manager, and manager of ideas.

Dangerous Diplomacy reassesses the role of the UN Secretariat during the Rwandan genocide. With the help of new sources, including the personal diaries and private papers of the late Sir Marrack Goulding-an Under-Secretary-General from 1988 to 1997 and the second highest-ranking UN official during the genocide-the book situates the Rwanda operation within the context of bureaucratic and power-political friction existing at UN Headquarters in the early 1990s. The book shows how this confrontation led to a lack of coordination between key UN departments on issues as diverse as reconnaissance, intelligence, and crisis management. Yet Dangerous Diplomacy goes beyond these institutional pathologies and identifies the conceptual origins of the Rwanda failure in the gray area that separates peacebuilding and peacekeeping. The difficulty of separating these two UN functions explains why six decades after the birth of the UN, it has still not been possible to demarcate the precise roles of some key UN departments.

The Oxford Handbook on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations presents an innovative, authoritative, and accessible examination and critique of the United Nations peacekeeping operations. Since the late 1940s, but particularly since the end of the cold war, peacekeeping has been a central part of the core activities of the United Nations and a major process in global security governance and the management of international relations in general. The volume will present a chronological analysis, designed to provide a comprehensive perspective that highlights the evolution of UN peacekeeping and offers a detailed picture of how the decisions of UN bureaucrats and national governments on the set-up and design of particular UN missions were, and remain, influenced by the impact of preceding operations. The volume will bring together leading scholars and senior practitioners in order to provide overviews and analyses of all 65 peacekeeping operations that have been carried out by the United Nations since 1948. As with all Oxford Handbooks, the volume will be agenda-setting in importance, providing the authoritative point of reference for all those working throughout international relations and beyond.

Standards and regulations are an integral, if easily overlooked, part of our daily life. They determine whether a plug fits into a socket, whether food is safe for human consumption or whether a bank is allowed to take deposits. They are also an indispensable part of international trade. Using new evidence from ITC databases, this report reveals how standards and regulations are holding SME competitiveness back, but crucially, what SMEs and other stakeholders can do to make standards and regulations work for, and not against, SMEs. In this report, advice targeted at SME managers is presented, as well as how Trade and Investment Support Institutions and policymakers can influence the business environment to boost competitiveness, and integration into global markets

The United Nations in International History argues for a new way of examining the history of this central global institution by integrating more traditional diplomacy between states with new trends in transnational and cultural history to explore the organization and its role in 20th- and 21st-century history. Amy Sayward looks at the origins of the U.N. before examining a range of organizations and players in the United Nations system and analysing its international work in the key arenas of diplomacy, social & economic development programs, peace-keeping, and human rights. This volume provides a concise introduction to the broad array of international work done by the United Nations, synthesizes the existing interdisciplinary literature, and highlights areas in need of further research, making it ideal for students and beginning researchers.

The thirty-fourth issue of the Statistical Abstract of the Arab Region presents time series statistics and indicators on economic and social issues in all fourteen Arab Region member countries. The Abstract is divided into twelve chapters addressing the following topics: population; labour force; education and illiteracy; health; gender equality; national accounts; energy; industry; transport; foreign trade; financial statistics and prices; and information and communications technology. Data contained in the Abstract were primarily collected from national statistical sources in the Arab Region, either through responses to questionnaires or from statistical abstracts and bulletins issued by official authorities in member countries. The Abstract also relies on data issued by international organizations and agencies, with priority given to United Nations sources.

Official documents of Resolutions and Decisions of the Security Council, 2014-2015.

The Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report (APTIR) is a major annual publication of the Trade, Investment and Innovation Division of United Nations ESCAP. It aims to deepen understanding of trends and developments in trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region; emerging issues in trade, investment and trade facilitation policies, and impacts of these policies on countries' abilities to meet the challenges of achieving inclusive and sustainable development. It offers innovative policy options to meet the challenges of achieving sustainable trade and investment. APTIR 2016 shows that 2015-2016 has been a worrying period for trade and investment n the Asia-Pacific region and worldwide, and there are few signs that the current economic and trade slowdown is simply a temporary phenomenon. Instead, this pattern may be the result of a change in the fundamental structure of world trade, which might lead to a persistent trade stagnation. On the other hand, good progress was made, especially at the regional level, with furthering cross-border paperless trade as one of the approached to deal with the upward pressure on the trade costs. Special feature of this volume is a chapter on digital trade in Asia-Pacific. Accepting the rising importance of e-commerce as a new trade platform, there is opening for the possible changes in the focus of trade and investment policies in order to leverage the potential of e-commerce to support intraregional trade.

