UN in Focus Newsbrief N0. 6/2011 December 2011 Quick Links FES NY Events FES NY Publications More About Us Dear colleagues and friends, This is the last issue of our"UN in Focus" Newsbrief for 2011, and our last event of the year took place in the context of the Financing for Development (FdD) High-level Dialogue, when FES joined with UBUNTU and the NGO Committee on FfD to organize a Civil Society Forum on December 6th. Representatives from longtime UN participants Social Watch, the Association for Women's Rights in Development and the International Trade Union Confederation joined in discussion with participants from Occupy Wall Street, the Fiscal Policy Institute and National Nurses United on the impact of rising global inequality on development and economic stability, and how to begin to link the global and local agendas focusing on innovative financing for development, domestic resource mobilization(including tax reform to curb tax avoidance and evasion and to produce a more equitable tax system) and holding the financial sector more accountable. We end our year with a number of publications that emanated from the various threads of our work on global challenges to peace and security. The publication by Richard Gowan scrutinizes this year's performance of the UN Security Council against the backdrop of its unique composition in 2011. By contrast, Colin Keating is taking the long-term perspective on reforming the Council's working methods, an issue that is often overlooked in the heated debates about the Council's much needed structural reform. Robert Schütte focuses on gaps in the implementation of the protection of civilians in UN-mandated military interventions. Below the level of intervention by force, sanctions are often seen as the coercive measure of last resort. Yet the crises of 2011, from Côte d'Ivoire over Libya to Syria have demonstrated that there is vast disagreement about the utility of sanctions. The International Policy Analysis by Enrico Carisch and Loraine Rickard-Martin is therefore intended as a one-stop manual to clarify the pitfalls and power of this tool. All these publications point to need to improve the instruments at the disposal of the international community when confronted with threats to peace and security in the future. As usual, I hope this Newsbrief will make for informative reading. We wish you very happy holidays and a peaceful and successful 2012! Sending you season's greetings from New York, Dr. Werner Puschra Director Friedrich Ebert Stiftung- New York Office

New Publication "Global Threats and the Role of United Nations Sanctions" Enrico Carisch and Loraine Rickard-Martin, FES International Policy Analysis, December 2011 After the end of the Cold War, the UN Security Council has increasingly deployed sanctions as a coercive tool in response to peace and security threats. This International Policy Analysis describes how sanctions have evolved from a blunt tool to a precision instrument. It also analyzes the ongoing challenges to the UN sanction regime and the need to improve the coherence among different actors, such as national governments, private sector, NGOs and regional organizations. The authors explain why targeted sanctions are not a panacea and what is needed to improve further UN sanctions regimes. FES International Policy Analysis New Publication "The Security Council's Credibility Problem" Richard Gowan, FES Perspective, December 2011 In this new FES New York Perspective Richard Gowan argues that 2011 was ultimately a disappointing year for the UN Security Council. Although initially playing a central role in the international response to the crises in Libya and Côte d'Ivoire, the Council lost momentum as its members fell out over the Libyan war and the Syrian crisis. As the loss of credibility is viewed differently by Western and non-Western Council members, in the near future their cooperation on strengthening the Council's capabilities for conflict prevention would be the best way to restore some faith in the Council. FES Perspective New Publication "Reforming the Working Methods of the UN Security Council" Colin Keating, FES Perspective, December 2011 This FES Perspective argues that the continuing discussion about the reform of the UN Security Council should not only focus on the highly contentious issues of composition and membership. Rather, attention should be given to low-profile measure such as the overhauling of the body's procedural practices. Colin Keating demonstrates that the improvement of the Council's working methods could serve as a relatively quick fix for boosting the body's overall performance. Procedural reforms appear to be a less controversial issue among Member States, and do not require any interminable amendment of the Charter. Among the first measures to be implemented are a revitalized focus on Peacebuilding, better involvement of troop-contributing countries, and the development of a proactive culture of conflict prevention. FES Perspective

New Publication "Minding the Gap: Approaches and Challenges to Robust Civilian Protection" Robert Schütte, FES Perspective, December 2011 In the last two decades the international community's toolbox for the protection of civilians from mass atrocity crimes has evolved gradually. Today, not only exists a multitude of non-coercive measures, but also a wide array of robust and coercive forms of intervention. Chapter-VIImandated Peacekeeping missions or Mass Atrocity Response Operations(MARO) serve as vivid examples. However, a comprehensive doctrine for the implementation of civilian protection is currently not at hand, which leads, according to Robert Schütte, to sketchy mission objectives and ill prepared troop deployment. Schütte argues in favor of a comprehensive and UN-wide doctrine for the protection of civilians, which would explicitly define the role of civil and military components in protecting civilians in conflict environments. FES Perspective Recent Event "Financing for Development Civil Society Forum" Tuesday, December 6, 2011, 3:00pm-6:00pm United Nations Headquarters, Conference Room C On December 7-8 the UN General Assembly held its 5th High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development(FfD). The vision of FfD endorsed in the Monterrey Consensus 10 years ago is a long way from becoming reality. And recent events-from the global financial crisis of 2008-9 to the ongoing democratic uprisings in the Arab World, anti-austerity demonstrations in Europe and Israel, and the Occupy movement's protests against rising inequality-show that the current international economic system does not support equitable development and sustainable growth. The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, UBUNTU(World Forum of Civil Society Networks) and the NGO Committee on FfD organized a Civil Society Forum on December 6th to help civil society prepare for the High-level Dialogue and to discuss both the role that rising global inequality is having on development as well as how to more effectively link the global and local agendas related to domestic resource mobilization. Program Forward email This email was sent to vlehmann@fesny.org by vlehmann@fesny.org| Update Profile/Email Address| Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™| Privacy Policy. Friedrich Ebert Foundation| 747 Third Avenue, Suite 22B| New York| NY| 10017