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Global Public Policy Institute Newsletter

No. 2 - September 2005

Greetings!

 

This is the second newsletter of the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi). This issue focuses on our recent work the on the issue of UN reform and UN cooperation with business and NGOs.  Our newsletter appears three times a year to keep you informed about the institute, to post our newest publications, and to share interesting recent news on global public policy-making.  As always, further information can be found on our website: www.globalpublicpolicy.net

 

Click here for a website version of this newsletter. 

 

Contents of this newsletter:

 

A) News from the institute 

B) New Publications

C) Global issues in the news

 

A) News from the institute (all headlines link to article)

 

B) New Publications

 

Jan Martin Witte and Wolfgang Reinicke: Business UNUsual. Facilitating United Nations Reform Through Partnerships (New York, United Nations Publications, 2005).

Thorsten Benner: "Knigge für die Multis," DIE ZEIT, 15 September 2005.

 

Thorsten Benner: "La ONU y la responsabilidad social de las empresas," La Nación, 6 September 2005.

 

Thorsten Benner: "The UN can help business help itself," International Herald Tribune, 18 August 2005.  

 

Jan Martin Witte and Wolfgang Reinicke: "Partnerships: Opportunities and Challenges of Partnering with the UN," Compact Quarterly, Volume 1, Issue 3, June 2005, (2005). 

 

Thorsten Benner: Leitplanken für Global Player? Die Rolle und Verantwortung multinationaler Unternehmen, in: GPPi Research Paper Series No. 4. Berlin 2005.

 

 

 

C) Global issues in the news: 

 

Topic 1:  UN Summit

 

1. Title: UN Summit Fact Sheet: 2005 WORLD SUMMIT OUTCOME

 

http://unfoundation.org/features/2005_world_summit/pdf/factsheet_summit_outcome.pdf

 

Summary: A fact sheet with the most important developments from the September 2005 United Nations summit.

 

2. Title: Hardly radical, but it’s a start

 

From: The Economist Global Agenda 14 September 2005

 

www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm

 

Summary: An article outlining the most important reforms from the United Nations summit from the Economist’s perspective: "As heads of state continue their summit in New York, the United Nations' General Assembly has accepted a package of reforms to the scandal-hit world body. The document is, naturally, full of fudges and omissions. But it is better than nothing."

 

3. Title: A new way of doing the world's business 

Author: Mary Robinson

From: International Herald Tribune, 25 September 2005

 

http://iht.com/articles/2005/09/25/opinion/edrobinson.php

 

Summary: Mary Robinson argues in this piece that partnerships between the UN, NGOs and business are a promising "new way of doing business" and can help revitalize a United Nations stuck in the 20th Century. They can "fill the gaps that our leaders have left" at the recent UN World Summit.

 

4. Title: Briefing to House International Relations Committee

Author: Mark Malloch Brown

Date: 28 September 2005

 

http://wwwc.house.gov/international_relations/109/bro092805.pdf

 

Summary: Secretary-General Kofi Annan's chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown’s testimony to the House International Relations Committee on the United Nations' reform efforts and the Summit results.

 

 

Topic 2:  The Millennium Development Goals

 

1. Title: Why the millennium goals matter

 

Author: Kemal Dervis

 

From: International Herald Tribune, 13 September 2005

 

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/09/13/opinion/eddervis.php

 

Summary: United Nations Development Programme Administrator Kemal Dervis writes in this commentary that the MDGs "provide the best available framework" for fighting poverty and ending the suffering of millions of the world's poor.

 

 

2. Title: The UN's Millennium Development Goals: Aspirations and obligations

 

 

From: The Economist 8 September 2005

 

http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?Story_id=4385253

 

Summary: The article looks at the effectiveness and usefulness of the United Nation's Millenium Development Goals arguing that they are difficult to measure and were imposed from the top down. It also takes a look at some criticism of the MDGs from the latest Human Development Report, just published by the United Nations Development Programme.

 

 

Topic 3:  Oil and Human Rights

 

1. Title: CONTRACTING OUT OF HUMAN RIGHTS: The Chad–Cameroon pipeline project

 

Author: Amnesty International

 

From: September 2005

 

Summary:  A pipeline transporting oil through Chad and Cameroon brings with it potential threats to human rights in the two Central African countries. Amnesty International is concerned that these threats are more likely to be realised if the investment agreements underpinning the pipeline project prejudice the human rights obligations of the states and the human rights responsibilities of the companies involved.

 

 

2. Title: Business and human rights: Rights and wrongs

 

 

From: The Economist, 8 September 2005

 

http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4374336

 

Summary: The article focuses on business and human rights. International oil firms have often been damned by association with human-rights abuses in the poorest, most ill-governed parts of the world.--not least Royal Dutch/Shell in Nigeria and Unocal in Myanmar. Amnesty International is not yet accusing the consortium of any specific human-rights abuses in the Chad-Cameroon project. Instead, its report focuses on the potential harm that may be done, as a result of the contracts governing the deal.

 

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