Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Closing Remarks

Dear All,

Thank you for your papers and comments on your colleagues' papers. As of today, my comments on all of your papers have been published. Please, take a look by clicking on the 'comment' sign underneath each paper and, once there, look under my name to see the comment.

Enjoy the break,

Stan

Monday, February 4, 2008

My Criticism on Final Essay

Criticism of UN agencies reform

There is no specifying target. There are many agencies that you suggest to reform. Thus, it makes your topic unclear because you don’t explain much on one specific agency.
You suggest UNEP to put sanction to countries which harm the environment. However, UNEP is just the agencies; it doesn’t have much power to do so. Since you don’t mention about the membership of this agencies, I also don’t know how many states are the member of this agency and how much power of this agency in dealing with the sanction. Therefore, it is better to strengthen this agencies power first before putting the sanction to other states.
In conclusion, you mention about “Lords of Poverty”, a name of a book, but you don’t mention about what this book focus on. Thus, I have no idea about what you what me to know.
Some agencies are overlapping each other such as UNINSTRAW and UNIFEM, or UNRISD and UNESCO. You said that it waste time and money to establish it. So, it is good to eliminate it, but you said that elimination is difficult. However, you didn’t explain why it is difficult to eliminate the agency. You use the suggestion to some scholar to compound these agencies into one in order to save the money. It is the good idea but it doesn’t save much money, so why don’t you find the way to eliminate it.

Criticism of World Food Program
WFP provides food aid to farmer who practices soil conservation by planting trees; it is useful strategy to fight hunger? There is no explanation about how to do it in detail.
There is no explanation about Food for Lunch program. I have no idea about what is it and how it would support and encourage the child to go to school and avoid of quit the school.
To buy the local food is good idea, but if the country face with natural disaster how can they produce and sell to WFP. Moreover, if the local food has higher price than other countries, it is not a good way to buy expensive product.
The body of the topic is too long compare to the part of suggestion and reform. I think we just put what related to the idea of reform rather than put the general informant about the WFP.

Criticism of UN Trusteeship Council
Impossibility and inefficiency of Trusteeship Council is the good reason to remove the Trusteeship Council, but overlapping with other agencies is not the reason. Trusteeship Council is the one of six organs of UN. Compare to other agencies, it is bigger than other agencies. If we want to remove one of them because of overlapping, why we remove the big one but not the small one since removing the small one is easier since it has small structure.
Are there any differences of putting Trusteeship Council under the Security Council? As you mention, since the Charter state that Trusteeship council need Security Council in order to perform its function, putting or not putting Trusteeship Council under the Security Council is the same thing. It is just different of title from organ to agency. Moreover, why do you want to convert Trusteeship Council into the agency under Security Council since it doesn’t have the job to function (no more trust territories)?
You also want the new Trusteeship Council which placed under the supervision of the Security Council should deal with any new problem occurring in the future. However, if there is the new problems which don’t related to the Trusteeship Council field, how it’s going to solve the problem. Therefore, we still need to create another agency to deal with the problems. Since we need to create the new one, there is no need to keep Trusteeship Council which doesn’t work with new problems.

Criticism of ILO reform
In reform on ILO part, you suggest that ILO should reform on labor law nationally. I don’t understand you mean. Why you want to reform and how to reform it.
You also suggest ILO to punish the employers who violate the labor law by making law. This idea doesn’t useful to protect the employee. ILO doesn’t have direct enforcement to the employers. What ILO has just the indirect enforcement such as influence government to protect the employee? Moreover, the job to making law to punish the employers is the job of government. For example, Cambodia has the Labor Law to protect the employee. Thus, there is no need for ILO to make law. What ILO should do is to influence the government to protect the employer by implements the Labor Law.
You said Cambodian government did not put any effort to reduce the poverty. Where do you get this information? As I know Cambodian government has the rectangle strategies which include the policy to fight against poverty.

