Leadership Council for Human Rights

~ Feet in the mud, head in the sky ~

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

UN Renovation from the inside, out

4/18/2006
New York-Along with the internal restructuring of the United Nations, there is a need for a complete renovation of the current headquarters building that stands in Manhattan. There has been a great deal of interference in the process, mostly stemming from the United States and the State of New York. According to Newsday, the state legislature in New York has blocked the use of parkland next to the current headquarters, which has set back the renovation process. Now, Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York, is leading the push to allow the United Nations to use the land next to the current building. This has been much to the dismay of many in the legislature, who believe that the United States should not help out the United Nations for various reasons, including not going with the U.S. into Iraq. Bloomberg has made it his goal to convince the state legislative body to allow the United Nations to expand onto the adjacent land. To read more on this story, click here.

Recently the United States officially announced that it will not seek election to the new Human Rights Council at the United Nations. The are many theories as the why the Bush administration made this decision, but according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the most plausible reason is that this is a continuation of the policy that led to voting against the creation of the new council. The United States was one of only four countries to vote against the creation of the new council, and despite calls to support the new council; the administration has distanced itself from it, even after calls by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for the United States to run for membership in May. If the United States thinks that some work still needs to be done it should take this opportunity to change things from the inside out.
According to the article
“The U.S. decision to not seek election to the Human Rights Council exemplifies the way Bush has shunned international organizations and ignored treaties since he has been in office.”
To read this article, click here.

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