Guest Commentary


For the past three and a half years I have served first as chief of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) Human Rights Office and then as adviser to the Secretary General’s Special Representative for Iraq, monitoring, among other things, the human rights and the humanitarian situation of 3,400 Iranian exiles who have made their home north of Baghdad since 1986 at a place called Camp Ashraf. Iraq’s government has decided to terminate their presence in Iraq and required them to vacate Camp Ashraf. UNAMI has been facilitating their temporary relocation to a former base in Baghdad called Camp Liberty, with the purported task of conducting “refugee status determination” for all of these people and ensuring that international norms of human and humanitarian rights are maintained.

While the world assumes the United Nations has been upholding these norms, I know otherwise.
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Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi’s selection of a rather staid and technocratic Cabinet has overshadowed an important development in the region’s democratic process. The three flagship transition countries in North Africa recently came together in support of a proposal for visa-free travel between Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. This so-called “Cairo Declaration” not only has the potential to substantively boost regional economic growth, but also represents a strikingly positive move toward openness and liberalization of a sort that would have been inconceivable just two years ago. Read more...

Last month the Ecuadorian press widely published evidence of President Rafael Correa’s efforts to establish a financial mechanism that would allow Iran to move money easily throughout Latin America, in effect hiding Iranian money in Ecuador’s banking structure. Read more...

Being able to conduct business easily internationally is the lifeblood of the American economy. Trade provides new markets for American products and know-how, providing choices to foreign consumers and growth and prosperity at home. Yet apparently Congress does not feel that Native Americans deserve to participate. Read more...

Russia is about to formally enter the World Trade Organization. The State Duma and the Federation Council have both approved ratification documents, which were signed by the president of the Russian Federation on July 21, 2012. In August our country will become a full-fledged member of the WTO.

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The Russian and Chinese veto of the United Nations Security Council draft resolution that would have declared the situation in Syria a threat to international peace and security, extended the UN diplomatic mission headed by Kofi Annan, and set the stage for new sanctions and possibly UN-authorized military action was hardly surprising. More important, it is not all that significant.

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When UN chief Ban Ki-moon visits Bosnia this week, the specter of the UN’s 1995 failure in Srebrenica will rear up for not only the world body, but also Kofi Annan, the UN and Arab League envoy to Syria.

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The effort to create an international Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) that would close loopholes terrorists use to arm themselves and kill our troops has been getting some attention recently in the blogosphere and on various mainstream news outlets. Sadly, some of that attention has resulted from misinformation and distortions from the gun lobby about what the ATT would and would not do.

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The United States is one of Chile’s most important trading partners. The countries have formed a productive and mutually beneficial economic partnership, made possible by the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement enacted nine years ago. Today the United States is the No. 3 destination for total Chilean exports and the main destination for non-traditional exports, totaling $4.2 billion in 2011.

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Revolutions are inherently chaotic, and their precise outcome is impossible to predict. Made up of a quick and inevitably violent succession of events, they result in radical and sweeping changes — hopefully for the better.

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