Criticism of UN Security Council reform
One suggestion of override the veto power is to increase the proportion of voting. You said if there is a veto vote then the proportion of 9 out 15 will increase to 11 out of 15 (2 more votes needed). If there are 2 veto votes then the proportion will increase to 14 out of 15 (3 more extra votes needed). It is reasonable to increase to 11 out of 15, but increase to 14 out of 15 is unreasonable. If there are 2 veto votes, there are only 13 votes which left. Thus, how can you get 14 votes? It is reasonable if you increase to 13 out of 15 if there are 2 veto votes.
Other point is about the majority of P5. As you said if there are 3 veto votes than Security Council can not override the veto votes because 3 veto votes is a majority within the P5. If you use the principle of democracy, it is good reason. However, why don’t you consider about the majority of non-permanent member. The majority of P5 don’t represent the majority of Security Council. If all members of non-permanent member plus 2 of the P5 agree, it seems they are the majority of the Security Council (if 2 votes of non-permanent member equal one vote of P5). Thus, we still override the veto power.
Another voting procedure is a mechanism whereby Security Council members could call for a paragraph by paragraph vote on resolutions. By doing this, the whole resolution won’t get stuck because of the veto. Members of the UNSC could vote affirmatively on paragraph that they like and veto part that they don’t like. However, if the resolution contains one clause of one paragraph, how to pass the resolution if there is the veto vote. Moreover, if they agree of one paragraph and disagree on one paragraph, how can we issue the resolution which can implement only half to it? If the resolution has related clauses of paragraphs, disagreement of one clause or paragraph will make the whole resolution get struck.
As you suggestion, if we can override the veto power, it is unnecessary to increase the member of Security Council.

COMMENTS ON CLASSMATES' WORK

COMMENTS ON RATTANA’S WORK

I also agree with you that the other two agencies: United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) and United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) should be promoted to be more famous since they have actively played roles in the present world, but in contrast, they have not been promoted to be known like other UN agencies like the World Bank, the IMF, and so on. But the problem is that how can they be more successful and through which the UNEP has more power to make decision of placing sanction to the countries that do not have strong commitment or lack of responsibility of producing air pollution to the world environment as you mentioned?

COMMENTS ON MARDY’S WORK
I have read your part as a whole and I found out that you have given us an account of detailed and interesting history about World Food Program, but I think that you had better put foot note after each essential and quoted information because footnote gives more specific information, in which the information is involved. As for the bibliography, it does not express as detailed and specific information as footnote or end note do. Apparently, we do need both.

COMMENTS ON LY’S WORK
Well, I disagree with Bingbin Lu as well. I have compatible viewpoints as yours. Since having no compulsory jurisdiction, the court hardly performs well and effectively. Additionally, the law is supposed to be created or UN Charter ought to be amended in order to separate the power of the court and security council because the security council has too much power on the court, making it not an independent body.

COMMENTS ON DARA’S WORK
Your writing is a bit short but it makes enough sense. That is why I do not have so many opposing ideas, only saying it would be much better if you added more sources and expanded your writing. In addition, I also expect that the Cambodian government would cooperate more with other NGOs agencies, especially ILO to improve working conditions and unemployment for all Cambodian improvement and development.

COMMENTS ON VICHET’S WORK
Oh, there are many scholars sharing different interesting points of view about the voting procedure. For me, I am not different from them, but the one I think is likely to occur is the suggestion for the P.5 to use their veto vote collectively meaning that veto any resolution need more than one veto vote so that the power of each member of the P.5 would be diminished. And the other recommendation of the voting dismantling the veto power is unlikely to take place as I do not expect the P.5 would make an amendment to the charter to totally abolish their veto power. As a consequence, if the above-mentioned voting will not be possible, the old system of voting is still keeping the same- just like everything is again in the hand of the P.5.

Dear Teacher and all!

