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UNA-USA STATEMENT ON
2008 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE RECIPIENT MARTTI AHTISAARI
October 10, 2008. Ambassador William H. Luers, president of the United Nations Association of the USA, has issued the following statement regarding the Nobel Committee’s awarding of the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize to Martti Ahtisaari.
The United Nations Association of the USA warmly congratulates Martti Ahtisaari, the former president of Finland, for winning the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize. Ahtisaari has been a leading diplomat at the United Nations who has set the highest standard for conflict resolution and peacemaking from Asia to Africa to Europe.
“Those in the world concerned with peace and diplomatic solutions to conflicts are uplifted by the decision of the Nobel Committee to award this year’s peace prize to Martti Ahtisaari,” said Bill Luers, the president of UNA-USA. “In this time of serious conflicts on several continents, the decision of the Nobel Committee is an important and healthy reminder to us that diplomacy works. Diplomacy and Ahtisaari have been honored by this selection of one of diplomacy’s most distinguished living practitioners.”
From his groundbreaking diplomatic work in Namibia as an Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative of the Secretary-General in 1989-90, to his mediation work in Aceh, Indonesia, to his most recent efforts in Kosovo, also under the auspices of the Secretary-General, Ahtisaari has quietly, confidently and successfully completed his missions.
“We congratulate Martii for having consistently given diplomacy a good name, for authenticating the valuable role of the UN in peacemaking and for the remarkable skills, patience and intelligence he has brought to the Angels Game – the historic name for diplomacy,” Luers added.
Ahtisaari is the 10th UN official or agency to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The others are the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (with former Vice President Al Gore) (2007), the International Atomic Energy Agency and its Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei (2005), Kofi Annan (2001), UN Peacekeeping Forces (1988), the Office of the UN High Commission for Refugees (1981 & 1954), the UN Children’s Fund (1965), Dag Hammarskjöld (1961) and Ralph Bunche (1950).
With Rhymes, Wine and the Sublime, UNA-USA Raises a Glass to MDG Champions
By Simon Minching
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Host Michael Douglas and his wife Catherine Zeta Jones arrive at the Gala
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Diplomats, philanthropists and notable red-carpet names came out in force on Oct. 1, helping to raise $1.3 million for the 50th Annual UNA-USA Global Leadership Awards gala held at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. Michael Douglas, a two-time Academy-Award winner and a United Nations Messenger of Peace hosted the event, honoring carefully selected Champions of the Millennium Development Goals at the midway point of the eight international development objectives adopted by UN member states in 2001.
“Let us not be cynical and say these goals cannot be achieved by 2015 -- let this be our legacy,” Douglas said to the crowd of more than 500 people. “We can either be part of the solution or part of the problem.”
Click to: Read the full article | View photos from the night.
Ban Takes On Turf Wars That Cripple the UN
By Barbara Crossette
For the last few years, the United Nations has been putting in place a new policy it calls “delivering as one.” Country by country, the organization has been trying to streamline missions and coordinate more effectively in the field by encouraging more teamwork, consolidating UN programs and eliminating duplication and overlap among agencies. The key to achieving this is to get people who are wedded to their turf to put aside rivalries and work together.
At the UN, this is more than reform -- it is a revolution. And it has to start with a significant change in attitude in the UN Secretariat, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told senior officials at a recent retreat. In unusually sharp remarks from Ban, a generally nonconfrontational leader, he blasted his top team for resisting change, lethargy and a tendency to micromanage. Read more.
ELECTIONS 2008
With the conventions over, the 2008 US Presidential Campaigns are now in an all-out sprint to Election Day. You may be familiar with each candidate's domestic platform, and their national security stances, but where do they, and their respective parties, stand on America's engagement with the United Nations? Recent opinion research indicates that the American public strongly favors international cooperation over go-it-alone policies to resolve the world's most important problems. Click on the links to find out more.
Summary of UN-related issues in the Republican Platform
Summary of UN-related issues in the Democratic Platform
Go to UNA-USA's Election 2008 page
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Help us clarify your congressional candidates’ positions on the UN and global issues by encouraging them to fill out our 2008 Congressional Candidate Questionnaire.
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