The Foreign Service Journal, February 2006

commission reconvenes in Geneva. “For the great global public, the per- formance or nonperformance of the Human Rights Commission has become the litmus test of U.N. renewal,” Mark Malloch Brown, chief of staff to Secretary General Kofi Annan, told the New York Times on Jan. 1. Two other crucial steps toward reform are in place. On Dec. 20 the Security Council and General Assem- bly established a new Peacebuilding Commission, a body to prevent coun- tries emerging from conflict from falling back into chaos ( http://www. un.org/apps/news/story.asp?New sID=16990&Cr=reform&Cr1= ). Three days later, U.N. members agreed on a $3.8 billion budget for the next two years. After intense debate, a cap of $950 million on spending in 2006 was accepted. The spending cap is tied to implementation of major management reforms by June, many of which stem from the findings of the Volcker Commission report on the manipulation of the Oil-for-Food Program released in October ( http:// www.iic-offp.org/story27oct05. htm ). Secretary-General Kofi Annan has articulated the need for massive re- form since his election in 1997 ( http:// www.un.org/reform/ ) . He starts his last year in office with a mandate for fundamental and lasting change in the international organization. The Rice State Department and U.N. Ambassador John Bolton are actively pressing the case for the new Human Rights Council and manage- ment reform ( http://www.un.int/usa/ reform-un.htm ). Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations Kristen Silverberg and the depart- ment’s adviser on U.N. reform, Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli, have toured Latin American and South Asia capitals, and the latter will head to the Middle East in January. In mid-November, the U.S. called for a fresh start on plans to expand the 15-member U.N. Security Council, another reform item. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reaffirmed U.S. support for Japan’s bid to become a permanent member of the Security Council during Foreign Minister Taro Aso’s visit to Washing- ton in December. Rice and the Japan- ese foreign minister agreed that Japan and the U.S. should work together to accomplish reform of the United Nations, noting that Tokyo pays 19.5 percent of the U.N. budget, higher than the combined rate paid by perma- nent council members Britain, China, France and Russia ( http://www. mofa.go.jp/policy/un/reform/ind ex.html ). Amb. John Bolton has said that the United States favors expanding the council as long as expansion was “in a way that strengthened the body’s ability to act rather than weakened it” ( http://www.upi.com/ InternationalIntelligence/view. php?StoryID=20051111-05014 5-6910r ). Bolton explicitly rejected all three earlier proposals for expanding the council, including the leading one put forward by Germany, Brazil, Japan and India — known as the G-4. Their plan would add six permanent seats, giving one to each of the G-4 and two additional seats to Africa. However, the council cannot be expanded without the support of all five current permanent members and a two-thirds majority in the General Assembly, which is regarded as highly unlikely ( http://www.heritage.org/ Research/InternationalOrgani zations/bg1876.cfm ). A comprehensive convention on terrorism is also promised before the end of the current session of the General Assembly on Sept. 30, 2006 ( http://www.un.org/apps/news/sto ry.asp?NewsID=16482&Cr=UN &Cr1=reform ). For easy access to the news and issues involved in U.N. reform, there are a number of useful online re- sources. Among them is the Web site of Citizens for Global Solutions ( http: / /www.globalsolutions.org/who/w ho_home.html ) and the United Nations Association of the USA ( www.unausa.org ) . To follow devel- opments concerning the new Human Rights Council, see the Human Rights Watch Web site ( http://hrw. org/doc/?t=united_nations ). n — Caitlin Stuart, Editorial Intern F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 6 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 13 C Y B E R N O T E S N othing in the [Geneva] Conventions [on the treatment of prisoners of war] precludes directed interrogations. They do, however, prohibit torture and humiliation of detainees, whether or not they are deemed POWs. These are standards that are never obsolete — they cut to the heart of how moral people must treat other human beings. — John McCain, from Torture: A Human Rights Perspective (The New Press, 2005), http://www.villagevoice.com/ news/0550,hentoff,70898,6. html.