This 2016 Africa Human Development Report on gender equality follows the 2012 Africa Human Development Report, which looked at the importance of assuring food security for all Africans. The two reports share a common objective of addressing what might be considered two unfinished agenda items on Africa's development trajectory. Both have long been recognized as important priorities for the governments and citizens of African countries. This year's report on gender equality reviews the ongoing efforts of African countries to accelerate the pace of assuring women's empowerment through all spheres of society - in the home and community, in health and educational attainment, in the workplace, and in political participation and leadership. While significant progress has been made across numerous fronts in most countries, gender equality for African women and girls is still far from satisfactory. This report adopts a political economy approach to gender equality and women's empowerment in Africa.

The prohibition of the use of force in international law is one of the major achievements of international law in the past century. The attempt to outlaw war as a means of national policy and to establish a system of collective security after both World Wars resulted in the creation of the United Nations Charter, which remains a principal point of reference for the law on the use of force to this day. There have, however, been considerable challenges to the law on the prohibition ofThe prohibition of the use of force in international law is one of the major achievements of international law in the past century. The attempt to outlaw war as a means of national policy and to establish a system of collective security after both World Wars resulted in the creation of the United Nations Charter, which remains a principal point of reference for the law on the use of force to this day. There have, however, been considerable challenges to the law on the prohibition of the use of force over the past two decades. This Oxford Handbook is a comprehensive and authoritative study of the modern law on the use of force. Over seventy experts in the field offer a detailed analysis, and to an extent a restatement, of the law in this area. The Handbook reviews the status of the law on the use of force, and assesses what changes, if any, have occurred in consequence to recent developments. It offers cutting-edge and up-to-date scholarship on all major aspects of the prohibition of the use of force. The work is set in context by an extensive introductory section, reviewing the history of the subject, recent challenges, and addressing major conceptual approaches. Its second part addresses collective security, in particular the law and practice of the United Nations organs, and of regional organizations and arrangements. It then considers the substance of the prohibition of the use of force, and of the right to self-defence and associated doctrines. The next section is devoted to armed action undertaken on behalf of peoples and populations. This includes self-determination conflicts, resistance to armed occupation, and forcible humanitarian and pro-democratic action. The possibility of the revival of classical, expansive justifications for the use of force is then addressed. This is matched by a final section considering new security challenges and the emerging law in relation to them. Finally, the key arguments developed in the book are tied together in a substantive conclusion. The Handbook will be essential reading for scholars and students of international law and the use of force, and legal advisers to both government and NGOs.

The Index to Proceedings of the Economic and Social Council is a bibliographic guide to the proceedings and documentation of the Economic and Social Council. This issue covers the 2015 session of the Council including the organizational and substantive session. The Index is divided in two parts comprising the Subject Index and Index to Speeches. The Index is prepared by the Dag Hammarskjoeld Library, Department of Public Information, as one of the products of the United Nations Bibliographic Information System (UNBIS).

The Index to Proceedings of the Security Council is a bibliographic guide to the proceedings and documentation of the Security Council. This issue covers the seventieth year of the Council including its commissions, committees and ad hoc committees. The Index is divided in two parts comprising the Subject Index and Index to Speeches. The Index is prepared by the Dag Hammarskjld Library, Department of Public Information, as one of the products of the United Nations Bibliographic Information System (UNBIS).

How to respond effectively to humanitarian crises is one of the most pressing and seemingly intractable problems facing the United Nations. Martin Barber, for many years a senior UN official and with decades of humanitarian experience, here argues that the explanation for UN 'failures' or only partial successes lies not with any lack of idealism or good intentions but with the constraints placed on aid workers by ill-considered policies and poor practical application - officials are 'blinded by humanity'.Barber presents an inside story based on personal/hands-on/practical experience in Laos, Thailand, Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina and, finally, in Abu Dhabi where he advised the UAE government on its aid programme. He tells of internal struggles at head office and the challenges of working in the field. All the major UN activities - and headaches - are here, including refugee work, coordinating humanitarian aid, peacekeeping, the huge problem of 'de-mining', and the complex internal workings of the UN Secretariat.A personal narrative and lessons drawn from direct experience provide the frame for an examination of major questions concerning the future of humanitarian response - how effectively have international institutions discharged their responsibilities towards people affected by conflict? Specifically, how did the UN perform? And how might the UN better help such people in the 21st century? Barber analyses recent policy developments intended to improve the quality and effectiveness of the UN's work in humanitarian fields, and assesses the extent to which recent reforms are likely to make the UN a more effective partner for countries emerging from conflict. In the final chapter he highlights seven 'blind spots' whose significance has been consistently ignored or overlooked, and in each case suggests a radical new approach.

This report focuses on how innovation policies can expressly promote industrial development, and what lessons can be learnt from existing experiences of countries, both developing and developed. It argues that while technology and innovation are an essential component of how industries use knowledge to apply to learning, their role in fostering economic development can only be harnessed if innovation policies are clearly and coherently linked to overall industrial development goals of countries. Basing its analysis on data as well as experiences of countries, the report argues for closer coordination between innovation policies and industrial goals in order to promote technology and innovation for overall economic development.