Dear Teacher!
I already comment on my classmates.....
Thank you very much for your comment..
Teacher I want to ask you for permission on Tuesday Feb 5, 2008
Because i have to go to the province by that day....
Thank you for your kindness

Happy Chinese Year to Teacher and all............
Good luck

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Pannasastra University of Cambodia Faculty of Law and Public Affairs (FALPA)
Major: Law
Course: United Nations
Student: Vandy Rattana
Prof: Stan Starygin
Academic Year: 2008 - 2009
____________________
Methodology
For the output of this term paper I have chose some sources for the reference, Such as websites and some news items. They are:
- http://www.un.org/
- IMF: www.imf.org
- The World Bank: www.worldbank.org
- International Herald Tribune: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/22/business/bank.php -Global Policy Forum: http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/bwi-wto/wbank/bwi00-1.htm
-UNEP: http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=43 __________________
Contents
I- Introduction
II- Overlapped Agencies
III- Agencies that should be reformed
IV- Agencies that should gain importance
V- Conclusion
____________________
I- Introduction
“The UN is working to make the world a better place”[1] There are many agencies in United Nations system. The ones that are well-known through newspapers, on TV or on other media are UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund), ILO (International Labour, FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), WHO (World Health Organization), World Bank Group, IMF (International Monetary Fund) and WTO (World Trade Organization). And there are many other agencies that may overlap each other or are superficial, needing a reform or elimination. Some other agencies, on the contrary, deal with important topics, like environment, but they do not have enough power to make significant progresses in that field. In this paper, I will try to propose a reform of the UN agencies.
II- Overlapped Agencies
Some UN agencies are overlapping each other, such as UN-INSTRAW (United Nations International research and training institute for the advancement of WOMEN) and UNIFEM (United Nations development fund for WOMEN). The roles of UNRISD (UN research institute for social development) may also overlap with UNESCO (UN educational, scientific and cultural organization). The general missions of UNHCR may overlap with the specific UNRWA (UN relief and works agency for Palestine refugees in the near east). The United Nations has produced and keeps producing a lot of agencies, that some of them overlap each other. This problem may sometimes lead to a loss of time and especially a loss of money. Should some of those overlapping agencies being eliminated? It would be a suggestion, but it might be difficult to close agencies, except if the UN decides not to give them funding anymore. Mr. Men Kimseng, Communications Analyst to UNDP in Phnom Penh, said by telephone that it would be a good deal if the United Nations in Cambodia was able to build a compound to gather all its agencies. It would therefore be very easy for all the organizations to work, to coordinate their work, for example, they can communicate better. Moreover, it would be a substantial saving of money (for the rental fee). But he could not confirm that in the future, the UN agencies will be all at the same place, it is only a rumor. In Cambodia, according to the secretariat of the Cooperation Committee for Cambodia (CCC) [2], interviewed on Wednesday 23 January, there are 500 local and 160 international non-governmental organizations who have already registered for a membership. According to the Ministry of Interior of Cambodia, there are about 3000 Local and International non-governmental organizations in Cambodia.
III- Agencies that should be reformed
Two of UN well-known related organizations are the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB). 1- The International Monetary Fund The IMF[3] was established after World War Two at Bretton Woods. Its first goal was to promote international monetary cooperation in order to guarantee the exchange rates stability. However today, as the exchange rates have been liberalized, the role of the IMF focuses more on trying to help the countries after financial crisis (for example in Thailand in 1997). In the recent years, more and more countries criticize the IMF and WB, especially developing countries. They claim that the IMF has not played his job very well because it could not prevent the Asian financial crisis of 1997. After the crisis, the countries which chose to get help from IMF had to open more and more their economy and reduce their deficits, according to the conditions of the IMF, and it sometimes create difficult economic the situation; for instance, the World Bank and IMF trying to formulate countries policies – trade liberalization. 2- The World Bank Since the establishment 1944, the World Bank[4] has widen its size from a bank which facilitated post-World War Two reconstruction in Europe to an international cooperation body, dealing mainly on reducing poverty, debt relief and on promoting good governance The World Bank has also recently lost a lot of its credibility to the eyes of some developing countries. It was written in the Cambodia Daily that its president until 2007, Paul Wolfowitz was blamed for corruption (related to the employment of his wife) at the same time that he was declaring that some programs funded by the WB in Cambodia should be stopped because the Cambodian side was corrupted. After all, Paul Wolfowitz resigned. Those criticisms on the IMF and the World Bank led seven Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela) to create their own collective bank in January 2008, has announced the AFP. [5]The institution is called Banco del Sur (Bank of the South) and has up to $7 billion capital. At the same time president Chavez of Venezuela also mentions that this bank “would be run by Latin Americans for Latin America.” The creation of this new bank is a proof of the failure of the WB, and may give incentive to this organization to reform itself in order to be more efficient. With the World Bank and IMF, I personally to have a recommendation to reform the two institutions. The World Bank and IMF should limit its legitimacy on putting condition or policy or new regulations that may abuse countries’ sovereignty as those countries need their helps. For instance, according to the [6]Global Policy Forum, [7] “with hunger and unemployment rampant in Haiti, international lenders, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, pressured President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1995 to adopt to what Haitians called ''the death plan.'' In the proposal, the World Bank and IMF urged Haiti to integrate its economy into global economy by privatizing rice, sugar, and cement production and dropping tariffs on import that may cause a problem to domestic production (….)” As there are tremendous criticism on the World Bank and IMF, these two big institutions are making some of the countries particularly in Asia more dependent.
IV- Agencies that should gain importance
United Nations Democracy Fun (UNDEF) and United Nations Environment Programme Myanmar has been running for so long in the process to democracy. There is little significant change by the UN to push Myanmar to another level of democracy. There are also many countries trying to reach a standard democracy. Not too well-known or seen much on the media – while Security Council or World Bank or IMF is very popular – United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) is one of other agencies. [8]The main purpose of this institution is help democratization throughout the world. UNDEF will finance projects that build and strengthen democratic institutions, promote human rights, and ensure the participation of all groups in democratic processes. As the world believes that, the democracy is only the system that can prevent society drought and can also encourage civil rights. By its importance which can assure the basic living before reaching advanced living, United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) should be brought to the front row and pushed more activities to democratic developing countries. There should be a wide expansion of UNDEF offices and also libraries for many people that easily access to the understanding of democracy. The global warming, tree logging, environmental pollution have now become now the hot issue which it has to talk about world environment care. [9]UNEP is doing assessing global, regional and national environmental conditions and trends, developing international agreements and national environment instruments, strengthening institutions for the wise management of the environment, integrating economic development and environmental protection, facilitating the transfer of knowledge and technology for sustainable development, and encouraging new partnership and mind-sets within civil society and the private sector. However, like UNDEF, UNEP is not gaining much attention by the world society concerning environmental issue. Since I count it as an important agency “to make the world a better place” as the UN has stated, I have a very strong personal view to make these two very important institutions more affective. UNEP should have a power of making decision of putting sanction to those countries that don’t have strong commitment or lack of responsibility of producing harms to world environment. Most importantly, UNEP should grass root the understanding about the importance of environment that how it affects the economical aspect and everyday life in not only universities but also primary schools.
V- Conclusion
“The UN is working to make the world a better place”[10] A better place, I personally mean, it is not a better place if the legitimacy some of the United Nations agencies does not have the boundary for the need-help countries. As there are lot of things to see in the book called “Lords of Poverty” by GRAHAM HANCOOK.
__________________
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Internet Sources and News Items:
[1] UN IN BRIEF: http://www.un.org/Overview/uninbrief/betterplace.html
[2] www.ccc-cambodia.org
[3] Website of the IMF : www.imf.org
[4] Website of the World Bank : www.worldbank.org
[5]International Herald Tribune:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/22/business/bank.php
[6] Global Policy Forum monitors policy making at the United Nations,promotes accountability of global decisions, educates and mobilizes for global citizen participation,and advocates on vital issues of international peace and justice.

[7] Global Policy Forum: http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/bwi wto/wbank/bwi001.htm
[8] www.un.org/democracyfund/XWWhatisUNDEF.htm
[9] UNEP: http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=43
[10] UN IN BRIEF: http://www.un.org/Overview/uninbrief/betterplace.html

Friday, February 1, 2008

Missing Paper

Ratanak,

Why do I still not see your paper? Wherever it is, copy it from there and paste it into the body of the blog alongside everyone else's papers.

Thank you,

Stan

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Reminder

Dear All,

This is just to remind everyone that the deadline for submission of comments is February, 5.

Stan